By Staff
Monday, September 9, 2024 11:56 AM
BOCA RATON, Fla. and RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.—Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA), one of the nation’s largest communities of independent eyecare professionals, and VSP Vision have announced the extension of the VSP Vision Exam Rebate through 2025, offering doctors the opportunity to receive up to $10 per VSP commercial eye exam, and as much as $60,000 in total incremental revenue next year. To date, more than 2,000 practices have benefited from $20 million for the care they deliver to patients, according to the announcement.
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By Staff
Monday, September 9, 2024 11:45 AM
“Hey, I have an idea…” These could be unsettling words when talking to your staff, but getting your team onboard is critical when implementing new treatments and technologies. While it is essential to have a healthy level of skepticism when implementing new procedures and there are common stumbling blocks staff may have, there are certainly ways to overcome them and find success in your practice. One of the most common concerns skeptical staff members might start with is “myopia management doesn’t work.” My answer: excitement breeds excitement. When you’re introducing something new to your staff, it’s imperative that they understand why you’re making these choices, the benefits of doing so, and the ways that you’re going to help patients.
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By Staff
Friday, September 6, 2024 2:58 PM
MELBOURNE, Australia and PRINCETON, N.J.—Opthea Limited (ASX/NASDAQ: OP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has announced executive leadership changes in commercial and finance, as well as senior hires for biometrics, clinical operations and market access. Daniel Geffken, co-founder and managing director at Danforth Advisors, will assume the role of chief financial officer on an ad-interim basis, reporting to Opthea CEO Frederic Guerard, PharmD, the company stated. Geffken succeeds Peter Lang, who is leaving the company for personal reasons. Additionally, Mike Campbell has been appointed chief commercial officer, also reporting to Guerard, and is succeeding Judith Robertson, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
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By Staff
Friday, September 6, 2024 2:49 PM
A recent analysis exploring the underuse of eyecare services found that incorporating eye disease screening programs into internal medicine practices in underserved areas could potentially improve the detection and treatment of ocular conditions. This approach, the study authors noted in
JAMA Ophthalmology, may help mitigate vision loss in the U.S. This population-based, cross-sectional study included adult participants of the Michigan Screening and Intervention for Glaucoma and Eye Health Through Telemedicine (MI-SIGHT) program. Study participants were recruited from primary care clinics serving two low-income communities.
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By Staff
Thursday, September 5, 2024 11:13 AM
NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, August 26 – September 1, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -3 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 12 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 35) when compared with last year (2023), 17 points above the same period in 2022, 26 points above 2021, 21 points above 2020 and 29 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
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By Staff
Thursday, September 5, 2024 11:03 AM
Marketing your services as an optometry practice allows you to expand access to care in your community while growing your business. Here is what worked and what didn’t in helping us reach families in need of our vision therapy niche. When we first opened our practice in 2015, we spent a ridiculous amount of money on print advertising in a local paper (~$20,000). It was a bad investment and yielded almost no new patients. We quickly learned this was not the best way to market our services. We also tried internet-based marketing on our local paper’s website (cost: $5,000), with almost no ROI there either.
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By Staff
Wednesday, September 4, 2024 2:14 PM
NEW YORK—
Vision Monday and
20/20 are hosting the 16th annual EyeVote Readers' Choice Awards to identify the optical industry’s favorite products and companies this year. These two Jobson Medical Information publications are teaming up once again this fall to get readers’ opinions by asking optical retailers and ECPs to identify their favorite products in 22 distinct categories: optical frames, spectacle lenses, sunglasses, sustainable materials for frames, sustainable materials for sunglasses, Rx sun lenses, contact lenses, optical equipment for wholesale prescription labs, optical supplies, ECP/retail in-office lab equipment, diagnostic instruments, practice management software, EHR software, online ordering website, patient engagement systems, dispensing/measuring fitting systems, online and social media marketing services, PPE, virtual omni-channel sales tools, telehealth solutions, low vision and assistive technology, and social purpose missions.
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By Staff
Wednesday, September 4, 2024 2:01 PM
Kashifa Ansari, OD, always knew she wanted to pursue a career in health care. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, she was fascinated by the idea of helping others. But it wasn’t until middle school that she seriously considered optometry. A pivotal moment came when she stumbled upon a student blog from the Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) during a casual Google search. The students’ experiences at ICO resonated deeply with her—she could see herself following in their footsteps. The final decision to pursue optometry came during Dr. Ansari’s senior class trip to Colorado. It was in that moment, surrounded by the raw beauty of nature, that Dr. Ansari realized her true calling: “I wanted to help others see the beauty that I can see.”
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By Staff
Tuesday, September 3, 2024 10:03 AM
CHICAGO—September is here, bringing with it cooler nights, back-to-school business, and, of course, the fall sports season. In recognition of this, Prevent Blindness has again declared September as Sports Eye Safety Month, in order to educate the public on the risk of painful and potentially blinding eye injuries that can occur while playing sports without the proper eye protection. According to new data from the organization, there were more than 32,600 sports-related eye injuries treated in the United States in 2023, underscoring the importance of sharing this information. According to Prevent Blindness, its data shows that the “pool and water sports” category had the highest rate of eye injuries last year.
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By Staff
Tuesday, September 3, 2024 10:00 AM
Welcome to our concrete eyewear jungle, where we face the frames of a new season and give you a peek at 2025. With our golden anniversary taking center stage this year, we’ve had the incredible opportunity to pay homage to our rich heritage by looking back at eyewear’s illustrious journey while welcoming its ever-promising future. Against a backdrop of textured concrete walls and pillars anchoring our creative vision, the style statements portrayed by the eyewear and sunwear framed here reinforce how far we have come with the state of eyewear 50 years later.
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By Staff
Friday, August 30, 2024 10:40 AM
HAMBURG, Germany—Global eyewear provider The Fielmann Group (ETR: FIE), whose network in the U.S. includes the brands SVS Vision, Befitting and the recently acquired Shopko Optical, has announced financial results for the first six months of 2024, noting an increase in sales, revenue and profit compared with the previous year, in line with expectations. Group sales grew by 11 percent to €1,081 million in the first half of the year (previous year: €971 million), including 5 percent attributed to organic growth and 6 percent attributed to acquisition in the U.S. Eyewear sales increased by 3 percent to a total of 4.5 million pairs of glasses in the period January to June 2024 (previous year: 4.4 million pairs of glasses).
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By Staff
Friday, August 30, 2024 10:32 AM
The choice a cataract surgeon makes when confronted with an eye that has little to no capsular support is the source of one of ophthalmology’s most heated debates. Should an anterior chamber lens be inserted, or would one of the many posterior chamber lens fixation techniques work better? These days, most surgeons would probably opt for the latter option, leaving the humble ACIOL fighting to maintain relevance in a fixation-friendly world. We asked cataract surgeons to discuss the risks associated with AC-IOLs, the instances when they may actually be preferred over a posteriorly fixated lens and why all anterior segment surgeons—including residents—should continue to keep this technique in their toolkit.
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By Staff
Thursday, August 29, 2024 11:49 AM
NEW YORK—The State University of New York Board of Trustees has announced the appointment of Dr. David Troilo as president of SUNY College of Optometry. He is the fourth president to serve the state’s only college of optometry, the announcement stated, following the retirement of Dr. David A. Heath after 17 years of service to the campus. Dr. Troilo’s appointment is effective immediately. “SUNY College of Optometry is a center of research and academic excellence, and Dr. Troilo is a collaborative and thoughtful leader who is ready to move the campus forward, growing and innovating optometric education and patient care," the SUNY Board of Trustees commented.
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By Staff
Thursday, August 29, 2024 11:38 AM
To determine the success of any juvenile-onset myopia intervention, it is vital to consider the target for myopia progression management. Is the treatment goal to stop axial length growth or simply slow progression? How should axial length growth in children undergoing myopia management treatment be compared to average eye growth in emmetropic children of the same age? What treatment effect is required to be considered clinically meaningful? Most myopic children, especially those of East Asian ancestry, in the age range of 6-10 years old, if untreated, will manifest axial elongation ~0.30 – 0.40 mm per year. However, not all children are average. Some children may be faster progressors, and others may be poor respondents. These children may require combination therapy to achieve intervention goals.
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By Staff
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 2:17 PM
NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, August 19–25, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 19 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 34) when compared with last year (2023), 19 points above the same period in 2022, 29 points above 2021, 23 points above 2020 and 28 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
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