Concussion and Vision
Imagine this: You are the goalie for your high school soccer team and a ball is headed towards you. Instead of stopping the with your hands, you stop it with your feet and in the process, you fall down. As you move to get up, the other player kicks you in the head and you […]
Smartphone Ophthalmoscopes Help to Keep an Eye on Patients
If you spent time with an optometrist or ophthalmologist who started working in the 1970s or earlier, how they worked back in the day seemed so primitive. No computers or smart devices. Optometrists couldn’t prescribe medicine. Treatment options for many vision conditions were limited or nonexistent. Diagnostic equipment took up an entire room. Thanks to […]
Independent Practice
American Optometric Association issued a report on the state of optometry in 2013 and they reported that there are over 22,000 optometrists who are owner/operators of an independent practice. Despite the current trends in retail, optometry seems to be the last bastion of the independent ownership. Of course, there is competition from chains, mass retailers […]
Retail is Dead. Long Live Retail
Sadly, Toys R’ Us recently ceased operations. Sears’ post-bankruptcy strategy is to have smaller stores which concentrate on appliances. Sounds like traditional brick and mortar retail is in trouble, doesn’t it? First of all, not every brick and mortar retailer is in trouble. WalMart and Target are doing very well. Still, the trend is that […]
Folks with Ocular Melanoma Cluster on Social Media
Ocular melanoma, while rare, is the most common adult eye cancer. This type of cancer occurs at the rate of 1 in every 2,500 people. Typically, it is found in Caucasians between the ages of 30 and 50. It is different from skin melanoma because it is not caused by exposure to the sun. This […]
Getting Patients to Remember & Return
The nice thing about working in an optometry practice is that it is both healthcare and retail. As an optometrist, you have the science part to satisfy the nerd in you and the business part to satisfy the business person in you. Of course, since it is a business, you need to turn a profit, […]
Complicated Patients
Optometry is an attractive profession in many ways. First of all, the focus of an optometrist’s career is treating the eye, one of the coolest organs in the body. Also, optometry allows practitioners to have the option of being small business owners. Even though there are many positives, more often than not, complicated patients can […]
Calling Dr. Internet
The Internet is good for many things. From finding a movie that you can’t remember the title of to helping elementary school students do research for their reports, search engines put information at a person’s fingertips. The Internet can also help people understand more about certain health conditions, such as cancer or diabetes. People are […]
Like a Well-Oiled Machine
Wouldn’t it be nice to have patients receive services while riding on a conveyor belt? It would be like an attraction at EPCOT. The patients could check in, take their seat and then first move through the eyeglass display, next they would go through various screenings, then the all important eye exam, back through the […]
Make Sure Patients Choose You, Not An App
Smartphone apps are so cool. There’s an app for ICD9/10 codes. There’s an app for contact lens calculations. There’s an app that can turn your smartphone into an ophthalmoscope! There’s also an app that will allow people to have their eyes examined for refractive error. This is where apps stop looking so cool. While having […]