During the AOA’s Optometry’s Meeting 2024 in Nashville, I sat in on a roundtable featuring CooperVision’s Best Practices 2024 honorees.
I have been a big fan of Best Practices since its inception almost 10 years ago. If you aren’t familiar with it, take a look: https://coopervision.com/practitioner/best-practices
The 2025 application will open in September, and I encourage everyone to apply. You might not think your practice is exceptional, but go through the exercise of cataloging what you do day in and day out. The 50,000-foot view can be quite illuminating. In fact, most honorees say they didn’t think they were anything special. Give it some thought.
Anyway, Cooper brings the media together with each year’s honorees for a roundtable discussion.
Honoree participants:
Following are insight and comments on a variety of topics from this year’s honorees.
New technology
Honorees were asked about new technology that has helped their practices.
They cited:
Honorees also had specific comments about technology:
Here is what technology honorees wish they had but doesn’t exist:
In discussing AI, honorees said:
Contact lenses
Honorees were asked why contact lenses are a part of their practices.
They said:
Honorees commented on trends in the contact lens market:
Contact lens technology honorees would like to see includes:
Myopia management
Honorees weighed in on how they chose which therapeutic path to take with myopia management patients and other keys to success:
Advice
Honorees offered these comments as advice to their OD colleagues:
I have been a big fan of Best Practices since its inception almost 10 years ago. If you aren’t familiar with it, take a look: https://coopervision.com/practitioner/best-practices
The 2025 application will open in September, and I encourage everyone to apply. You might not think your practice is exceptional, but go through the exercise of cataloging what you do day in and day out. The 50,000-foot view can be quite illuminating. In fact, most honorees say they didn’t think they were anything special. Give it some thought.
Anyway, Cooper brings the media together with each year’s honorees for a roundtable discussion.
Honoree participants:
- Patrick Wellik, Apply Valley Eye Care
- Samantha Hornberger, Bright Family Eye Care (a 2024 CEwire lecturer!)
- Ashley McFerron, Canby Eyecare
- Tyler Barney, Eagle Vision
- Melissa McCulley, McCulley Optix Gallery
- Mark Schaeffer, MyEyeDr
- Robert Africano, North Carolina Primary Vision Care Associates
- Cynthia Huang, Optometric Center for Family Vision Care & Vision Therapy
- Carole Hong, Optometric Center for Family Vision Care & Vision Therapy
- Selena Chan, Pacific Rims Optometry
- Chandler Mann, Stone Oak Vision Source
- Alice Kim, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry
- Kendra Kim, State University of New York College of Optometry
- Meagan Seufert, Pacific University College of Optometry
Following are insight and comments on a variety of topics from this year’s honorees.
New technology
Honorees were asked about new technology that has helped their practices.
They cited:
- Neurolenses
- OCT-A
- Oculus equipment for troubleshooting scleral lenses
Honorees also had specific comments about technology:
- Students consider technology when deciding where to practice
- New technology must:
- Improve patient care
- Make the OD’s life easier
- Provide information faster
- Have a small footprint
- Pay for itself
- Staff buy-in and knowing your “why” is key to successful technology implementation
- Vendor help for training and technology implementation is key because doctors don’t have time
- Adding several new pieces of technology at one time can be difficult to successfully implement
- Ask patients to write out their success stories and post on the wall
Here is what technology honorees wish they had but doesn’t exist:
- Dissolvable contact lenses
- Combination therapy for myopia management, such as atropine-infused contact lenses
- Spectacle lens approved for myopia management in the US
- More combined instrumentation, such as up to 5 tools in 1piece of equipment
- Better patient education tools, such as the ability to send patients customized education after an exam
- AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm for predicting disease progression
In discussing AI, honorees said:
- AI will eventually allow ODs to focus more on other things
- Who is behind AI, and who is part of it? If you aren’t at the table, you’re left out
- No machine will replace the human element, which is ODs
Contact lenses
Honorees were asked why contact lenses are a part of their practices.
They said:
- Contact lenses not special….they are part of normal care
- I am surprised that some ODs choose not to fit contact lenses
- Contact lenses can offer patients better vision than their glasses, and patients don’t know that
- Patients think doctors will recommend contact lenses, and ODs won’t mention them unless they think patients are interested in them
- Many doctors don’t plan for contact lens-specific spaces in their offices
- Spectacles and contact lenses are fundamental to our core
- Multifocal contact lenses are no longer considered specialty
- It’s a fallacy that you can’t make money on contact lenses…you won’t lose every Rx to the internet
- Multifocals are now so easy to fit with fitting guides
- We don’t schedule contact lens follow-ups…techs call patients; if there’s a problem, they come in. This saves a lot of time
Honorees commented on trends in the contact lens market:
- Toric and multifocal contact lenses are becoming easier to fit and more standard, but our patients are telling us that they are the same
- Even as things get easier, we need to educate patients about what makes these lenses special and better. They need to know why newer lenses are different and why we are fitting them into this particular lens
- It’s important to take the time to have those conversations with patients
Contact lens technology honorees would like to see includes:
- Dissolvable contact lens
- MiSight toric (CooperVision, omafilcon)
- Daily multifocal toric
Myopia management
Honorees weighed in on how they chose which therapeutic path to take with myopia management patients and other keys to success:
- Patient by patient…If everything is equal, I allow the patient to help guide which treatment they’re most comfortable with
- 90% of parents have read up on myopia management before coming in
- Get a feel for the child’s personality to know what they’re willing to do
- The best treatment is any treatment
- I ask patients and parents which option best fits into their lifestyle
- Many parents have a misperception that their kids aren’t responsible enough for contact lenses…this is a good way to help your kids build responsibility
- Axial length conversation with parents is important
- The whole staff is key in successful myopia management
- If you fit contact lenses, you have a myopia management patient base waiting
- 20% to 30% of myopia management patients come from me asking patients if they have kids and mentioning what we can do for myopia
- If you want to make myopia management a medical discussion, you need axial length measurements
Advice
Honorees offered these comments as advice to their OD colleagues:
- ODs are bad at tooting our own horn…
- Be proud of all you acocmplish
- Talk less and listen more. I always ask patients how I can help them today, and I shut up and listen. Patients want to be heard and know you are trying to solve their problems
- Everyone here has been told no at some point; we didn’t get here by going with the flow. We’ve gotten it wrong, but we’ve learned how to get it right. You don’t get here without being OK with being told no
- Rely on your colleagues and don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn from their mistakes
- If you’re going to be a great doctor, you have to continue to grow. You can be stagnant and be an OK doctor, but to be in Best Practices you have to grow
- Don’t judge your patients’ pockeetbook. They come to me for my expertise, and my staff can help them work through financial challenges. The first time you judge, you have already made a mistake
- The team is so important in our practices. If staff are not on board with anything new, it will not succeed. They need to see results
