This week in optometry: May 1-May 5
Catch up on what happened in optometry during the week of May 1-May 5.
Catch up with what Optometry Times®' shared this week:
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Optometry news
Controversies in Modern Eye Care Symposium 2023
The 17th annual Controversies in Modern Eye Care symposium took place on Sunday, April 30, 2023, in Los Angeles, California, and brought optometrists and ophtahlmologists together for 8 hours of education and CE on topics such as glaucoma, thyroid disease, retinal disease—including geographic atrophy and wet AMD, as well as advances in cataract surgery and advances in refractive surgery.
Being a woman in optometry
Leah J. McFerren, OD, PC
I first started my journey to become an optometrist when I was getting my annual eye exam, being fitted for contact lenses. I was in college pursuing my bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in University. While I was getting my eyes checked, my optometrist asked what I planned to do after graduation. I had always wanted to become a doctor but had not decided which specialty to pursue. I told him I was thinking about gynecology, and he asked if I had ever considered optometry. He told me to think about it...
Increase your capture rate with tiered pricing
Diana Canto-Sims, OD
Does your practice have the right frame strategy in place?
According to data in a 2019 trend report by ABB Analyze,1 the capture rate for eyewear averages 50% to 55% or less. With the onset of COVID-19, many practices experienced lower capture rates due to patients buying their eyewear online.
Optimizing how you offer and present frames to your patients will increase your capture rate, increase optical revenue, and give you a competitive advantage over other optical practices in your area.
ASCRS 2023: ViaLase to present clinical data, technology overview
Emily Kaiser, Assistant Managing Editor
ViaLase announced that they will present clinical data from their first-in-human initial study of femtosecond laser image-guided high-precision trabeculotomy (FLigHT) as well as a technology overview at The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) annual meeting, which will be held May 5-8, 2023 in San Diego, California. The clinical-stage medical tech company is developing a noninvasive image-guided femtosecond laser for the treatment of glaucoma in the hopes of addressing unmet needs in the conventional treatment paradigm.
New and emerging myopia management: The impact of sleep
Ashley Wallace-Tucker, OD, FAAO, FSLS, Dipl ABO
The exact reason why an individual becomes myopic and what determines their rate of progression is still a complex, multi-factorial puzzle. However, over the years, researchers have unlocked some key contributors such as genetics, lack of outdoor time, and increased near work. More recently, the impact of sleep has been suggested as an additional behavioral risk factor affecting both myopia onset and progression.
Adequate sleep—both quantity and quality—plays an essential role in many aspects of a child’s overall well-being including cognition, academic performance, emotional health, mental health, and physical health.1
Silicon Valley Bank failure: What physicians need to know
Johan Vako
No matter how confident an investor feels about their current portfolios, it is impossible not to be shaken by certain headlines. Recently, concerned physician clients of our firm have been reaching out to me to ask if they should move their money out of local banks to larger ones. I explain to them how much of their funds are currently insured and advise them to deposit the additional funds in other insured banks within Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) limits. In mid-March, the news about Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the drama that erupted in a short amount of time was prominent in every news source, and it is important to understand what happened and what impact SVB’s collapse could have.
Although it was a favorite of tech company start-ups and venture capitalists, SVB operated like any other bank, with deposits and withdrawals being made daily. As the 16th largest bank in the United States, that amounts to a lot of money on the move.
