VEW 2022: Task-specific lenses for presbyopic patients

Michelle Hoff, OD, FAAO, ABOM, FNAO, associate clinical professor at Berkeley’s School of Optometry, and Isabel Kazemi, OD, FAAO, assistant clinical professor at Berkeley’s School of Optometry, sat down with Optometry Times® editor Kassi Jackson to share hightlights from their presentation, "Demystifying near-task specific lenses," which they presented during this year's Vision Expo West in Las Vegas.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity:

Jackson:

I'm joined today by Dr. Michelle Hoff, associate clinical professor at Berkeley's School of Optometry and Dr. Isabel Kazemi, assistant clinical professor at Berkeley's School of Optometry.

They're here to share highlights from their discussion titled, "Demystifying near-task specific lenses," which they're presenting during this year's Vision Expo West in Las Vegas. Would you both please share with us the key takeaways from this presentation?

Kazemi:

The main key takeaway is that today's population is very different from the population from even 20 years before in the way we use our eyes. And our presbyopic population needs task-specific glasses because we are constantly—like we are today—using our digital devices for our work, play, shopping, everything.

And so our presentation addresses visual solutions that you can provide for your patients and the theories behind them.

Hoff:

That's right, Isabel. And speaking of technology, you know, the technology of lenses has advanced along with the technology of the devices that we use. And so keeping pace with that, we have so many different lens designs out there, and we've found that it's important to analyze and understand those lens designs.

So we're going to share the ways in which we've analyzed and evaluated these lenses, and then how to prescribe them because there are different lenses for different tasks.

We have, now, task-specific—or prioritized—lenses that can help with all of the different things that we do. For example, there are general wear progressives, there are near wearable focus lenses, and then there are power boost lenses. And a lot of people don't understand the difference between these lenses and the performance characteristics of them.

Kazemi:

What we also found is that doctors don't talk to their patients about their hobbies and the way they use their eyes at work. And most of our patients think that their digital device eyestrain is just a normal part of their life.

Part of the reason I think doctors are not talking to their patients about it is because they don't know how to solve these problems. And we're going to give a really easy step-by-step approach on confidently recommending these types of lens designs and solutions.

Hoff:

Yeah, and given that we have so many lens designs, it's very easy to add in—or increase—your revenue by prescribing multiple pairs of glasses. And so we'll also highlight a successful fitting and how to increase multiple pair sales, as well as improving the patient's overall daily activities using these types of lenses.

And we'll also discuss several of the different product portfolios because there are so many lenses out there and not everyone uses the same lens. So it's nice to understand what products are out there as well.