6 things you missed at Vision Expo West 2017

If you didn't make it to Las Vegas for this year's Vision Expo West meeting, don't worry. Optometry Times has you covered with the latest news from the meeting.

Catch up on what's new!

CooperVision opens submissions for third year of Best Practices

Las Vegas-CooperVision puts out its third annual call for submissions for its Best Practices initiative. The company looks to recognize the innovative and unexpected ways that eyecare practitioners provide the best possible care to their patients, grow their practices, and advance the profession. All U.S. optometry practices currently fitting contact lenses are eligible to apply.

The company has named 10 eyecare practices as Best Practices per year for the past two years.

“After two years of partnership with our Best Practices honorees, we have been blown away by our honorees’ various approaches toward patient care, practice management, community engagement, industry leadership, and more,” says Michele Andrews, OD, CooperVision senior director of professional and academic Affairs, North America. “From private practice to corporate optometry, these honorees are contributing to the advancement of the profession in big ways and small.”

According to CooperVision, Best Practices honorees are recognized throughout the profession by serving on professional panels, showcasing their expertise within the eyecare trade media, and representing the program at industry trade shows. They are also invited to attend educational meetings at CooperVision’s headquarters in Pleasanton, CA.

Best Practices candidates are encouraged to submit practice profiles and stories in the following areas:

• Innovation will be evaluated on contributions to the betterment of eye health and education, leveraging technology in interesting ways to grow the practice, and advancing the eye care profession among the public.

• Industry Leadership will be rated on how a practice advances the profession and leads the industry regionally, nationally, and even globally.

• Patient Experience will be judged on how a practice delivers excellent eyecare experiences and education to its patients as well as unique aspects of patient care.

Applications will be accepted through October 31, 2017, and will be reviewed by a panel of judges including past Best Practices honorees, industry experts, and CooperVision leaders, according to the company.

The 2018 Best Practices will be announced in early 2018.

Costa adds new style, colors to Optical Collection

Las Vegas-Costa adds a new frame style to the Costa Optical Collection and extends the available colors of Seamount, Mariana Trench and Ocean Ridge styles for 2018.

The additions are driven by customer feedback, according to the company.

“Customer feedback is always at the heart of our design, and that’s perfectly exemplified with this line expansion,” says John Sanchez, vice president of product design for Costa. “We know that our fans love to fully experience the Costa brand-extending beyond sunglasses into apparel and optical frames. These exciting additions are a true reflection of that: incorporating a more diverse color palette and sizes into our already popular frame styles for more options to fit their lives.”

Seamount expands its traditional fit with an extra-large frame available in three colors: satin black (above), brushed palladium, and a dual-plated brushed gray top with brushed palladium bottom.

Three new Mariana Trench colors allow for a more unisex look: Havana tortoise, black fade, and brown fade frames. The brown fade frame has a gradient look, while the black fade begins almost completely black at the top and becomes more translucent, fading to a crystal gray at the bottom.

Two new colors are added to the tricolor Ocean Ridge frame style for more unisex options: a matte tortoise, shiny sand/shiny black, and shiny black/matte black/gray.

MacuLogix creates guidelines for AMD treatment

Las Vegas-MacuLogix has created guidelines for better diagnosing and treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

According to a recent study of 1288 eyes (644 adults),¹ one of four eyes studied was not diagnosed with AMD during the dilated fundus examination, despite these eyes having macular characteristics indicative of AMD in the fundus photos.

Approximately three-fourths of the 320 undiagnosed eyes had 10 or more small drusen (249 [77.8 percent]) and/or intermediate drusen (250 [78.1 percent]). However, 30 percent of undiagnosed eyes had large drusen.

The prevalence of undiagnosed AMD in the study did not differ based on type of eyecare provider, ophthalmologist or optometrist.

According to MacuLogix, AMD is overlooked by practitioners based on the absence of structural findings on fundus photography and OCT-fundus and OCT look only at structure. Plus, by the time photoreceptor ellipsoid layer thinning is visible on OCT, macular function may be significantly impaired.

Impaired dark adaptation identifies subclinical AMD at least three years before it can be seen with imaging, optical coherence tomography (OCT), or clinical exam.²

The company has created “Practical Guidelines for the Treatment of Nonexudative AMD” to simplify AMD classification and define appropriate treatment for all stages of AMD.

Earlier detection allows for earlier treatment, such as:

• Prescribe smoking cessation programs

• Prescribe nutritional supplementation

• Discuss lifestyle modifications with respect to diet and exercise

• Systemic disease management

• Prescribe blue light protection

• Prescribe UVA and UVB sunglasses protection for outdoors

The guidelines were created by MacuLogix’s clinical advisory committee:

• Jeffry Gerson, OD, FAAO; Chair

• Glenn Corbin, OD

• Steve Ferrucci, OD, FAAO

• Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO

• Gary Kirman, OD

• Kim Reed, OD, FAAO

• Laurie Sorrenson, OD, FAAO

MacuLogix manufactures AdaptDx dark adaptometer.

Reference

1.Neely DC, Bray KJ, Huisingh CE, Clark ME, McGwin G Jr, Owsley C. Prevalence of undiagnosed age-related macular degeneration in primary eye care. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2017 Jun 1;135(6):570-575.

2.Owsley C, McGwin G, Clark ME, Jackson GR, Callahan MA, Kline LB, Witherspoon CD, Curcio CA. Delayed rod-mediated dark adaptation is a functional biomarker for incident early age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(2):344-351.

CooperVision study shows ODs missing opportunity to discuss device use with patients

Las Vegas-A new study commissioned by CooperVision reveals that while the explosive use of digital device screens may pose vision challenges, only a fraction of U.S. eyecare professionals (ECP) are talking about these concerns.

Only six percent of U.S. consumers reported that they had spoken with an ECP regarding concerns about time using screens. However, 64 percent of contact lens wearers and 60 percent of glasses wearers reported they would be very interested or somewhat interested in exploring ways to reduce eye strain with their ECP.

The CooperVision-funded study was conducted among 1,129 U.S. adults (18+) from August 22-23, 2017, by YouGov Plc. All figures have been weighted except for consumer-supplied phrases relating to eye fatigue.

“It’s clear that many people entering an eyecare practice want to talk about their digital device usage with their eyecare professional, even though such conversations are rarely being held,” says Michele Andrews, OD, CooperVision senior director of professional and academic Affairs, North America.

The study also cast light on terms used by consumers to describe how their eyes feel after spending long periods of time staring at digital screens-words and phrases that ECPs may employ to spark a conversation. See word cloud image above.

These words include:

• Tired (60 percent)

• Dry (18 percent)

• Blurry (17 percent)

• Strained (9 percent)

To a lesser extent, words included

• Fatigued

• Cloudy

• Scratchy

• Heavy

• Burning

• Irritated

With 57 separate words or phrases reported in total, this points to a broad group of indicators, dependent on each person.

Among all surveyed adults, 16 percent report being concerned about the amount of time spent looking at screens in an average day. That jumps to 25 percent among contact lens wearers.

A portion of consumers are practicing good habits when their eyes felt fatigued from screen use, including taking a break for a few minutes (74 percent), closing their eyes for a few minutes (48 percent), and looking away for a few seconds (40 percent).

“Interestingly, millennials (ages 18-34) were more likely than older respondents to behave like this, perhaps from being digital natives,” says Dr. Andrews. “There’s still room for to grow these good habits among people of all ages through regular advice and reminders from ECPs.”

When it comes to overall health, most consumers don’t think of their eyes first. Some 57 percent try to eat healthy, and 40 percent report exercising at least once per week, yet only 10 percent say they exercise their eyes regularly.

“As much as we rely on our eyes as the primary input device for digital screens, we have a long way to go in helping consumers understand the importance of eye health,” says Dr. Andrews. “When 24 percent of the population say they actively research and maintain knowledge of how to live a healthy lifestyle, yet only 9 percent do the same to keep their eyes healthy, it speaks to significant opportunity. ECPs can take that leadership role, and based on what the data tells us, consumers are eager to listen.”

New dry eye electronic diagnostic algorithm

Las Vegas-Ophthalmic Resources launches its electronic diagnostic algorithm OSData and blink analyzer IPEDA.

Ophthalmic Resources, founded by Doug Devries, OD, FAAO; and Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO, provides its affiliate doctors with electronic treatment protocols developed by Drs. Devries and Karpecki for use in diagnosing patients.

Drs. Devries and Karpecki have 45+ years of combined clinical experience in refining the diagnosis and treatment algorithms used to treat dry eye patients, according to the company. Many doctors are looking for a better way to manage these patients efficiently and effectively in an everyday practice setting. Ophthalmic Resources is able to provide easier access to proven, dynamic, electronic DED treatment protocols and education for doctors and their patients, coupled with fulfillment options to help ensure patient treatment compliance.

According to the company, IPEDA and OSData have the potential to save a practice years of trial and error and provide doctors in the practice with the tools and protocols to efficiently and immediately set up a dry eye practice.

LensFerry offers EHR integration

Las Vegas-Given that simplifying patient contact lens ordering helps eyecare practices retain more contact lens sales, EyeCare Prime, a wholly owned subsidiary of CooperVision, has integrated ordering solution LensFerry with electronic health record (EHR) systems

LensFerry allows wearers to order their prescribed contact lenses from anywhere at any time, including text-to-order, subscriptions, an online practice portal, and other selling tools. The EHR integration enables contact lens prescription and ordering information to automatically sync between systems, streamlining the ordering process for both patients and practices, according to the company.

“The new data sync functionality saves staff a significant amount of time, making LensFerry easier to use than before,” says Mark Lindsey, global general manager at EyeCare Prime. “Patients can order their contact lenses directly from their eyecare practice with just a few clicks-any time of day, any day of the week-and the lenses are delivered right to their homes.”

With LensFerry, patients can quickly and conveniently order replacement contact lenses from any major manufacturer, and the prescribing practice receives the sales revenue as if the lenses had been ordered in-office. The integration between LensFerry and practice management systems enables the patient’s prescription information to automatically pre-populate, making the checkout process simpler than many other retailers, according to the company.

Patients can also receive intelligent reminders based on purchases at the time of their exam including a “Win Back” campaign targeting patients who leave the office without purchasing anything. Subscriptions are also available for patients who want to pay monthly for their lenses and receive automatic deliveries directly to their homes.