Eight Great Takeaways From Vision Expo 2011

Vision Expo 2011

I just returned from one of the most acclaimed optical conferences in the U.S. – Vision Expo West 2011. Lots of continuing education, ranging from new treatments for ocular disorders to new diagnostic tools for optical disorders; using social media communicate with patients, to best practices for managing optometric practices. Classes from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with a three hour break so I can explore the exhibition floor. Trying out new diagnostic equipment, getting photos taken of the inside of my eye, the back of my cornea, learning about new lenses, new technologies for fitting lenses, and checking out new exciting frame lines, and meeting top names in people who are on the cutting edge of optical – wow! Here are a few of the highlights from the show:

1. Latest generation auto-refractor. In 10 seconds per eye, it provides an extremely accurate assessment of your prescription, a map of the contours of your cornea, details high order aberrations in your visual system never available before, and much, much more. This is an amazing piece of equipment, and we hope to have one in 2012!
2. Fundus Camera. Being an optometric practice in a medical facility, we see a lot of patients with diabetes, which can result in vision-threatening loss of vision. Being able to take pictures of the back of the fundus would allow us to precisely follow troublesome changes in the back of the eye and help prevent loss of vision or even blindness. The new cameras provide unprecedented views of the layers of the retina, allowing faster and more accurate diagnosis of macular pathologies.
3. Specral Microscope. The very inside layer of the cornea is called the endothelium, and it is only one cell layer thick. The cells do not regenerate – and they are a critical part of maintaining good vision in the eye. Being able to see exactly what is going on there can have profound impacts on decisions such as the type of cataract surgery an MD will perform for best results. While the technology has been around for awhile, there has been a big improvement in ease of operation and image assessment. This might be on my wish list for awhile.
4. Better than 20/20 vision? New techniques in laser vision correction can now correct for high order aberrations, and provide vision of 20/10, or even 20/08! Absolutely amazing advances, with better and more predictable outcomes than before.
5. Frame/lens/feature imaging systems. Combining a camera with a computer, these systems allow opticians to fit the latest generation digital lenses with incredible precision, delivering the best visual performance ever in prescription lenses. My Hoya laboratory representative just showed me a potential breakthrough that I'm really excited about, and I'll keep you posted as I get more news on that.
6. Digital-Device Generation lenses. Twenty and thirty-somethings are spending more time than ever using digital devices – smart phones, tablets, laptops, hand-held video games and more. Due to technical aspects of digital displays, prolonged viewing causes interesting types of visual stress. This new lens design is created especially to relieve the fatigue caused by squinting at small, backlit screens. Early reviews make this look like a winner!
7. Eyeglass frames. My absolute favorite at Vision Expo, I had to severely curtail my explorations of what's new in frame trends and designs this year. One that really stood out was a company called 141 Eyewear. Short story – for every pair of frames they sell, they donate one to a charity that provides free glasses for kids. Stay tuned, as I will be featuring them in an upcoming blog. Also liked: WileyX sun/safety eyewear; beautiful and unique LaFont Eyewear and ultra-blingy Caviar designs. I will be consulting with my staff to see if we can make any of these work for our patients.
8. People. With one exception, the presenters of Continuing Education at Vision Expo were excellent, both knowledgable AND interesting! I attended a Tweetup sponsored by Vision Monday where I got to meet a lot of interesting and progressive providers and staff, and industry icons Dr. Alan Glazier and Dr. Nate Bonilla-Warford. After the tweetup I went to dinner with Van Rue from Single Vision Express and Paul from Lab Ten Ten and talked optical until midnight. I met countless other dedicated professionals who have a passion for providing the very best vision care possible to patients.

The delivery of medical care – including vision care – is changing rapidly all across America. We face challenges that are going to take a lot of work and ingenuity to overcome. The good news is that new innovations are being brought out on a regular basis that will keep raising the bar on excellence in vision care. Stay tuned!

Stilettos or flip-flops? Sports car or pickup? Work glasses or dress glasses or?

Several years ago, a women’s professional organization asked me to talk about fashion eyewear at their luncheon. I put on a mini-fashion show, with the help of a local women’s wear boutique. After the last very well-dressed model left the room, I asked “So, how many of you noticed that the last model was wearing tennis shoes?” Only about three out of 30 women noticed!

OK, I’m in the business of helping patients select fashionable eyewear, but I still find that people paying more attention shoes than glasses is very … interesting. And yet – I own four pair of dress shoes, four pair of “casual” shoes; eight (or more?) pair of sport and recreational footwear and four pair of sandals. Why do I own so many pair of shoes? Because each one serves a specific purpose – wearing my hiking boots to work just won’t cut it. In fact, wearing my brown dress shoes with black slacks borders on unthinkable. And yet – in the rush of the moment, my wife accidently wore different shoes on her right and left feet to work the other day, and again, no one noticed.

Two main points I’d like to make here. The first is that “eyes are the window to the soul” – when we interact with people, we make eye contact. Consciously or not, we all make decisions about someone based on that initial eye contact – decisions that can impact whether you get that job, get that date, close the sale – and your glasses play a huge role in the story we tell ourselves about the other person when we look them in the eye.

Knowing that, doesn’t it make a certain amount of sense to invest in glasses like you do in your wardrobe? Glasses can communicate many things; for example black plastic frames evoke knowledge and power, while rimless frames invite openness and trust. I could keep going, but you get the point.

Functionality is the second point I’d like to bring up. You wouldn’t try to hike in stiletto heels; you wouldn’t pull a trailer or take a load of garbage to the dump with your sports car. So why would someone expect one pair of glasses to do everything well? Progressive lenses are great for general-purpose use, but they don’t work especially well if you are on the computer for 2 – 8 hours a day. The clear or Transitions lenses that work great indoors or when you are in and out of sunlight fail miserably at eliminating hazardous blinding glare when you are driving. Dress glasses provide some protection against impact, but sports and the use of tools require sport/industrial rated glasses to prevent injury or blindness.

Take a quick, honest look in the mirror – what are your glasses saying about you? Think about their functionality – are there gaps in performance that need to be addressed? In the end, glasses are a tool which can be very effective when used as designed. Expert Licensed Dispensing Opticians will be happy to help you evaluate your vision needs, and suggest how eyewear can help you look and perform at your peak. 

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Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Prodesign 5133 – Wearable Art? Eyewear Sculpture? Fashion Frame!

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in frame design – someone comes up with a whole new twist. The Prodesign 5133 is just such a frame. The front is – to reuse a phrase I coined earlier – an Extreme Pillowed Feminized Rectangle. OK, the pillowing isn’t as extreme as on some other frames, but this is yet another example of a trend in women’s frame shapes that we are sure to see being expressed for some time. This is a semi-rimless mounting, so it opens up the face. This is a particularly great design if perhaps draw the gaze from the lower features on the face up to the eyes. The temples sweep right of the very top of the frame, which both adds to the lift suggested by the lens shape, and allows the fullest range of peripheral vision.

The dynamite piece de resistance here is the multidimensional sculptural temples. Prodesign figured out a way to cut out very intricate designs on the stainless steel, and then wrap the stamped metal into a shape that functions as a temple, but presents a 3-D space. To complete the look they out a color on the inside of the shape that contrasts with the color on the outside. This almost gives the appearance of an optical illusion – when you first see these, you will think “What am I looking at?”

A great shape, light weight frames, wonderful colors, exacting craftsmanship – and all wrapped up in a frame that will stop people in their tracks as they get caught up in the functional, wearable art - these frames have a LOT to offer! 

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Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Is this the future of ordering your eyeglasses?

I pulled out my crystal ball a bit ago to try and get a glimpse of what it might look like when you go to order glasses in the not too distant future, and this is what I saw:

Envision an optical retail space that has 4 - 8 large screen TV's with 100 styles of frames displayed per screen. When you touch a style, it toggles through all of the available colors, and maybe even price points or package options. When you (with help from your Licensed Dispensing Optician) find a style that looks interesting, just double tap a model, and it will put it into an iQueue for you. Once finished, you’ll head to the Order Center where an optician will bring up your selections, and allow you to see how the frame will look on you in a virtual mirror. When your final selection is made, an ultra-precise pupillary distance (PD) and “bifocal height” (MRP) will be taken.

You will then have an opportunity which online vendor you want to fill the Rx, which is then sent off electronically. There will be a fee for the ordering process: finalizing the frame selection, ordering, verifying and fitting the glasses by the optician (like the professional fee now charged for contact lens services). That fee may or may not be linked to the actual hardware purchase. For example, if you want to have your insurance billed, you’d pay your out-of-pocket portion to the OD practice at that time; otherwise, you would use your credit/debit card to pay the internet lab direct.

The technology to put this into practice is here and doable now. All we're waiting for is a visionary to bring out a package that puts it all together. Welcome to the future, coming soon to you!

So, what do you think? What do you like about this scenario? What is troubling? Let me know in the comments, and let’s get a discussion started!

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Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Fashion Frame Review: Ted Baker does Paisley! The B177

I’m going to go out on a limb here and invent a generic name for a style of which I am seeing more and more. Let’s call it the Extreme Pillowed Feminized Rectangle. The basic shape is indeed a rectangle, but all of the straight lines have been softened to an extreme, and there is a very noticeable lift at the outside corners that is unmistakably feminine. The good news is that this shape is very flattering for most women, and can be styled into small, medium or larger iterations.

And so it is with the Ted Baker B177. All the familiar traits I have cataloged elsewhere are back – the nice arch to echo the eyebrow, the flattering lift at the lower eyewire, and the bit of vertical line on the outside edge, with a fairly heavy endpiece of satin metal that sweeps back to the temple. Nice, but getting pretty predictable, and no longer approaching unique.

The one unique thing that makes this frame more fun than many others is the temple – it’s paisley! Yep! And not just translucent paisley, but the colors and patterns are transparent, which gives them the effect of a stained glass window. The sizes, shapes and colors of the paisley print are in perfect proportion to the width of the temple, and to the color of the frame front.

This frame will appeal to a broad generational band, from the early twenty-something to that woman of a certain age who is still having too much fun to be put in a stylistic box. 

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Copyright © 2011 All Rights Reserved