New This Week
Frame Board 101: Going Deep Into a Brand
Evan Kestenbaum of Optix Family Eyecare in Plainview, NY, and CIO of GPN, producer of The EDGE benchmark and tracking system, recommends going deep into a specialty frame brand in order to succeed with it. A dispensary should display a collection of up to 40 frames of a specialty brand, and having 20 of the best styles within that brand is better than 40 different styles, he notes. Stock a variety of colors in the most popular styles to build sales. >>READ MORE >>
Medical Eyecare
Improve Medical Eyecare Treatment Compliance By Tailoring Regimens to Lifestyle
By JeanMarie Davis, OD
You can improve patient compliance to the medical eyecare treatments you prescribe by tailoring regimens to the patient’s lifestyle. >>READ MORE>>
Software Solutions/EHR
Boost Efficiency: Connect Your EHR
to Your Other Software
By Ian Lane, OD
Integrating your electronic health record system with other pieces of software within your office aids workflow and improves patient care. >>READ MORE>>
Marketing
Patient Testimonials: Your Best Advertisement
By April L. Jasper, OD, FAAO
Promote your practice and educate your community about your products and services with patient testimonials–on video and in print. >>READ MORE>>
ADVERTORIAL
In Optometry, as in Sports, Coaching 
Takes You to the Next Level
Serena Williams and Roger Federer have been at the pinnacle of professional tennis for the past decade or more. But in recent years, both sought the services of coaches to help them to maintain their incredible level of competitiveness.
Optometrists, and especially highly successful optometrists, can learn a lot from their example.
In sports, as in other disciplines, a true professional knows the value of working with an individual or consulting group to evaluate performance and identify areas for improvement. Standout performers not only work with coaches; they implement their advice. Those unaware of their level of performance routinely lag behind the pack and achieve little more than mediocrity in their careers. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Fast Fact
What Types of Vision Correction Do Your Children Patients Use?
You have an opportunity to move more children patients into prescription and safety eyewear and contact lenses, according to The Vision Council VisionWatch Parent for Child report. The 2,932 parents surveyed reported an aggregate total of 4,961 children under the age of 18 living at home. Approximately 19.6 percent of those children regularly wear Rx eyeglasses while 5.1 percent wear Rx contact lenses (mostly older children over the age of 14), indicating that about one-fourth of all children wear some type of prescription eyewear. Other forms of vision correction are rarely used by children under the age of 18. Less than two percent regularly use protective eyewear or sports goggles and/or plano sunglasses. The majority of children under the age of 18 (75 percent) do not use any form of vision correction.
Click HERE to read more from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, on providing eyewear and contact lenses for children patients.
In Brief
Vision Source Partners with EyeXam Mobile Platform
In a company-wide concerted effort to drive member practices to lead in the digital age of optometry, Vision Source has renewed its partnership with eye exam mobile application, EyeXam Mobile Platform. Through this partnership, Vision Source members have enhanced business listings which increase the opportunity for consumers to find them for an exam and regularly communicate with these eye doctors. “Our members want to be more involved, present and on the cutting edge of technology and it’s our obligation to provide them with the tools to do so,” says Vision Source Chief Marketing Officer Bryan D. Pinciaro. >>READ MORE>>
Patient Compliance to Contact Lens Regimens Varies, New Study Reveals
Adherence to a prescribed contact lens replacement routine is often scattered throughout the month with contact lens wearers showing no consistent pattern in replacing their lenses with respect to date or day, according to new research presented at the American Academy of Optometry meeting. To understand patient behavior as it pertains to wearing time and the replacement of their reusable contact lenses, a masked internet survey tracked the exact dates that 804 spherical reusable hydrogel and silicone hydrogel contact lens wearers replaced their lenses. The study was sponsored by VISTAKON parent company Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Poll Results
Readers Say Dry Eyes to Blame for Most Contact Lens Dropouts
Asked why their patients drop out of contact lenses, 39 percent of ROB readers say the culprit is most often dry eyes. Twenty-two percent say patients most often cite unspecified discomfort when dropping out of contacts while another 22 percent say contact lens dropouts report impatience with the wear and care regimen. Seventeen percent say patients dropping out tell them they are not happy with the quality of their vision while wearing contact lenses.
