You finally did it! You did the thing and accomplished the goals! Congrats! But that voice in the back of your head says, “yeah, you did it but they are going to figure you out soon.” You may feel like you are an imposter living a life of someone who is successful, and that you got here by chance and random luck. There is a name for what you are feeling, it is called Imposter Syndrome. Rachel and Kate dive deep, figure out what type of imposter syndrome they have and talk about ways to combat it. They also took bleep! Oh, that bleeping? Those are some surprises coming up, and a couple of fun ones for good measure. Check out what imposter syndrome you may have here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fastcompany.com/40421352/the-five-types-of-impostor-syndrome-and-how-to-beat-them

Until Next Time,

Rachel and Kate

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you might have noticed the bevy of direct to patient contact lens companies coming to market in the past year.  There’s no mystery as to why – market research shows roughly 40% of the 42 million Americans that wear contact lenses currently are interested in signing up for subscription contact lens services for price and convenience. We sat down with the entrepreneurs of two very different subscription contact lens services to learn more about optometrists need to understand about the changing desires and behaviors of our patients.

Allison Granger and Beth Samenuk founded The Lens Butler after spending years working in the contact lens industry and learning the business from the inside out.  As new and exciting contact lens technology in the dailies disposable marketplace became available, they saw that upfront price was limiting access for some patients to the very best lens technology. The Lens Butler partners exclusively with doctors to offer an in-office subscription service to patients so that they can break up their yearly contact lens purchase into easy monthly installments, along with the added convenience of getting fresh contact lenses delivered straight to their door. Their company offers lenses from all of the big four contact lens manufacturers, and lets doctors’ offices personalize the subscription boxes their patients receive with educational materials and information about office promotions. If you want to learn more about The Lens Butler, you can check out this podcast.

The team behind Sight Supply takes a completely different approach to subscription contact lens models by targeting patients directly. Founders Anthony Tavieso and Alec Schwengler were college roommates at George Mason. When Alec moved to Taiwan for a few years, he discovered the comfort and convenience of daily disposable contact lenses and started mailing Anthony dailies from Taiwan in his prescription. Once they tried out the comfort and convenience of daily disposable contact lenses, they knew they were never going back. Sight Supply lenses are manufactured in Taiwan using etafilcon A material.  Tavieso and Schwengler say they are sticklers on following the FDA and FTC Fairness to Consumer Contact Lens Act, and carefully verify prescriptions for each patient that signs up for their service (implication being they are unlike another popular direct to customer contact lens disruptor). Currently they also partner with Opternative to offer online contact lens prescription renewals to help drive the possibility that a prescription will get written for their contact lens, though they would love to be able to work with doctors more directly to get their lenses in their office.

In speaking with the founders of these two very different approaches to improving the patient experience with contact lenses, one thing becomes clear: as doctors of optometry we can’t move at the snail’s pace of healthcare in offering our patients the services they want. Online innovators and disruptors are quickly moving in where we are leaving room for unmet patient needs.  Listen to the full podcast to hear the Vision Council statistics behind what contact lens wearing patients say they want, and how we can help protect patients’ ocular health and provide them the convenience they desire at the same time.

Corporate Optometry Nation talks about employment model with Dr. Laurie Lesser. Dr. Lesser is a graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 1992. She has worked in several modes of practice. She currently is the Area OD for South Florida Regional Eye Associates which is affiliated with Americas Best Contacts and Eyeglasses. Listen in to learn how the employed model in corporate optometry might be the right fit for you and your career.

French – Episode 7 –  Vocabulary

Content by Ocular Media & Narrated by Joella Martire

The 7th and final episode of our French series features a review of common vocabulary used in the clinic.

 

 

Joella Martire is a third-year student OD at the New England College of Optometry in Boston. She was raised in Montreal, Canada and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Concordia University. Joella grew up bilingual speaking English and French.

Are you interested in buying a practice but don’t know where to start?  Mr. Peter Almonte is a lawyer and consultant for Practice Exchange with over 30 years of experience in coordinating optometric practice sales.  His company appraises a doctor’s practice and coordinates terms between seller and buyer, aiding in the logistics for transition of ownership and helping with financing.  Their group includes lawyers, accountants, tax attorneys, and marketing strategists to help match retiring doctors with younger doctors looking to buy a practice of their own.

Mr. Almonte fell into optometry by accident. Working as a lawyer in a group firm, he was asked to speak at a seminar about buying and selling a practice and he was approached by several ODs afterwards for help in their own office transitions. The experience was extremely rewarding and in just a few months he left his law firm and started his own consulting group.

Optometrists excel with their clinical skills, but they aren’t necessarily the best business people. Doctors that are most successful in the profession have a strong business sense to run an efficient practice. In addition to the challenges that all doctors face in having to learn business skills that optometry school didn’t necessarily prepare you for, Mr. Almonte notes that one of the big generational differences he sees with today’s younger buying doctors is that they are burdened with significant educational debt and are often fearful of practice ownership before they pay down their loans.  Older doctors don’t always understand or appreciate the challenges that new graduate doctors face. The amount of loans and the need for immediate income is something older doctors didn’t have to face when they graduated.

A consultant has to work in the best interest of BOTH buying and selling doctor.  They have to be a fair mediator to both. Older doctors deserve to sell their practice for fair market value; young buying doctors need a great opportunity for financial successful to make sure the purchase price isn’t a compounding debt burden.  To have the purchase make sense, the buying doctor has to earn more money by purchasing the practice than they would have made working as an associate doctor. Both sides need to walk away from the closing feeling like they were treated fairly in the entire process.

A good consulting firm walks the transition through all 4 steps:

Step 1: Appraise the practice.  A fair appraisal is mportant for buyer, seller, and the lender that will finance the sale. It must be impartial. Mr. Almonte also recommends working with a firm that will also do cash flow projections to help the potential buyer and lender understand how much the buyer can generate in income right away to reduce the risk of defaulting on loans.

Step 2: After the practice is appraised, the marketing department advertises the practice to potential buyers that would be interested in specific practice area.  The Practice Exchange uses email and social media to target potential interested buyers.

Step 3: Help secure bank financing for the practice. The Practice Exchange is ypically looking for 100% bank financing so that the buyer isn’t financially overburdened right after the sale and the seller receives all of their money at the official closing date.

Step 4: Help transition the practice from selling doctor to buying doctor seamlessly for patient and staff retention.

How to Prepare for the Sale:

If it’s an older practice, Mr. Almonte advises the selling doctor to clean it up: paint the walls, replace carpeting. If you don’t have EHR, don’t implement it! The potential buyer can then choose their own preference. Just make a few cosmetic changes that are price effective.

Buying doctors should prepare for the sale by improving their credit score. To get the best financing, you need a score of 600 or higher.

So you’ve been asked to interview at an optometry school. Congrats! You’re going to crush it. Rachel and Kate have been through the process and would be more than happy to tell you what kind of questions to expect and what they think you ought to wear. They also made up a new song they’re way too proud of.

Until next time,

Kate and Rachel

@rklunchdate

French – Episode 6 –  Binocular Vision Testing

Content by Ocular Media & Narrated by Joella Martire

This short and sweet episode gives you the tools to do basic binocular vision testing on any Spanish-speaking patient.  Measure phorias, vergences, FCC, and NRA/PRA.

 

 

 

Joella Martire is a third-year student OD at the New England College of Optometry in Boston. She was raised in Montreal, Canada and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Concordia University. Joella grew up bilingual speaking English and French.

 

 

Sitting down with Ashleigh Hinde, founder and CEO of Waldo, it is quickly apparent that this woman has not only done a breadth of research about the optical industry and contact lens technology specifically, but that she is eager to share this with others.  The Harvard graduate founded Waldo as a direct-to-consumer contact lens start up based in the United Kingdom. As a contact lens wearer herself, she saw the industry as ripe for an overhaul because of poor communication and understanding by contact lens wearers about the lenses that they put in their eyes every day.  Her market research revealed patients have no idea why they wear the lenses they wear, and feel the process of buying contact lenses is complicated and a chore. Her focus with Waldo was to address all of these issues:

* Simplify the Process: Waldo’s model is a monthly subscription so that the lenses you need arrive on your doorstep when you need them without the hassle of large up-front purchases.  Hinde sites that her research shows fresh lenses arriving every month improves compliance and reduces the risk of contact lens overwear.

* High-Quality Lenses: Waldo’s social media focuses on showing her state of the art manufacturing facility and discussions about the health and safety of wearing daily disposable contact lenses over multiple wear lenses.  Waldo lenses are made out of etafilcon material and she actively sites that her goal is to offer lenses on par with Johnson and Johnson contact lenses in quality and comfort in interviews.

* A Happy Experience: Hinde references a customer she interviewed in market research leading up to Waldo’s creation as a big inspiration for her focus on experience. This customer told her every time he bought contact lenses, he felt like something was wrong with him.  In eyecare the contact lens prescription process is often focused on the idea that the wearer’s eyes have a problem and you’re prescribing contact lenses much like you would prescribe or talk about a medication that the person needs for a chronic health condition.  Instead, Hinde’s goal with Waldo is to make contact lenses and the broader conversation around eyecare more engaging and positive. Her contact lenses come in quirky and fun packaging -not sterile cardboard boxes. When lenses arrive on their doorstep, it’s a fun and vibrant box with positive branding.  Wearing contact lenses doesn’t mean something is wrong with you.

It was clear in our conversation that we can learn a lot from Hinde’s research and how she is giving patients what they are looking for in an eyecare experience.  As often as we think of disruptors as competitors, her focus with Waldo has been on growing the relationship between patients and their optometrists. Her research revealed that most patients view going to the optometrist as a “chore” – something they have to do, but would rather avoid. “We want to take that [feeling] away,” Hinde told Business Insider in 2017. The doctor-patient relationship she feels is vital to healthy eyes; “our aim is not to disrupt the role of the optometrist.” Her goal is for Waldo to actually help drive more patients to the optometrist’s office to seek care by removing the idea that going to the doctor for eyecare is a chore to avoid.

She shares her research on contact lens wearer’s thoughts and habits, and how eyecare providers can help better serve their needs on this podcast!

Spanish – Episode 5 – Slit Lamp & DFE

Content by Ocular Media & Narrated by Joella Martire

Our fifth installment of the French eye exam features language lessons for slit lamp evaluation, tonometry, and dilation procedure.

 

 

 

Joella Martire is a third-year student OD at the New England College of Optometry in Boston. She was raised in Montreal, Canada and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Concordia University. Joella grew up bilingual speaking English and French.