Many of you may know him as the man behind the microphone, but Dr. Gary Gerber practiced optometry for over 20 years before dedicating himself full time to industry innovation. His day to day is jam packed: consulting with private practice owner ODs through The Power Practice, running optometry’s only live radio talk show, The Power Hour, and trying to end myopia world-wide.  While the goal might seem lofty, Dr. Gerber is someone who is known to get things done.  Myopia may have met its’ match.

Six years ago, Dr. Gerber was brainstorming ways he could get the word out about his optometric consulting business, when the idea to host a radio show was born.  He had formerly been a talk radio show host in New Jersey, so he felt very comfortable in the studio and had the technical knowledge for managing sound and recording equipment.  Every Wednesday at 9 PM EST, Dr. Gerber has invited ODs across the country to join him in the big conversations about optometry on The Power Hour.  By opening his radio show up to live callers, ODs can get a chance to ask their own tough questions to industry execs and online disruptors. The Power Hour has had over half a million downloads since it began back in 2012, and episodes like his interview with Dr. Howard Purcell about the Essilor/Luxotica merger in 2017 had over a thousand listeners. 

Running one of the most successful optometric consulting firms and the only optometric radio show would keep most of us more than busy, but Dr. Gerber’s latest project is a consuming passion. In 2016, Dr. Gerber teamed up with industry exec Matt Oerding with a plan to take the skyrocketing progression of myopia head-on.  Treehouse Eyes is an optometric practice dedicated solely to myopia management. Patients are specifically children with myopia: there is no ocular disease management, there is no optical.  The mission of Treehouse Eyes is not only to help slow myopic progression of the patients in their exam chair, but to help develop the myopia treatment protocols and strategies that will shape our industry in years to come.  With two locations, Dr. Gerber knows they are far from his mission of eradicating myopia.  But developing treatment paradigms and educating both parents and other ODs around the world is a mission that could change the tide in the myopic epidemic.

 

Dr. Gerber shares the knowledge gleaned about myopia control management so far through TreeHouse Eyes, and the essential steps to offering myopia control in your own practice on this week’s podcast.