Pupillary Pathways

One of the first things that I learned when I graduated from optometry school was that I knew NOTHING about investments and retirement, and what to do and how to do it!

Did you know that they first eye chart ever created was created by Dr. Küchler, a German ophthalmologist? He designed a chart in 1836 using figures cut from calendars, books, and newspapers glued in rows of decreasing sizes onto paper.

I don't remember learning about him in Optometry school! 

I'm sure you've heard the argument many times before... there are too many optometry schools (with even more on the horizon) and not enough qualified applicants to fill the seats.

This is leading to the decrease in pass-rates for NBEO® for optometry schools, and less students able to complete the rigorous program in order to graduate and become successful doctors.

So what can be done in order to protect academics and prevent a decline in standards?

I recently read an article about careers in which women are least likely to have children. When I clicked on the link I did not expect to see that our profession, optometry, was at the very top of the list! Taking the number 1 spot, this article noted that 47% of women ODs do not have kids!

With the Tecnis Symfony intraocular lens having been available for a little over a year now, we are starting to see many cases of this lens being implanted, the post-operative journey that the patients went through, and the refractive and vision results from the Symfony lens.

As you may have seen, we kicked off the year with something we haven't done before- a photo contest! With the launch of our new OptoPrep Part I mobile app, studying on-the-go is easier than ever and we were excited to see how people are taking advantage of the new app.

Did you know that there is a super cool device out there that can allow you to capture high-definition photos and videos of the ocular fundus with your iPhone?! It is called the D-EYE Smartphone-based Retinal Imaging System.

2018… new year, new goals, new ideas, new start, and new resolutions. Now that we are about half way through January, it’s a great time to check in on how your New Year’s Resolutions are coming along.

On a daily basis I see a wide variety of patients with many different ocular and systemic health conditions. One of the main eye-related issues I see and talk to my patients about it cataracts.

I get a wide range of emotions from patients when I tell them that their vision is hazy from cataracts, or that the difficulties they are having with glare at night are due to cataracts, or that they have the very early stages of cataracts developing; but they aren’t quite affecting their vision yet.

Most patients associate cataracts with a negative feeling; they feel like its just another thing that is reminding them that they are getting old.