Targeting Top Tech Trends
Ready, aim, fire! Industry sources reveal the top tech trends for this year so your practice can get a head start on creating profit center bull's-eyes
Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC
Trends for this year include personalization and customization for each consumer. Image courtesy of Augen Optics
With all the product choices available in several arenas, it's easy to get lost in the woods on your way to honing profit potential. We learned from a variety of industry sources, including manufacturers, distributors, laboratories, optical retailers, and the three Os, what they're targeting for profits this year. Plans are to set sights on first priority products and promotions in sports lenses and customized lenses.
TARGET: LENS CUSTOMIZATION
Digitally surfaced progressive addition lenses and single-vision lenses today are breaking out into three design categories: Standard, optimized, and customized. Manufacturers encourage ECPs to look at all the elements of a lens—design, treatments, and materials—to best understand the total technology. Material and treatment benefits such as thinness, light weight, UV protection, durability, impact-and-scratch resistance, and glare and reflection reduction greatly impact the viability of a customized design and are a big part of the whole lens package.
The overriding premium product message is that not all digitally surfaced lenses are customized. It takes unique, patented designs plus integrated manufacturing technologies to produce this caliber of lens—and those that are customized, individualized, and personalized are the cream of the crop.
Studies show that the majority of consumers will pay for customized products if the benefits are explained and understood. Focus on presenting benefits first.
■ Customized designs can compensate for vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt, eye rotation and convergence, frame shape and size, and more.
■ Various digital compensations, optimizations, and design modifications result in lenses that offer superior vision for wearers. Customized lenses may call for the Rx being placed on the backside of a lens or Rx components on both front and back surfaces, depending on the proprietary design for best vision.
■ Customized lenses are designed for the ultimate in wearing comfort and visual performance. Design benefits include less distortion, easy adaptation, increased using areas, fewer visual compromises, and edge-to-edge clarity, as well as chosen material and treatment benefits.
| Other Options |
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| PALs aren't the only high-tech options for presbyopes. Advances in multifocal contact lenses can hit the mark for some patients. And, in the multifocal spectacle lens arena, there's a whole new category of lens. • CONTACTS. Recent studies have yielded new information on presbyopic contact lens wearers. An independent study conducted with funding from Vistakon found that 78 percent of presbyopic respondents cited the use of a system of PALs and multifocal contacts to be optimal in meeting their vision requirements. In addition, patients saw the two modalities as complementary. Based on studies like this, contact lens companies are planning new multifocal products and offering ECPs innovative ways to approach this market. • ENHANCED MULTIFOCAL. PixelOptics has introduced a new lens category, the Enhanced Multifocal. The AtLast! Enhanced Multifocal features two dynamic components: four visual zones featuring an expansive intermediate area and composite lens technology. The lenses are targeted toward bifocal wearers, those who have not been successful wearing PALs, for occupational use, as a cost-effective sunlens option, and as a second pair option for PAL wearers seeking better intermediate vision (i.e., reading a computer screen). |
On the road, in the fields, or on the run, lens technology today meets a wider scope of needs with better results thanks to technological advancements. Images (clockwise from top left) courtesy of Transitions Optical; Essilor of America; Intercast Group; and Seiko Optical Products of America
SPORTS SIGHT
Sports vision is getting more attention than ever due to the release of new technologies that solve consumer problems. Lawrence Lampert, an optometrist with a private practice in Boca Raton, Fla., has specialized in sports vision training and development since the 1980s and suggests the following steps:
■ Healthy vision. "We look at the patient's choices to enhance visual quality while focusing on healthy sight now and into the long term," he says.
■ Education. "We get them excited about what's available and create a lot of buzz," he adds. "I make recommendations from the chair, including lens recommendations like photochromics, and almost all patients get what I recommend."
■ Evaluation. Sports vision evaluation includes depth perception, eye aiming, and visualization skills as well as various measurements including phorias and fatigue. Detailed case history intake is a must.
■ Understanding. Be sure patients know that healthy sight is more than just an eye test; it's protecting and enhancing sight. Include education about the dangers of UV exposure to eyes, and cite real-life examples like cataract development, macular degeneration, pterygium, and even wrinkles.
Multi-focus lenses are being developed to perform better for a wider audience. Images shown clockwise from top courtesy of Carl Zeiss Vision; ProFit Optics; and Hoya Vision Care North America
TARGET: GOLF
Golf is currently receiving extra attention in the eyewear world due to ramped-up public interest and participation. In golf-friendly eyewear, lenses should increase contrast, cut glare, protect from UV exposure, and help improve visual performance. Photochromic and polarized lenses are best at these tasks.
When dispensing for this specialized sports set, be ready to apply golf principles to vision details. Other factors to consider:
■ Putting. "With a 20-foot putt on ground level, it takes about 4.2 seconds for the ball to reach the hole. How long the ball takes to get to the hole depends on the lie (uphill or downhill), and is affected by the break, speed, and accuracy of the shot," Lampert says,
■ Tracking. Are they left eye dominant or right eye dominant? "Knowing this can make a difference in missing or sinking putts and in the ultimate success of play and player," he adds.
| Lens Crystal Ball |
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| The optical industry crystal ball indicates that these additional tech trends are starting now and will be present into the future. 1. Better AR performance. 2. A drop in digitally surfaced lens costs. A stressed U.S. economy combined with price competition from overseas markets indicates a temporary (incentives and sales), if not permanent, dip in digitally surfaced lens costs, sometime this year. 3. Unheard of lens materials and designs, and unique lens designs. Higher-index products may be introduced to the U.S. marketplace. 4. Discontinuation of several current lens styles. If you're still dispensing an old tried-and-true PAL that was introduced in the mid-90s, now is the time to buy a lot of back stock or get up to speed on dispensing newer lens technology. 5. Even better performing photochromics. 6. Function-fashion balance. The industry-driven eye health message is getting through to consumers and managed care companies. Eyewear is now considered a health-medical-technological device that is also fun and fashionable. The marketplace achieves balance between the two. |
TARGET: HUNTING
According to Dusty Bailey, a lab technician at North Florida Eyecare with locations in Lake City and Live Oak, Fla., hunters need to limit light variations, such as rapid changes from sunlight to shadow.
Lenses should limit extreme light variations, which negatively impact concentration and can cause eye-strain and fatigue. They should help to compensate when sitting under a tree or while hunting, especially at dawn and dusk. For hunting, Bailey recommends:
■ Yellow contrasting lenses. Typically yellow number-1 tint, but with a mix of yellow and other tints, because: "Yellow lenses add a brightening effect that can extend about 30 minutes into a hunt," he says
■ Lens treatments. Improve durability with superior scratch resistant coatings and impact resistant materials.
■ Base curves. A high-minus Rx requiring a four or lower base curve can be impossible to place in a wrap frame. At least one frame manufacturer offers a Web-based solution that lets dispensers enter a few measurements, then computes how to surface lenses for an optimal fit.
It pays to advertise: "Most patients that come to our practice with requests for hunting eyewear do so because of word-of-mouth," Bailey mentions. "Don't underestimate advertising in local magazines and news publications. Optimal timing to advertise is just before hunting season begins in your region. It's also a good idea to set up a booth at local gun shows to demonstrate the visual advantages you can provide gun hobbyists on location." EB
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