Eyecare Business connects with EB board member Ric Peralta, ABOC, aka "the Optical Jedi," for The Inside View—a video series dedicated to exploring overarching conversations taking place across the eyecare industry. Here, Peralta explores how rapid advances in specialized lens technologies, growing consumer awareness, and emerging wearable health solutions are reshaping the optical industry—creating both operational challenges and new opportunities for more personalized patient care.
Ric Peralta: My name is Ric. I'm known as the Optical Jedi. I have been working in eye care on and off for over 37 years. Over the last, probably about 6 to 7 years, I've been actively involved in training and educating at state conferences and really actively working as an educator for patients as well as for staff.
EB: What do you see as the biggest challenges for lab managers over the next 5 years?
Peralta: The shift in lens technologies that have been happening recently are rather significant. We've gone from a long stretch of lenses trying to be more and more universal and versatile and trying to do everything in one lens to being more cognizant of the fact that it's really not possible to give everything perfectly. So instead, let's try to focus on lenses that are designed for specific tasks and having lenses best suited to specific prescription types. I feel like there's a lot more specificity and niche designs and lenses, and obviously that's going to apply a pretty significant challenge to lab managers, both in offices and in larger facilities, because all of these different lens designs are going to have distinctly different needs in terms of the way we measure, how we fit, and how we have conversations with that patient to make sure that we are fitting them in the proper lens technologies.
It's also critical to understand that with all of these lens solutions that are developing—I mean, we've had 15 or so just in the last few months. It's important to be really cognizant of each lens design and each lens manufacturer having different specifications on how we measure their products. And it's really critical that that is being met. And of course, on the larger labs side, those different lens designs also often needing different lab equipment. And so, there's going to be some serious need for expenditures for overhead labs to make sure that you've got the proper equipment to be able to fit and design and create those lenses that are so critical for our patients needs.
EB: How are eyewear and lens innovations influencing patient choices?
Peralta: When we talk about how eyewear and lens innovations are influencing patient choices, I think it's really critical that we think about just how impactful mass marketing has come to be involved in the direct contact of patients. Obviously, we're talking about online retailers—companies such as Zenni, Warby Parker. But beyond that, thinking about how we are getting more and more direct marketing from companies like EssilorLuxottica, and Crizal products specifically, and Transition lenses doing mass marketing to patients. This leads to a certain level of consumer awareness on products, and that has a direct impact on how they are going to be pursuing their conversations when they come into an eye doctor's office or to a private dispensing optician’s office. But that doesn't always give them a complete picture on exactly what these products can do.
There's still an awful lot of education that's critical for us as dispensers to make sure that we are fitting those patients accurately, that not only are they coming in asking for a product, but we're making sure that that is still actually the best product for them. It's really critical that we be aware of the impact of the wearable tech solutions that are really changing the way we have to think about the way we fit patients and think of that patient as a whole person. Obviously, with products like Nuance, we are starting to think about the hearing needs of our patients, and that's not something that dispensing opticians historically have had to even think about too much. Obviously, there's a certain level we had to be concerned about, how a frame might fit around hearing aids, but now we need to be the one actively asking our patients if they need help with hearing. We have to think in terms of whole-body solutions, and that's a very new thing that's really critical for us to do our jobs best is to make sure that we're reaching out to our patients and really analyzing what it is they're saying to us so that we understand exactly what's going on in their lives.
And we also have to be better detectives through analyzing these things, detecting and parsing out exactly what they're trying to say to us when they don't even know what it is they're directly trying to ask for. Often, we have patients come in and talk about that they are looking for a reading glass, but really what they're talking about is a near-variable focal, and they don't even understand that that's a different thing. And not that we should ever expect our patients to know that when they walk in the door, but we have to understand what it is they're actually asking for, even if they don't know what they're asking for.
And again, with the influx of more and more precise and task-specific lens solutions, and more direct marketing to patients, we have to be more informed of what's available to patients and continuing with our education so that we're staying on top of what's the latest and greatest solutions for our patients. Also, we have to be worrying about patients, frankly, being misinformed about what products actually do and making sure that we are filling those gaps so they don't have incorrect perceptions of what they expect those lenses to do for them, or their frames to do for them. We also have to make sure that we are taking the time to analyze their language as they talk to us. When they’re talking to us and searching for their solutions, often they don't have the terms to know exactly what it is they're asking for, and we need to translate that into optical speak so we can know exactly what it is they need. And of course, it's even more important, for our most informed patients, often they don't exactly understand the critical importance of frame fit. They're worrying about lens technologies, but they're not thinking about the actual fit of the eyewear and how critical it is that frames sit in the right place for them to see as good as they possibly can. So, we really need to be injecting ourselves into these conversations. Lens innovations, frame innovations, are exploding at the moment, but it only is as good as the optician fitting those patients.
EB: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth in the industry?
Peralta: I'm super excited about the growth opportunities in the eyecare industry, in particular, the exponential growth in lens advancements. They show no signs of slowing down, if anything, they’re speeding up. More solutions means more specific products for more specific needs for our patients. We can get more and more accurate with giving a patient the best possible vision solutions, and that's an exciting thing for us. But it also means that we really need to be staying on top of our game, continuing our education, and actively reaching out to our lens manufacturers and finding out what's coming—not just what's here now, but what's coming. Because if you're not staying on that curve, you're going to be left behind really fast with the speed with which things are changing in this business.
I also think that we're entering an exciting era of true personalization in eye care. For years, it's been a lens, for example, on a multifocal, and there were very few choices early on. We really had to tell patients how they were going to have trade-offs, they were going to have limitations in that technology. But now with the latest advancement in lenses, with the use of all the different aspects of vertex and curve face form, all these aspects, panto, they've become much more precise to that specific patient wearing those glasses. And that's exciting because we can give them the most precise vision they've ever had in their lives—as long as we're asking the right questions and taking the right measurements.
I also think that it's kind of exciting that the way there's been such an expansion right now into the medtech and wearable tech fields. We have an opportunity to treat medical issues in new and profound ways. Of course, we mentioned Nuance earlier with hearing assistance. But of course, you know, Transitions is working on fascinating new ways of trying to treat visual eye disease issues through lens color treatments. Obviously, there's products like Abby Lux trying to treat migraines. We have amazing new ways of treating whole-body health issues, and that's incredibly exciting. Our patients are not just their eyes anymore. They are truly that full body and we're worrying about all of it. And that's really exciting. We can help our patients. They see us more often than their primary care. Let's take advantage of that and really help those patients out as best we can.
I know it's also pretty easy to be disheartened about some of the consolidation and corporatization and eye care. But frankly, I don't see that as a as a necessarily a negative, because there's so much innovation right now. I was just at an independent eyewear event over the weekend, and I was just blown away by the creative solutions being found by individuals in this business. And as long as we have individuals who are passionate about helping patients in this business, the there are no limits on how far we can take things.
