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Jane Balek Named Think About Your Eyes Executive Director

The Vision Council announces the hiring of Jane Balek as Executive Director of Think About Your Eyes, the vision industry’s public awareness campaign encouraging patients to schedule an annual eye exam with their optometrist.

Balek brings more than 20 years of experience working with non-profits and associations, most recently with the School Nutrition Foundation, where she served as executive director. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Executive Director of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) where she oversaw business development, marketing, communications and partnerships and sponsorships. While at NAfME, she concurrently served as the CEO and Executive Director of Give a Note Foundation where she spearheaded six national awareness campaigns impacting millions of students with the support of companies such as 20th Century Fox, Radio Disney and Nintendo.

“Jane’s expertise in the campaign and association space will provide the leadership TAYE needs to grow in industry support and impact even more patients,” said Dr. Steve Loomis, chair of Think About Your Eyes. “We look forward to further success from the campaign under Jane’s leadership.”

Think About Your Eyes is projected to reach 95% of its target audience in 2018 through a variety of advertising efforts, yielding more than 1 billion impressions. In 2017, Think About Your Eyes messaging resulted in 3.4 million incremental eye exams, and industry revenue of $750 million.

“Think About Your Eyes is a crucial campaign for both the vision industry and the public,” said Balek. “I am looking forward to growing the campaign and continuing to raise awareness about the importance of annual comprehensive eye exams.”

Balek will officially begin her role Monday, November 5. For general campaign inquiries, and industry partners interested in supporting the campaign, please contact Laurel O’Connor, Senior Communications Manager, at loconnor@thinkaboutyoureyes.com

 

Colour Changing Contact Lens Monitors Drug Levels in Eye

Contact lenses that can deliver drugs to the eye, and also provide a real-time indication of the rates of drug delivery have been developed by researchers at the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing.

Delivering drugs to the eye is a difficult challenge. Studies show that less than five percent of active drugs in eye drops are actually absorbed, and much of the drugs go into the bloodstream where they are ineffective.

Drug-delivering contact lenses can be a useful method to have drugs absorbed by the eye, but there are challenges in monitoring the rate of drug delivery in real-time.

The research team lead by Dawei Deng and Zhouying Xie created their prototype contact lenses using molecular imprinting, a method of creating lenses that have tiny cavities capable of holding medical compounds. These cavities were then loaded with the glaucoma drug timolol.

The researchers then immersed the contact lens in artificial tears and monitored the drugs being released from the contact lens.

As the timolol is released, the structure of the polymer material of the contact lens changes, resulting in a colour change in the material that is visible by both the naked eye and a fiber optic spectrometer.

The result is a safe method of monitoring drug release from contact lenses in real time, without the use of a dye.

The researchers said, “The contact lens can be further used for controlling release of many ophthalmic drugs and has high potential to be a new generation of functional contact lenses.”

This research was published in the October issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Marble-ous Eyewear

Thanks to neubau eyewear, the marble effect is now coming through as a feature on the noses of young urbanites with a keen eye for innovation, sustainability and quality product. The new marble-look frames such as the Lukas are manufactured from naturalPX as well as lightweight stainless steel. Lukas impresses through a timeless shape combined with refreshing details making them both classic and unconventional at the same time.

Distributed by COS: canadianoptical.com

Light as a Butterfly

The BERNA from Etnia Barcelona is a women’s style combining acetate rims and temples and a metal bridge. Inspired by frame styles from the 60s, BERNA has a butterfly shape and a very subtle lamination on each side. The construction is subtle but solid, and the colour combinations follow today’s trends.

Distributed by Etnia Barcelona:  www.etniabarcelona.com

OptiCon @ Vision Expo Spikes Optician Attendance

Making its debut at Vision Expo West, OptiCon @ Vision Expo generated record-breaking attendance numbers with a 16% increase in optician turnout and a 22% increase in all OptiCon related titles compared to Vision Expo West 2017. OptiCon @ Vision Expo, a dedicated program for opticians and contact lens technicians, sold nearly 700 packages that included access to the industry’s leading educational programs.

An additional component of OptiCon @ Vision Expo included the OptiCon Hub, a dedicated Show Floor booth that provided attendees the opportunity to connect with their peers and offered access to exclusive events.

The OptiCon Hub was designed to further networking and business opportunities by including key representatives from the American Board of Opticianry (ABO), National Contact Lens Examiners (NCLE), National Academy of Opticianry (NAO), Opticians Association of America (OAA) and National Federation of Opticianry Schools (NFOS).

Events featured in the OptiCon Hub including the National Academy of Opticianry Awards Ceremony and Annual Business Meeting and Eyecare Business’ panel on eyewear’s latest trends drew heavy foot traffic as attendees took full advantage of their personalized OptiCon packages.

Additionally, the general session and OptiCon party saw an increase in participation compared to Vision Expo East 2018. The general session gathered attendees at an exclusive breakfast to discuss the latest in industry news and was followed later in the evening by the OptiCon party sponsored by Europa Eyewear.

As OptiCon @ Vision Expo prepares to return to Vision Expo East 2019 (Education: March 21–24; Exhibit Hall: March 22–24), plans are underway to maintain OptiCon’s collaborative atmosphere while expanding the social and educational opportunities provided for attendees.

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