Essilor unveils its plans for Coastal, as the integration process for this recent acquisition gets underway.

 

Coastal founder Roger Hardy will act as advisor for the next three years, but Roy Hessel will serve as CEO, while remaining president of online initiatives for Essilor.

 

“The Internet complements traditional distribution channels, which remain the only ones able to provide added value in taking measurements and supporting wearers,” said John Carrier, president of Essilor of America, in an interview with VMail. “We are vigilant that the development of online sales in the optical industry does not come at the expense of wearers’ safety.”

 

Consequently, Coastal will continue with simple prescriptions and Essilor, whose name will not be visible on the Coastal website, will not add Varilux to Coastal’s product mix. “This brand requires the professionalism of ECPs,” said Carrier. Coastal will nonetheless be able to offer Transitions products.

 

Furthermore, Essilor will halt the “physical” expansion of Coastal’s stores, which had begun to open brick-and-mortar stores in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Essilor even plans to divest itself of these stores.

 

The program of giving away free pairs of eyeglasses with a purchase will also be stopped. It would not reflect the value of optical industry services, according to John Carrier.

Source:

http://www.visionmonday.com/latest-news/article/vmail-exclusive-essilors-carrier-discusses-strategy-for-newlyacquired-coastalcom-1/

Today, Audace Lunettes officially launches Sasura, a new high-end sunwear line for women. It is truly a distinctive concept.

 

Elegant and timeless, these sunglasses feature a piece of jewelry on the temples like you might find on a charm bracelet. If a woman wants to change the look of her glasses, all she has to do is change the charm – a small ball that easily screws into the temple hinge – to express her current mood or state of mind. All the charms are ultralightweight so they don’t affect the stability of the glasses. Sasura even has a worldwide patent on this technology that was developed by Audace.  

 

One of the strong points of the glasses is that not only can they hold charms made by Sasura, but those of other companies that make charms for charm bracelets. Considering how popular these bracelets are, this opens a whole new world of choices for consumers and of sales opportunities for eyecare professionals.

 

Sasura sunglasses were designed and are made in Italy, while the charms themselves are hand-crafted in Thailand, a country known for its fine jewelry and sterling silver. The charms are made exclusively for Audace with sheets of silver or gold, layers of precious stones, or Swarovski crystal. There are also other charms with Murano glass, which are made in Italy.

 

To learn more about Sasura, don’t miss our article in the May edition of Opt!k Magazine, which will be delivered in the next few days.

 

 

REGARD ACTION unveiled the winners of its Excellence Awards during the gala evening organized as part of its annual meeting. The REGARD ACTION Excellence Awards recognize the talent of our opticians, optometrists and up-and-coming eyecare professionals. 

 

In the Optician of the Year category, the winner was Robert Grimard, owner of Grimard Optique, a company with 18 offices across Canada.

 

In the Optometrist of the Year category, the winner was Dr. Lyne Naud, an optometrist who has long been active in her community and her profession.

 

And in the Up-and-Coming Professional of the year category, Dr. Patrick Sauvageau, an optometrist and a partner at Optiboutiq since 2012, took home the prize. 

 

Regard Action looks forward to another successful edition of its Excellence Awards next year. Candidacies for the 2015 edition can be submitted as of next September.  

 

Source: Regard Action

 

Google continues its development of an Internet-connected contact lens, and a recent patent shows that this initiative is increasingly ambitious.

 

Regular readers of ClipInfo.ca have known since February that Google is working on contact lenses that could monitor glucose rates in diabetics (http://infoclip.ca/News/4167/72/A-Google-contact-lens-that-monitors-glucose-levels/d%2Cnouvelles ). New information now suggests that the lenses are even more sophisticated.

 

They contain a camera that the wearer could operate with a simple blink of the eye. According to Google, it would be possible to add an extremely thin camera without having to add to the thickness of the lens. The camera would naturally follow the wearer’s line of sight without obstructing his or her view. The lens could then analyze and detect faces, objects or colours.

 

The device could also be extremely helpful for blind people. The camera, for example, could identify whether it is safe to cross the street and then relay that information to a connected  smartphone that would read the message out loud.

 

In the end, these new lenses could do essentially the same thing as Google Glass, while being more subtle.

Source:

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/04/14/smart-contact-lens-with-built-in-micro-camera-patented-by-google/

 

Children who have undergone bone marrow transplantation have a higher risk of developing ocular complications and should receive special follow-up from eyecare professionals.

 

Researchers from Memphis recently presented a study on the topic to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Their study involved 63 girls and 85 boys who had an ophthalmic examination before bone marrow transplantation between 1995 and 2009.

 

At a mean follow-up of 3.8 years, 40 (27.5%) of the children developed cataracts and 4 (10%) required cataract surgery. The risk for cataract development increased with length of survival after transplantation. Patients who survived 15 years after surgery had a 42.88% risk of developing a cataract.

 

In addition, 38.5% of patients had developed dry eye syndrome.

 

“With medical advances, children requiring bone marrow transplant have increasing survival rates,” said first author Julie Calderwood. “It’s important for pediatric and general ophthalmologists to be aware that potential ocular complications can have a long-term impact.”

Source:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/823528