The Contact Lens Institute hosted members of the eye care community from the United States, Canada, and beyond on March 3 to discuss a persistent question: how can practitioners encourage better contact lens compliance among patients?

The online learning event—Making Contact Lens Compliance Stick: EASY Insights, Tips & Tools—is now available for on demand viewing at https://youtu.be/uFKBtVNUKKE.

Contact Lens Institute Board Chairperson Bill Reindel, OD, MS, and Board Member Michele Andrews, OD, were joined by Drs. Chris Lievens, Southern College of Optometry; Mark Schaeffer, MyEyeDr; Bridgitte Shen Lee, Vision Optique; and Jason Tu, Invision Optometry for the one-hour webinar.

The conversation spanned a range of considerations that could lead to more ideal contact lens handling, including understanding patient-specific variables that can drive poor habits, proper hand hygiene instruction, and the selection of modalities and materials matched to individual lifestyles. Simplicity was also a common point raised by the panelists—a factor at the heart of the Contact Lens Institute’s EASY Way initiative.

The EASY Way (Eyes, Awareness, Safety and You) program was developed to help the eye care community promote healthy contact lens wear and care habits among patients in an informative, memorable, and straightforward way. It includes a set of simplified tips, attention-grabbing infographics, and companion digital resources for use in practices, all available at EASYWayProgram.org.

“National consumer research found the EASY Way’s three steps to healthy, comfortable contact lens wear easy to understand and easy to recall by patients,” said Dr. Reindel. “Our work to introduce the program to the eye care community is likewise proving effective.”

Click HERE for the full press release.

The Vision Council and RX, co-organizers of Vision Expo, share that, in accordance with New York State and New York City guidelines and the updated requirements of the Javits Center, proof of COVID-19 vaccination and face coverings will not be required to attend Vision Expo East, taking place Thursday, March 31 to Sunday, April 3, 2022, at the Javits Center in New York City. The announcement follows New York Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on Friday, March 4 regarding the suspension of the Key to NYC program and the Javits Center’s revised safety protocols.

“The health and safety of everyone in attendance at Vision Expo continues to be our priority,” said Fran Pennella, Vice President, Vision Expo, at RX. “In accordance with New York State and New York City guidelines, we are pleased to introduce revised protocols for Vision Expo East. We encourage our participants to be up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations and ask that anyone who is not up-to-date wear a face covering. We will continue to monitor the guidance of public health authorities and government agencies going forward to ensure we are creating an environment at Vision Expo East that is as safe as possible.”

“As we look forward to Vision Expo East’s return to New York City, we are excited to return to a degree of normalcy in terms of how we gather,” said Mitch Barkley, Vice President of Trade Shows and Events at The Vision Council, co-organizer of Vision Expo.  “As always, we are committed to creating an environment that is comfortable, safe and conducive to conducting business, networking and learning, and we are thrilled to bring the community together in New York in just a few weeks.”

To view the VisionSAFE guidelines and resources, click here.

For more information on Vision Expo, visit  visionexpo.com and follow Vision Expo’s social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.   

Click HERE for the full press release.

IRIS, The Visual Group announced the partnership of Dr. Adam Reid, Optometrist and Tammy Baker Optician Manager in IRIS’ Parksville, BC location on Vancouver Island.

Under the previous IRIS partner, the late Dr. Gerald Trees, the Parksville  IRIS location has been a longstanding success for over 20 years.

Dr. Adam Reid, originally from Bowden, Alberta is a Pacific University School of Optometry graduate, and has been practicing Optometry at IRIS for 8.5 years.  He is married with 2 young daughters and spends is downtime playing hockey and looking after animals on his hobby farm.

Tammy Baker, originally from Clearwater, BC graduated from the NAIT optician program in 1996 with a dual license. She joined IRIS 29 years ago and transferred from the lower mainland to Vancouver Island in 2007. Tammy has been managing the Parksville location since December 2014.

Both Reid and Baker own shares along with IRIS in a BC registered corporation that holds the assets of the Parksville location and operates as IRIS Optometrists Opticians. 

In the IRIS partnership model each location is a separate legal entity and the shareholders only participate in dividends from that specific location.

They look forward to continuing to service their community as both professionals and local business owners.

The Vision Council and RX, organizers of Vision Expo, announce the finalists for the Fourth Annual OPTImum Retail Award, which celebrates independent boutique retailers by showcasing their products, stores, visions, and stories to the optical industry. 

The 2022 finalists are:

• Black Optical (Dallas, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; St. Louis, MO)
• Eyes on Sheppard (North York, Ontario)
• Ocean Optometry (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
• OPTYX New York (New York, NY)

To determine the final winner, the vision care community can vote for their favorite here. Voting is open from March 1 to March 14. Social media votes will then be factored into the judges’ scores.

The OPTImum Retail Award winner will be announced at Vision Expo East 2022 on Friday, April 1 at 5:45pm at The Bridge, following the EYE2EYE Series panel, Onward with Independence.

To determine the finalists, a committee of top industry leaders deliberated and voted based on the categories of pivoting post-pandemic, community and aesthetics.

For more information on Vision Expo, visit  visionexpo.com and follow Vision Expo’s social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.   

Click HERE for the full press release.