Blog - Page 351 of 871

February 22, 2022February 21, 2022

Lensbox Launches EyeDocs™ in USA and Canada

Lensbox, an optometry-led and funded eye healthcare technology company, that digitalizes the practice of eyecare beyond clinic walls, announces the launch of 480+ Lensbox EyeDocs™. The bricks and clicks technology is fully automated and first-to-market patient experience centers, that seamlessly integrate with the Lensbox first-to-market app, tying in tele-optometry, e-commerce, and point-of-sale technology for eyewear retail.

Lensbox EyeDocs™ apps, web-based platform, and point-of-sale technology are all integrated in a first-to-market, proprietary suite of products, designed, owned, and funded by independent doctors of optometry. Lensbox takes care of all the backend logistics, marketing, compliance, and operations, while offering remote tele-optometry and memorable patient experiences.

“EyeDocs is taking a traditional brick and mortar optometry practice and bringing it to the digital age, allowing ECPs to flourish and compete with the online world,” says Dr. Sunil Parekh, Optometrist and Lensbox Investor.

Validated by government grants, private foundations, and schools of optometry, the Lensbox EyeDocs™ Initiative serves to grow the entire eye care market, by catalyzing tele-optometry and eye care e-commerce services, in family medicine practices, pharmacies, university campuses and remote, marginalized communities by end of Q2.

Click HERE for the full press release.

February 18, 2022February 18, 2022

OPTOPLUS Banner to Donate Nearly $60,000 to Local Community Organizations

Clinics from the OPTOPLUS banner announce they have donated nearly $60,000 to various local community organizations as part of their Show a Little More Love to Our Neighbourhood campaign.

Driven by the desire to contribute to the common good of their community, OPTOPLUS clinics across Quebec chose organizations close to their hearts to donate the funds raised during the holiday season. In collaboration with lens supplier partners Essilor, Hoya, Riverside and Zeiss, $20 from each pair of complete eyeglasses sold from November 15 to December 24, 2021, was donated.

“OPTOPLUS clinic owners are happy to contribute to their community. In the current context where every gesture counts, it was even more important for them to make a difference by giving to those in need. We are so proud of the results of our first campaign”, Eveline Bourdua, OPTOPLUS Account Manager.

The following organizations will benefit from these donations: Children Now, Camp de Santé de Saint-Hyacinthe, Centre d’action bénévole des Sources, Breakfast Club of Canada, Club St-Luc, Comptoir alimentaire Drummond, Épicerie Communautaire Solidaire La Maisonnée, Les Amis de Simon, l’Étoile, centre de la pédiatrie sociale, Maison le Far, Fondation de l’Hôpital Marie-Clarac, Fondation du Centre jeunesse de Laval, Fondation Élan, Fondation Nathalie Champigny, le Garage à Musique de la Fondation du Dr Julien, Le Halo, Jardins du méandre, Lu-Nid Maison de la Famille, Maison de la Famille Vallée-de-la-Lièvre, La Maison d’Hélène, Moisson d’Alma, Moisson Estrie and Moisson Outaouais.

Click HERE for the full press release.

February 17, 2022February 17, 2022

One Million Bottle Challenge by OKIA: Over 3.8 Million Plastic Bottles Turned Into Eyeglasses

OKIA’s commitment to a better world has reached a new milestone. With the RESHAPE project, the Hong Kong-based company launched the “One Million Bottle Challenge” in 2019 with the aim of recycling 1 million PET plastic bottles into frames. By the end of 2021, the result was almost quadrupled with over 3.8 million plastic bottles.

“We are so excited to announce that we have not only achieved our target, but also exceeded it. With the continuous support of our customers, our collective effort has enabled us to upcycle over 3.8 million plastic bottles into eyeglasses and related accessories by 2021,” says Jacky Lam, Managing Director at OKIA.

Instead of being piled up into landfill or discarded into the environment to waste away over hundreds of years, these bottles were turned into gorgeous eyeglasses and related accessories.

OKIA’s commitment has been recognised internationally by the numerous certifications it has received, the latest of which was the Special Recognition for Outstanding Sustainability Initiative (Environmental Dimension) of the Hong Kong Sustainability Award 2020/21 organised by The Hong Kong Management Association.

Click HERE for the full press release.

February 17, 2022February 17, 2022

Clearly to Add New Brick & Mortar Stores

Clearly, the primarily online eyewear retailer under the Essilor-Luxottica umbrella, is expanding its physical store count from 4 stores to up to 15 in the next two years, according to news reports by the Retail Council of Canada.

New stores are opening in Ottawa, Edmonton and Mississauga in marquee shopping plazas. Ottawa’s opening was delayed due to the “trucker” protest in downtown Ottawa. The Edmonton and Mississauga locations should open by mid-March.

Cleary CEO, Arnaud Bussieres, notes that the expansion plans will give the retailer a presence in all of the major Canadian markets, except Quebec, which is on the company’s radar screen.

The revelation comes in the wake of a significant amount of market activity with new entrants, including Specsavers plans to roll out 200 locations by 2024.

Bussieres laments the lack of consumer awareness about the Clearly brand. He points to the company’s wide range that offers everything in terms of services and product at every single price point starting a $9 per pair of glasses as one point of differentiation.

He also mentions that the company is Canadian and headquartered in Vancouver and have decided to stay here to create employment for Canada and to double down on their Canadian roots.

Source: Retail Insider

First Successful Implantation of Revolutionary Wireless Visual Prosthesis Brain Implant

The Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP), an implant that bypasses the retina and optic nerves to connect directly to the brain’s visual cortex, has been successfully surgically implanted in the ICVP study’s first participant at Rush University Medical Center this week. This surgery is part of a Phase I Feasibility Study of an Intracortical Visual Prosthesis for People with Blindness.

The ICVP system was developed by a multi-institution team led by Philip R. Troyk—executive director of the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology, professor of biomedical engineering—and represents the culmination of nearly three decades of Illinois Tech research dedicated to ultimately providing artificial sight to those with blindness due to eye disease or trauma.

*Image: rendering of the Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP) wireless implantable stimulator model alongside a penny for scale.*

The Intracortical Visual Prosthesis System is the first intracortical visual implant to use a group of fully implanted miniaturized wireless stimulators to explore whether individuals with blindness can utilize the artificial vision provided by this approach.

This visual prosthesis system allows devices to be permanently implanted, which is a unique advantage that provides researchers ample time to explore how the device can effectively work, and for the recipient to learn how the device can be useful.

During the preclinical phase, the Illinois Tech team worked with Rush University Medical Center neurosurgeons to develop and refine surgical procedures, culminating in this week’s successful implantation of 25 stimulators with a total of 400 electrodes in an individual with blindness. The clinical phase is aimed at testing whether this prosthesis will provide study participants with an improved ability to navigate and perform basic, visually guided tasks. Testing will commence at The Chicago Lighthouse after a 4-6-week recovery period.

“This is an incredibly exciting moment, not just for the field of biomedical engineering, but more importantly for people with blindness and their loved ones around the world,” says Troyk.

Since many individuals affected by total blindness do not have intact retina or optic nerves but retain the visual cortex—the area of the brain that allows people to see—an intracortical visual prosthesis may be the only possible advanced visual sensory aid from which they can benefit.

While the brain works as a powerful processing system and receives millions of nerve signals from the eyes, if the eyes are no longer able to communicate with the brain, Troyk says that researchers can “intervene by bypassing the eye and optic nerve and going directly to the area of the brain called the visual cortex.”

“This operation represents a critical step in the decades of research by our whole ICVP team in our efforts to bring sight to blind patients,” says Dr Richard Byrne, the neurosurgeon at Rush University Medical Center who performed the surgery.

Illinois Tech is collaborating with Rush University Medical Center, The Chicago Lighthouse; the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins; the University of Texas at Dallas; Microprobes for Life Science; Sigenics, Inc.; and The University of Chicago on the initiative, with Troyk serving as the principal investigator.

Click HERE for the full press release.