Regardless of where you practice or if (and how) you specialise within a practice, it’s most likely that your priority has always been to achieve the very best possible eye care for your patients.
It’s something we hear every day from eye care professionals we talk to, right across the spectrum of the optometric profession. Another message we receive loud and clear is that you can’t do it alone – so it’s absolutely essential for the professions and industry to work together for the good of the patient… Eye care professionals tell us time and time again, patient care has nothing to do with politics, or about protecting the professional patch; it’s about protecting the needs of our patients.
And so in this issue we’re thrilled to see RANZCO return to mivision with what will be a regular column written by CEO Dr. David Andrews. As you’d expect, Dr. Andrew’s first column touches on the current issues being debated surrounding glaucoma management, but like every other member of the optical profession I referred to above, he stresses the importance of working together for the good of the patient.
Dry eye is another area within eye care that requires a concerted and collaborative effort from the eye care profession – particularly for those patients who suffer from chronic dry eye. With spring just around the corner, bringing with it warm winds and airborne pollens, we talk to optometrists and ophthalmologists about how the debilitating symptoms of dry eye can be better managed. Considering there are approximately four million people in Australia alone who live with the disease – and 20 per cent of those live with chronic dry eye – it’s surprising, and disappointing that to date there hasn’t been a greater focus on finding a cure, or at least a sustainable and effective treatment.
This issue our education article focuses on the challenge of fitting multifocal contact lenses for an ageing population. Professor Alex Vogt from Bausch + Lomb writes in depth on this topic. Her advice is insightful. Both dry eye and the challenge of fitting multifocal lenses for an ageing population present dynamic practice building opportunities for independent optometrists.
In this issue of mivision we’ve highlighted other opportunities to build your practice business as well – with articles on patient communication and financial investment. But our big focus for this issue is a special feature on online portals for frame and lens ordering. Business-to-Business websites and portals are increasingly being introduced by frame and lens distributors to provide 24/7 access to stock ordering. We explore the facilities out there already and the opportunities they present by enabling you to offer far greater choice for your patients, to take advantage of promotions and to save time and money on order processing and handling. As consumers we’ve witnessed and experienced the rapid rise of online retail, now we’re seeing it in the wholesale side of the business. It’s the way of the future – you can look at it with negativity, or embrace the new opportunities it presents for practice growth and increasing customer satisfaction.
Enjoy this issue of mivision.
Mark Cushway
Editor
