For husband-and-wife team Jackson Yip and Shaina Zheng, mixing business with family life has been a juggle. Leaning into the advice provided by mentors has made the challenge of building an optometry practice a little bit easier.
Shaina and I met at the University of Melbourne. We studied together, graduated together in 2013, and have worked together for most of our professional careers. We were both working rurally before we started our Eyecare Plus practice at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast in 2017.
At our practice, I work Monday to Friday as the principal optometrist and Shaina (pictured here with me) consults one or two days a week. At the moment, this is working for us although it has its challenges of course. Shaina will probably tell you that the juggling of responsibilities between home and work is high on her challenge list.
THE VALUE OF MENTORS
We have been fortunate in our careers to have worked with many great and amazing optometrists with a wealth of experience. We have always tried to listen and learn as much as we can from them, whether it be clinical or professional pearls.
We didn’t exactly decide to engage a mentor as such, it was more about us reaching out to our peers, asking questions, and getting their advice and honest feedback.
But having said that, our various mentors have had a big influence in our decision making. Listening to them helped us decide on a path into independent optometry. They have pointed out areas where we could improve. They have been our sounding boards, listing the positives and negatives of some of our ideas.
We have a mentor now who we met as graduates. He has been so helpful to us in developing our interests in dry eye and specialty contact lenses.
And nowadays we can also lean on Eyecare Plus. They provide lots of support and we come together with other members to discuss ideas that help promote independent optometrists and the services we can offer.
FOCUSSING ON DRY EYE
We operate a full scope optometry practice – both of us have a keen interest in myopia control and orthokeratology, and we are equipped with axial length measurement to monitor progression and treatment efficacy. But over the past few years, we’ve really developed a dry eye focus.
Dry eye is largely seen as a minor inconvenience, but we have found that in a small group of people, living with dry eye is something that can reduce their quality of life.
A lot of what we have been doing is educating patients about their dry eye disease and helping them understand what options they have to help improve their condition. Word of mouth is powerful; patients that have had good outcomes are great reputation builders.
Talking with GPs and local optometrists about our dry eye treatments has also helped build our reputation in this area.
We have invested in dry eye technology with the sole purpose of doing everything we can to help patients get relief from their dry eyes.
We recently invested in Rexon-Eye. It’s a new technology, it’s non-invasive, and it’s a treatment for all forms of dry eye. It works by applying low-power high-frequency electric fields, capable of stimulating the metabolism and natural regeneration of cells within the meibomian and lacrimal glands.
The studies showed it helped improve lacrimal gland function and aqueous tear production. It’s been a game-changer and, for the most part, patients have been happy with the results.
We also have other dry eye treatments, like IPL (Intense Pulsed Light), Blephasteam and BlephEx, which we use to treat meibomian gland dysfunction and blepharitis.
Having more than one dry eye treatment helps us treat a larger range of patients. This allows us to offer a comprehensive suite of dry eye solutions for patients and tailor treatment plans that are most suitable for their signs and symptoms.
Dry eye management has given us great personal satisfaction – we know we can make a difference for patients so they can enjoy a better quality of life. It’s also given us the resolve to stay up to date with new technology and treatments. As an optometrist, it is very exciting seeing all the innovations in dry eye treatment and management.
Word of mouth is powerful; patients that have had good outcomes are great reputation builders
Jason Yip BOptom is the owner and principal optometrist at Eyecare Plus Mermaid Beach
