How to Capture the Presbyopic Opportunity in Your Practice

[AdminWolf]

How to Capture the Presbyopic Opportunity in Your Practice


By 2020, there will be approximately 126 million people with emerging or established presbyopia in the United States!

In this webinar, Pamela Lowe, OD, FAAO (past president of the Illinois Optometric Association) we discuss how to best service this exploding population, which can represent an important growth opportunity for your practice.

We talk about:
* How to best raise patient awareness of presbyopia, and present their correction options
* How to identify good candidates for multifocal contact lenses
* How to get your staff to actively engage with presbyopic patients and help educate them

We also discuss "The Alcon Multifocal 3:2:1 Advantage", and the materials, replacement schedules, and designs of their current multifocal lines.


About the Speaker

Pamela Lowe, OD, FAAO is the owner of Professional Eye Care Center, in Niles, IL., which provides complete vision care for patients of all ages, including treatment of eye disease, laser vision correction care, and is a center of excellence for AMD prevention.

She is the 2012 recipient of Alumnus of the Year Award from Illinois College of Optometry, and is a
highly sought-after speaker at optometric conferences across the country.

She is the Past-Chair of the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation State Board of Optometry, and the Past-President of the Illinois Optometric Association.

 

[Steve Silberberg]

Adam gave me a heads up that ODwire.org is offering a webinar this Tuesday evening. It is short notice for a topic that should be of interest if you feel contact lens care remains an important part of you practice.

The one hour presentation covers:


* How to best raise patient awareness of presbyopia, and present their correction options
* How to identify good candidates for multifocal contact lenses
* How to get your staff to actively engage with presbyopic patients and help educate them

Are you a mono vision enthusiast? I helped introduced mono-vision in the 1970's when my contact lens wearing spouse needed help close up. Mono vision worked for her and it was easy to accomplish. iMonovision worked so well that she is still using mono vision after cataract surgery for both eyes.

That since the 1970's. It is now 2019 and we finally have the technology to move the large presbyopic contact lens population into multifocal contact lenses. Alcon feels so strongly about the need to satisfy this market that they are sponsoring 3 webinars on ODwire.org on multifocal topics.

This first one is on marketing. Adam is hosting and leaving enough time for questions. Please attend and ask the tough questions which is encouraged on ODwire.org.

For more information...
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7489408517538861325

or

[REGISTER HERE]

Absolutely Paul....................MF contacts and even MF Torics have come of age. Yes you have to manage patient expectations but they are hugely profitable, prevent dropouts etc. As the doctor ages his population of patients also age. If you don't satisfy their needs with the latest technologies you will f;]lounder!

 

[AdminWolf]

Absolutely Paul....................MF contacts and even MF Torics have come of age. Yes you have to manage patient expectations but they are hugely profitable, prevent dropouts etc. As the doctor ages his population of patients also age. If you don't satisfy their needs with the latest technologies you will f;]lounder!

About 15% of docs are fitting 85%+ of all MF prescriptions, and that to me is pure liquid insanity. This webinar is the first of 3, kicking off with the demographics and scope of the opportunity, and talking about how to approach patients who - frankly - may not want to hear about their impending old age! :-o

Should be a fun one. We'll also talk a little CEwire at the end of it, I'll run through the lectures that we've got lined up already etc...

thanks
ad

 

[Paul Farkas]

About 15% of docs are fitting 85%+ of all MF prescriptions, and that to me is pure liquid insanity.

I would like to learn from the 85% not fitting multifocal their reason for avoiding this growing market that mail order avoids.

 

[Paul Farkas]

About 15% of docs are fitting 85%+ of all MF prescriptions,

A question for the 15% who fit 85% of the multifocal lenses.

Do you aggressively market or wait for the patient complain about near vision problems?

 

[Steve Silberberg]

Paul: My question to answer yours would be to the practitioner who sees a 47 wearing SV contacts. As part of your history wouldn't you ask is reading now a problem?? That is not aggressive but just normal history. How many Presbyopes who don't wear contacts DO NOT complain about near vision at some point in time??

So my answer is aggression is not needed just minimal care

 

[AdminWolf]

A question for the 15% who fit 85% of the multifocal lenses.

Do you aggressively market or wait for the patient complain about near vision problems?

The better question is what if you're NOT one of those 15% -- what the heck is happening to your existing CL patients?!

Just letting them age out of lenses altogether? monovision? pushing them to another OD?

 

[Steve Silberberg]

The better question is what if you're NOT one of those 15% -- what the heck is happening to your existing CL patients?!

Just letting them age out of lenses altogether? monovision? pushing them to another OD?

The easy way Adam....."Go buy a pair of +1.00s etc"

 

[AdminWolf]

The easy way Adam....."Go buy a pair of +1.00s etc"

I'm not the most vain person in the world, but as a life-long CL wearer if my OD did that instead of giving me the choice of MF lenses, he wouldn't be my OD much longer....

 

[Steve Silberberg]

Some people don't know and if it's not brought up well..Or a one-sentence "Oh those lenses suck"

 

[AdminWolf]

Some people don't know and if it's not brought up well..Or a one-sentence "Oh those lenses suck"

That's the shame of it -- in the old days, i'm certain the lenses were a challenge for people (Paul would complain about them endelssly, it is a running gag...)

And I went through a few brands myself as an emerging presbyope. But once I found a design that worked, it was a slam dunk. You'd have to pry these things from my cold, dead hands before I gave them up. (DT1MF in my case)

So that's what these webinars are about -- identifying the scope of the opportunity, presenting all options to the patient, and finally getting the fit right.

I'll say again i'm surprised how low the % of ODs that fit these lenses are.

 

[William R. Hall]

I'll say again i'm surprised how low the % of ODs that fit these lenses are.

I'll fit MF, no prob, but my low utilization is not my fault, it's the patients' resistance to the price. Demographic/economy driven on their part.

 

[Paul Farkas]

I'll fit MF, no prob, but my low utilization is not my fault, it's the patients' resistance to the price. Demographic/economy driven on their part.

Hard to understand. Patients pay for a multifocal eyeglass lens.

 

[William R. Hall]

Hard to understand. Patients pay for a multifocal eyeglass lens.

Only the messenger Paul. Contact lenses wearers have a choice. Readers, monovision, MF, priced accordingly. Eyeglass wearers may have only two choices, look under/over glasses if myopia is right or bifocal/progressives. VCP may drive their decision.

 

[Steve Silberberg]

Great webinar..certainly should peek the interest of recalcitrant docs

 

[AdminWolf]

Dr. Lowe's webinar archive is now available to watch, it is located in the first post of this thread.
(Long time coming, I know!)

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the show, it was fun!!

 

[Robert Fleischer]

repeat

 

[Lloyd Pate]

The better question is what if you're NOT one of those 15% -- what the heck is happening to your existing CL patients?!

Just letting them age out of lenses altogether? monovision? pushing them to another OD?

Tell them to don't get presbyopic.

 

[Mike Ware OD]

Hard to understand. Patients pay for a multifocal eyeglass lens.

I can only speak for my experience but contact lens wearers are generally among the biggest cheapskates I encounter which is why they often don't have a backup pair of glasses and buy one six pack of lenses every year. Many are repelled by the thought of spending more money on contact lenses and opt to go the cheaper route and use the readers instead.