Tag: Essilor

Will New Adaptive Focus Glasses be a Game-Changer?

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Will disruptive new technology spell relief for sufferers of presbyopia? With new smart lens technology from DeepOptics, an Israeli start up, wearers adjust the focus of their lenses with a simple swipe of a finger.

While adaptive focus lenses have made a significant investments in the past in attempts to establish a credible market beachhead, adjustable focus glasses remain a curious niche segment and have never quite gained a serious market position.

New Tech and Big Backers Could Make the Difference
DeepOptics has refined the use of liquid crystal technology in adaptive lenses to come up with their 32°N sunglasses, a sleek solution ready for the commercial market.

Funding and support from Essilor and Samsung Ventures have given DeepOptics a strong foundation on which to produce the glasses at scale and increase the probability of marketing success.

Eye Care Business Canada recently spoke to CEO and co-founder Yariv Hadad about the development and funding process. Here’s  what’s next for DeepOptics.

The Shift Towards Smart Eyewear
Hadad already had several years of experience working in high-tech R&D companies before he founded DeepOptics in 2011.

While working as the Director of Imaging at Dblur Technologies, he met his future co-founders. When they started the company, their research began as an investigation into technology to improve focus for 3D TVs. However, once they found a tech solution for the glass display, they shifted efforts towards applying it to eyewear instead.

Currently, AR gaming is one of the key market drivers for smart glasses, but Hadad worked towards developing a product for people who need reading glasses.

DeepOptics’ first product, 32°N, uses pixelated Liquid Crystal technology to switch the focus of the lenses, allowing an unlimited number of optical lenses to materialize in the same frames.

Wearers can swipe the side of the glasses to switch between “reading mode” for close up focus, and “scenic mode” for long-distance focus. They can also personalize the settings of the glasses with an app, for a reading magnification that matches their needs.

DeepOptics’ Product Launch
DeepOptics’ 32°N sunglasses recently launched on Kickstarter on June 15. The product was fully backed in just a few hours, ultimately raising $314,852 from 1,204 backers.

Hadad plans on bringing the product to stores next year, with the first 32°N glasses commercially available in the US in the last quarter of 2022. However, he isn’t sure whether they will be available in Canada at the same time, or later.

There are already a few competitors in the space using Liquid Crystal technology for their lenses as well, but Hadad says DeepOptics has some key technological advantages that make their solution more flexible: “Our lens is built from pixels—millions of tiny elements that can be controlled to form all kinds of lenses. We can realize plus or minus lenses, or control the diameter and centre of the lens.

This advantage is even more significant when the technology is combined with an eye tracker and can position the lens dynamically in the direction of the user’s gaze. It gives us a wide range of possible solutions.”

The Next Steps for DeepOptics
While the launch of 32°N glasses is an exciting accomplishment, 32°N glasses are just the beginning for DeepOptics. Hadad says that the company plans to roll out prescription-based dynamic focal lenses, and then clear dynamic focal lens glasses.

After that, they plan on releasing an automatic version of the eyewear that wearers won’t have to adjust manually: “Unlike 32°N, focal change will not be manual, but rather automatic and continuous. The glasses will have an integrated sensor to constantly assess the distance of interest and accommodate the dynamic lens accordingly.“

DeepOptics also has plans for a private label. Hadad said the company is negotiating with eyewear companies about branded eyewear powered by DeepOptics technology: “We believe our core competence is technology and hope to collaborate with as many glasses companies to offer glasses from well-known brands with new powers.”

North American Plans?
When asked specifically about North America, Hadad confirmed, “We plan to make 32°N commercially available in the US in the last quarter of 2022. We still can’t say if it’ll be available in Canada at that same time, or later.”

The Future: Fully Integrated Eyewear
Speaking to Tech Times, Hadad says he anticipates that the future of smart eyewear will be glasses that integrate adaptive lenses, AR technology, and headphones.

While the smart glasses market is still an emerging one, the future for prescription glasses is bright: “Dynamics is not only about people aging; we need different correction in different illumination, conditions, when we’re tired. The missing piece is the technology that really allows you to do dynamic correction. So the opportunities are endless. It’s not only about presbyopia, it’s about applying different corrections to different conditions, to different people, to different situations.”

The technology potentially changes the mind-set on buying new glasses, as wearers can update their prescription on the same device. For now, consumers will have to wait until next year to see 32°N sunglasses hit the market. Canadians, maybe longer.

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Optical Companies Launch Initiatives to Support ECPs in COVID-19 Crisis

Practice, Products | Services | Industry News

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COVID-19 Support from Industry

Optical companies are unveiling new initiatives to help eye care practices deal the the difficulties of COVID-19.  Here is a recap of what some of the companies are doing:

Bausch + Lomb Canada
Bausch + Lomb Canada are providing free home delivery of Contact Lenses direct to patients.  This initiative will assist practice staff and patients in social distancing.  All B+L Territory Managers will be working from home until further notice but will remain available to assist ECPs including handling sample requests of PreserVision® and Bepreve®.
View the company’s COVID-19 Statement here.

ESSILOR Canada
Essilor Canada is providing a measure of financial relief by providing flexible case-by-case payment terms, immediate late fee suspension for all iECP customers, and pre-authorized payment suspension (lens purchase accounts only) for a period of 90 days.   Click here to view the Essilor’s statement.

Company initiatives to support ECPs during the COVID-19 difficulties will be updated on this page.

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Defining the New Four P’s: Passion, Principles, Process, and Partners

Human Resources, Marketing, Practice, Resources, Training & Onboarding

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Josée Falardeau jumped in and bought an independent practice one week after her graduation in 1992, and has been going full-steam ever since. She still finds time and energy to walk, run and cycle in the summer, and snowshoe, curl and ski in the winter. While the traditional four Ps of marketing are Price, Promotion, Product and Place, Dr. Falardeau shares her redefined four P’s for success in her two-location practice.


I’ve been practicing optometry since 1992 in Malartic, a little town in Quebec, in a practice I acquired one week after graduating from University de Montréal School of Optometry. At the time, the clinic had only two staff members. The previous owner retired immediately; we never worked together to hand over the practice. Fifteen years later, I acquired a larger two-OD clinic in Val-d’Or, a gold-mining and industrial city of about 30,000 in Northwestern Quebec. For nearly three years, I ran two different clinics in two different towns doing the job of three ODs.

Today, our team consists of four optometrists, an office supervisor, two receptionists, several dispensary assistants and a laboratory technician: over 20 in total.  While initially, the patient base reflected the age of the retiring optometrists, the practice now has a very diversified patient base, consisting still of the original older patients and now many younger families. We often see three generations of patients – a true “family-based” optometric practice.

Underline Passion with Principles and Process  

In a small, isolated city like ours, it may be easier to be close to your patients. It also means that word of mouth can make or break your practice reputation quickly! Our success is based upon three core principles: respect, honesty, and loyalty. We are totally committed to provide the best services and products for our patients based on their needs, but always anchored by our values.

Passion and principles, however, need to be grounded in an effective process to discover the patient’s needs and convert these into revenue opportunities. To do this, we ask all our patients to fill out a questionnaire, which helps us to assess their lifestyle and their visual needs. This questionnaire is a very important tool for us to begin and sustain our relationship with patients.

Our survey has been constantly fine-tuned over the years and evolved into specific questionnaires based upon age of the patients:  children, adults and seniors.  Since the patient’s activities may change over time and we need to be aware of these changes, the survey is taken on each visit. The patient questionnaire travels in each step of the customer journey, including into the examination room. The answers allow us to easily identify patients’ needs and fulfill these needs with the best available solutions that our key suppliers make available.


Partners in Practice

The eye care professional’s duty is to keep patients well informed about eye care diseases and about the various solutions, provided by our partners, that can help them to see better or be more comfortable.

Solutions like Crizal Prevencia®, Transitions®, and the Varilux® X series fit perfectly with this approach. We now commonly see visual fatigue for most people using digital devices and prescribe advanced single-vision design Eyezen™ lenses for these cases. In addition, we use Essilor’s Visioffice® for all measurements for all patients, to provide personalized lenses and a unique eye technology experience.

These advanced technologies provide added value by enhancing their lifestyle and vision. Our approach, backed up by products in which we have full confidence and know patients will love, builds loyalty, trust, and client satisfaction.

Our industry is constantly evolving, which makes keeping up with innovation and the latest technologies a critical success factor. We organize one to two-hour training and review sessions for optometrists and assistants every four to six weeks. Our key suppliers including Essilor and Opto-Reseau (our network group) are partners in this approach.  Training allows the team to be aligned in our values and goals, encourages their involvement in achieving our objectives, and most importantly provide the best possible solutions for our patients.

Participation in the Community

Reaching beyond the walls of the practice is also very important to me. We participate in fundraising with the Leucan Association for Children with Cancer, for the past three years sponsoring a Saturday afternoon children’s show at a local comedy festival that the children perform in. We donate 50 pairs of sunglasses to children under 12 participating in the show. We also maintain communication with our patients through our monthly newsletter, website, Facebook page, and patient recall postcard mailings. We advertise promotions on local radio, where I am also the talk show eye health expert.

We always stay true to our core principles and encourage the team to participate in the sales process. We leverage the resources and excellent technologies of our partners to provide patients the best services and advanced technology products with a satisfaction guarantee. When you believe in what you’re doing, it’s easy to share that passion with others.

 

JOSÉE FALARDEAU, OD,

Is the owner of Clinique Opto-Réseau Val-d’Or and Clinique Opto-Réseau Malartic. She can be reached at valdor@opto-reseau.com. At Opto-Réseau, our mission is to offer exemplary eye care and to provide the products that best suit the needs and the personality of each of our patients.

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