Opticianry summit participants proceed with roadmap

LAS VEGAS – Working groups formed at the May Opticianry Summit will advance projects in branding, health care and education, steward team members reported at a press conference here at Vision Expo West.

Team member Doug Pelkey said at the Vision Expo press conference that the steward team will be transformed into the Opticianry Summit Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization.

“We’ll be able to continue to move the project forward by doing this,” Pelkey said. The formation of the nonprofit organization will allow support from industry to be handled appropriately, he said.

Representatives from national organizations, state societies, certification bodies, independent retail, large retail, manufacturers and academia came together earlier this year to “create a strategic plan to ensure competent opticians and firmly establish the profession as eye wear and eye care experts and consultants,” according to the preliminary report.

“The committee has created a plan to provide for top performing opticians,” Ed DeGennaro, chair of the new foundation’s board of directors, said at the press conference. “We will conduct a study to determine how best to train those people.”

The branding team determined at the summit that opticians are not clearly understood by the public or themselves, DeGennaro said. “This team is going to look at creating a definition of opticians.”

The summit participants determined that opticianry needs to establish a place within health care reform.

“The branding team will be looking at creating an entry into third-party programs and providing for more opticianry businesses to be a part of them,” DeGennaro said.

The collaboration team will evaluate “various initiatives to understand what’s already been done so we don’t have to ask other team members to create them,” DeGennaro said. He referred to the Contact Lens Society of America training program, which “may be perfectly acceptable to us just as it is.”