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Panel: Educating doctors, patients will help grow the contact lens market
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NEW YORK – “There are almost 120 million people in the U.S. who are eligible to wear contact lenses and do not,” Scot Morris, OD, said here at Vision Expo East.
“This could be 2,000 new contact lens patients in your practice per year,” he added. “Why are we just scratching the surface? What do we need to do differently?”
Morris posed these questions to a panel of contact lens industry representatives at the Global Contact Lens Forum.
“Education is the backbone of everything we do,” Ashley McEvoy, company group chairman of Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies and Vision Care Inc., said. “Having an educated, skilled doctor with a highly informed patient makes for great outcomes.”
She said students and faculty should be educated to make sure the next generation of doctors engage in the category.
“At Bausch + Lomb we try to focus on implementation,” Mark McKenna, vice president and general manager of vision care for Bausch + Lomb, said. “We spend a lot of money on how to change. Talking to doctors about features and benefits is important, but how do you implement it in practice?”
McKenna said those with irregular corneas make up a large underserved population.
“With the right level of investment, we can grow this market,” he said.
Robert Warner,
Alcon’s global franchise head of vision care, said patients drop out of contact lens wear due to comfort and optics.
“The concept of innovation has been overwhelming the last couple of years,” Jerry Warner, CooperVision North American president, said. “All of us are introducing new technology and we’re focusing on working with eye care providers on patient outcomes.
“The conversation at CooperVision centers on the opportunity in the practice right now,” he continued. “It’s not about going out and getting additional patients; it’s about converting the patients who are in your office into contact lens wear.”
Jim Kirchner, OD, president and CEO of SynergEyes, said a gap exists in communication with the practitioner and the patient.
“As a doctor in practice, we get a lot of product information that we should passing along to our patients, but we don’t do it as well as we should,” he said. “We have to help them understand what a contact lens can do for them. We put this on the back burner. We have to move this forward if we’re going to change this small percentage of total potential market.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO
Reference:
Morris S, et al. Global Contact Lens Forum: State of the Industry. Presented at: Vision Expo East. April 14-17; New York.
Disclosures: Kirchner is employed by SynergEyes. McEvoy is employed by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. McKenna is employed by Bausch + Lomb. Morris is a consultant, lecturer or conducts research for or has a financial interest in Alcon, Allergan, Bausch + Lomb and ComSquared Technologies. Jerry Warner is employed by CooperVision. Robert Warner is employed by Alcon.