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Optometrists Feel Threatened By Technology, So Guess What Do They Do
Forbes ^ | June 13, 2017 | George Leef

Posted on 06/13/2017 10:07:49 AM PDT by reaganaut1

One of the many holes in the “social contract” theory of government is that the power of the state is so often harnessed by interest groups to protect themselves against competition. Nobody ever agreed to that, but it happens all the time, inflicting losses on the consuming public.

A recent instance of this is the aggressive lobbying campaign being waged by the American Optometric Association (AOA) against innovations that now make it possible for Americans to get accurate eye exams and lens prescriptions over the Internet. By using such innovations, millions of Americans who need vision correction could save substantial amounts of money. But savings for them means less revenue for optometrists and they are trying to stop that by asking politicians for salvation.

As far as the AOA (with 37,000 members nationwide) is concerned, the villain is new technology that gives consumers less costly alternatives than the old-fashioned office visit. One of those alternatives is called Opternative. It gives consumers an eye exam that takes 25 minutes through a smartphone app. No need to drive, park, and wait. The eye analysis through the phone has been proven to be just as accurate as those done in professional offices.

Naturally, the AOA sees phone apps for eye prescriptions the same way the Luddite hand-weavers saw the development of power looms – they must be shut down.

Lawyer Bruce Fein excoriates the AOA for its efforts at preventing this competition. In his May 8 Washington Times article, he writes, “Their current well-financed efforts to strangle internet competition in contact lenses and eyeglasses are indistinguishable from standing athwart economic history yelling ‘Stop.’”

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: ecommerce; haley; optometrists; retail; smartphones; vision; visionexams
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To: reaganaut1
http://www.visiondirect.co.uk/

I've been using them since I discovered all the Nigerian email scammers have graduated to the optometry profession.

41 posted on 06/13/2017 11:51:07 AM PDT by SanchoP (Any compromise with evil is still evil.)
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To: reaganaut1

I am an optometrist and I feel no threat whatsoever from this technology because:
1. It can’t assure good physical eye health, which is the most important thing I provide to my patients
2. It is just another way to gather data. I use data from several sources to arrive on a final Rx, which seldom matches any one data source exactly. It is both art and science!
3. This is a classic case of caveat emptor. Most will be back.
4. Ditto for online eye wear dispensers, except perhaps for very basic lens designs.


42 posted on 06/13/2017 11:55:14 AM PDT by ET2020
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To: Drango

Wearing a pair of Zenni glasses as I type..
Zenni was recommended by an ophthalmologist friend, after 0bamacare ate my glasses benefit.

He did suggest going with single vision, less chance of problems.
so that is what I did.

No problems.


43 posted on 06/13/2017 12:14:07 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (GO TRUMP!)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

I dunno, these online eye tests could be transmitting damaging subliminal messages to already overly-receptive millennial brains …

44 posted on 06/13/2017 12:16:18 PM PDT by mikrofon (BTTT)
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To: Drango
I ordered a pair of the Beyond UV lenses as progressives with my most recent prescription from the local Costco hsoted shop. Ordered June 2nd. Status: Manufactured. Waiting on delivery. $128. Competitive with the other 3 pairs ordered from Costco optical. The others from Costco were Transitions 2 (daily use), clear readers, and DriveGear (polarized with wider range than Transitions2). The Beyond UV pair is explicitly for use at my desk to block the blue light off my monitor. I work until late into the evening, so blocking blue light preserves the melatonin disturbance. I tested the usefulness of that concept with blue blocker clip-ons. Big reduction in eye strain at the expense of extra weight.
45 posted on 06/13/2017 12:21:43 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: null and void

How much money per eye?


46 posted on 06/13/2017 12:24:32 PM PDT by TheNext (SLOW FUND Wall = Trump 2020 Trump Jr 2024 Eric 2032)
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To: truth_seeker
No it is not the same brand, but I think it is the same quality.

Likely made by exactly the same folk.

47 posted on 06/13/2017 12:25:18 PM PDT by zeugma (The Brownshirts have taken over American Universities.)
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To: napscoordinator

There is a big difference between .....

Ophthalmologist vs Optometrist

One of the most common mistakes many patients make is to consider an optometrist and ophthalmologist as the same position, however there is a huge difference between the two.

Optometrists are usually the primary health provider for normal vision problems and yearly checkups. The position requires a Doctor of Optometry degree and a license, and allows the diagnosing for common vision acuity problems like farsightedness and nearsightedness, prescribing corrective eyeglasses, contact lenses, dispensing and prescription of certain medication, plus testing for eye diseases and conditions. Optometrists can handle all this, usually in their own office or for a firm.

Ophthalmologists can perform the same functions as optometrists, but are considered a higher position as they actually are medical doctors with Doctors of Medicine or Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine degrees who specialize in the eyes and vision care.

This means an ophthalmologist can diagnose and treat highly complicated eyes issues, can perform surgeries like Lasik and repair retinal damage, and can handle more area specific cases in vision care. The main difference between the two eye-related careers is that an ophthalmologist can handle surgeries and other issues that require more training on the medical side....

...and then there are opticians, those that most of us see to get a gross eye exam, determine corrective lens needed, take frame measurements, etc. Required education level for opticians is.... HS diploma.

Hardly ever find an opthomologist at a Lenscrafters or such.


48 posted on 06/13/2017 12:27:51 PM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: George from New England

I’m on medicare. That paid for basic and most of the other bills and I believe it was about 2 grand for the 2 lens. May have been a little more or less but that sounds about in the ballpark. My lens are by Alcon, AcrySol ReStor.
Really happy with the outcome.


49 posted on 06/13/2017 12:34:27 PM PDT by LauraJean (sometimes I win sometimes I donate to the equine benevolent society)
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To: Covenantor

“And then there are opticians, those that most of us see to get a gross eye exam, determine corrective lens needed,”

Opticians can’t do those things in my state, doubtful in others.


50 posted on 06/13/2017 12:37:58 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: ET2020

LAZY EYE PRESCRIPTION

Can an Optometrist modify a glasses prescription slightly so that the eyes must work a little to maintain perfect sight?

Instead of the perceived lazy eyes, perfect perscription that may degrade sight quicker over time?


51 posted on 06/13/2017 12:39:02 PM PDT by TheNext (SLOW FUND Wall = Trump 2020 Trump Jr 2024 Eric 2032)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

It’s not the cost and time of an office visit that bothers me so much, it’s the hassle and cost of frames and lenses.

And I hear there is one big conglomerate that basically has a monopoly on those. I forget the name.

But I could see an app as a screening tool. The more info you get, the better.


52 posted on 06/13/2017 12:47:30 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: steve86

You are right... I posted too quickly without a full read of the preview., meant to say they took facial measurements, eye distances and simple tech stuff.


53 posted on 06/13/2017 12:51:38 PM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: cymbeline

Not all Optometrist are board certified. A lot of variability out there.

I know of a 13yo who was seeing the Optom for years at some glasses chain store. He saw an Ophthalmologist who discovered the little guy had end stage glaucoma!


54 posted on 06/13/2017 1:08:43 PM PDT by lizma2
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To: zeugma

“Likely made by exactly the same folk. “

Brand is “Serafina” which looks to be a major supplier to many different brand names, like Banana Republic, etc.


55 posted on 06/13/2017 1:19:33 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: Myrddin
“I work until late into the evening, so blocking blue light preserves the melatonin disturbance.”

First I've heard of that. Manipulating the endocrine system with visual filtering. A finer spin on using full-wavelength daylight for SAD. And they used to talk about painting walls with various colors for different emotional effects.

I was having severe problems with daytime somnolence and intense light helped some but not enough. Solved the problem with modafinil.

56 posted on 06/13/2017 1:42:45 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: upchuck

My frames - which I love - are from Walmart and cost $9.00.


57 posted on 06/13/2017 1:59:35 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("Negative people make healthy people sick." - Roger Ailes)
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To: reaganaut1

Oh-—this cartel system has been going on since 1920s in America...

“In 1924, Osram, Philips, General Electric, and other major electric companies met and formed the Phoebus Cartel under the public guise that they were cooperating to standardize light bulbs. Instead, they purportedly began to engage in planned obsolescence. To achieve this the companies agreed to limit the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours — less than Edison’s bulbs had achieved (1,200 hours) decades before; any company that produced a bulb exceeding 1,000 hours in life would be fined.

Until disbanding during World War II, the cartel supposedly halted research, preventing the advancement of the longer-lasting light bulb for nearly twenty years. “ (BTW, Shelby’s bulb has lasted over 113 years-—think of all the pollution, etc., caused by light bulb manufacturing and the waste of resources making lightbulbs that don’t last and have mercury in them.)

Actually they have controlled “research” forever, and since they had total control over “information” and “science” they could control the Narrative—like they do now where Vice is Virtue, boys can be girls and Up is Down.

Until the internet, we never EVER received the truth from the elites-—when politicians exposed “truth” like McCarthy, or slapped down like Gen. Patton, they would be destroyed or killed. Truth has been banned for 100 years at least in America.

Truth will set us free-—we must force the politicians to give us the truth—which we have NEVER gotten since before WWI..

https://priceonomics.com/the-mysterious-case-of-the-113-year-old-light-bulb/


58 posted on 06/13/2017 2:21:32 PM PDT by savagesusie (When Law ceases to be Just, it ceases to be Law. (Thomas A./Founders/John Marshall)/Nuremberg)
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To: reaganaut1

I have ordered glasses from several online retailers. Haven’t tried the “exam app” yet.


59 posted on 06/13/2017 2:34:46 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
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To: LauraJean

I was quoted by an eye surgeon, 2k per eye. Did you get them at 1k each ?


60 posted on 06/13/2017 2:47:29 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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