The forum has been cleaned. My apologies ahead of time to anyone I may have accidentally deleted. I deleted aged accounts and emails I suspect of being bots.

Thanks again,

Al

OAA link

ATO link

This is an important alert. You can read further details about this on the OAA link above and at the ATO website as well for further details. What’s happening is the following from the FDA. The FDA wants to make the one who edges in house the “manufacturer.

2007D-0364 – Impact-Resistant Lenses: Questions and (more…)

Wanted to wish everyone a healthy, safe and happy Thanksgiving.

The Opticians Association of America has recently launched a legislative action page. If you sign up for it, one can receive updates and alerts to laws that are being proposed and possibly passed. There is also a little script that helps you find your House representative. I feel this is a long time coming. I’m very happy that they did this. It should make mobilization a whole lot easier

I visit Optoblog on a regular basis. It’s pretty good. Anyway he wrote “Optometrists That Give Other Optometrists a Bad Name.” So in the spirit of being self-reflective, I came up with a list of my own.

1. Opticians who don’t (more…)

I figured I’d write a little something to help patients understand what is expected of them when they walk into an optical or eye-doctor. This may come as a surprise to some patients because they are after all paying for our services. I only bring this up because I have noticed a clear disconnect between many healthcare professionals and their patients. This is especially true in the eye-care related industries which have chains of stores that put forth a more retail setting. So, what do you as a patient need to do and more importantly why do you need to do it.

(more…)

I find the use of technology in this industry to be very spotty at best. For one thing, computer skills seem to be more and more necessary yet many of us resist using the computer. Many of us use some type of complicated equipment (more…)

Article

I’m sure many of you are probably getting questions about the rare eye disease in the news. The fungus is of the fusarium species. There are two types that seem to be common; fusarium oxysporum and fusarium solani. The infection itself is called fusarium keratitis. The article, and many like it make a connection to the Renu MoistureLoc solution which is a multi-purpose solution. What gets me upset about the article is that although statistically more people who have been infected by the disease use Renu, Renu is a hugely popular solution. Also, the article seems to ignore contact lens abuse issues. Who wants to venture a guess that it has more to do with non-compliance than the actual solution being used. This is not to say that there could be some connection between the B&L product and the disease, but CL abuse is prevalent. It’s unfortunate, but many patients will likely blame the solution (I guess they already are), the doctor all the way down to the person who sold the solution instead of taking responsibility for CL abuse.

I finally joined these organizations. I joined as an affiliate for OANJ and as an honored fellow for the OAA. The furthering of opticianry is important to me. I hope that the OAA tries to license some states in the future. I encourage all of you who have some spare cash and consider that the future isn’t something that should be taken for granted, join an organization. It’s something in the long run that can make a difference.