A Forward Focus
With cutting-edge tools and a growing array of lens options, eyecare professionals are better equipped than ever to provide personalized, effective solutions—especially in the contact lens space.
Eyecare Business connected with Mile Brujic, OD, FAAO, of Premier Vision Group in Bowling Green, OH, to gain insight into the top five trends he sees shaping the contact lens landscape.
→ Advanced Diagnostic Technology
The evolution of tools like optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans are transforming how ECPs diagnose and treat patients.
“Now these OCT technologies actually have the ability to metricize and take topography readings on the front [and back] of the cornea, and it also allows deviation from best-fit sphere,” explains Dr. Brujic. “Where it used to take multiple instruments and measurements to do this, you now have it all in one scan.”
→ Options for Astigmatism
“We now have two-week, monthly, and daily disposable options [for astigmatism] across the spectrum, and if [patients] require some type of specialty design, we can do it with specialty soft, gas permeable, scleral, and hybrid lenses,” says Dr. Brujic. “Our astigmatism patients are finally at a point where they have as many options as the non-astigmatism patient does with multifocal lenses.”
→ Tailored Solutions
The contact lens market has been muddled by cheaper, unregulated, sometimes illegal options, but ECPs are continuing to assert their status as expert providers. “The contact lens wearer [is] seeking out excellence, and we can be that conduit,” says Dr. Brujic.
“It’s incumbent for us [as ECPs] to be cognizant of a lot of these details, because we are now returning to expert status in our ability to really fine-tune the recommendations that we’re providing to patients based on specific needs.”
→ Sustainability in Focus
Consumer demand for environmentally friendly solutions is driving innovation in contact lens recycling programs.
Dr. Brujic makes a point to explain Bausch + Lomb’s recycling program, which allows patients to put contact lens waste in a zip-close bag and deposit it into a special recycling bin at his practice that goes to TerraCycle, a company that makes products from plastic. “People, like clockwork, bring their Ziploc bag of daily disposable lenses every year. People love the program,” says Dr. Brujic. “When patients are involved with [the recycling program], it actually strengthens the bond between us and that patient.”
→ An Eye on AI
The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the contact lens market is immense—and currently gaining footing in other areas of eye care.
“In order for AI to truly succeed in the contact lens space, we have to get better at measuring the surface of the eye [so we can] have good data to feed the AI systems. Once that happens in a more reliable way, it truly will change the way that we care for patients.”
