EaseVision.com – News and gossips of vision care and optical industry

There is news about the things going on at Lenscrafters, a giant in the optical industry. The most attractive to the public may probably be the very last sentence in the internal communication about the security. One point is sure that if an employee is forced to take that step, it is really crappy. There are some important factors associated with the internal communication. Out of respect, the principle will communicate first with associates who are part of the reduction and restructure. After that, both those associates’ immediate supervisors and nearby team members will be informed of such changes. This will help them make further work transitions, which are mostly needed. Then broader communication will be made. One aspect involves the whole company and another one is between each department. All departments should communicate with each other about specific changes to their area regarding people, processes and transition plans.

A key point of the internal communication about reduction and restructure which involve associates is to protect privacy. The best practice is not to publish the names of impacted associates. In addition, the information of changes should be prevented from being gained by social media sites. Lenscrafters maintains a secure system which supports the manager team to share information about impacted associates in a respectful, appropriate and timely manner. All communication is made on a need to know basis. The two sides need to be well balanced that one is the desire to protect the privacy of those impacted associates and the other is to share necessary information for work transition.

Lenscrafters has eliminated many open positions as part of its strategy, which aims to reduce as many positions as possible while minimizing impact on current associates. And some associates being reassigned will be filling open positions which have been decided to remain untouched. By February 5^th, all updated open positions will be published. Lenscrafters also gets help from a representative from Anthem’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Recently, Essilor issued a new action, which has been probably testified by the Vision Source meeting last week. In brief, Essilor has much probably taken a 51% stake of the Vision Source, gaining a controlling status. This can simply be considered as a buying movement or acquisition. For most of the reporters in the optical field, it is just a logical step taken by Essilor, who has long aimed to become the largest monopoly in the optical community. Currently, Essilor is maintaining the largest lab network in the world. Earlier before, Essilor bought FGX and gained direct access to consumer chain for reading glasses and sunglasses. In addition, even the largest online glass website Framesdirect.com has close partnership with Essilor. Some people guess that the final purpose of Essilor is to buy the website. Over the years, products from Essilor have been considered pricey. All these movements thus are believed by some customers to build Essilor as the only leader in the optical industry.

Except for the fact that Essilor has never cracked down on grey lab sales, this group continues to cover all fields of the optical mafia by controlling Vision Source. Essilor is buying up everyone that has been considered as any barrier to its continued growth. It has also been reported that Essilor had an attempt to buy independent labs and then shut them down, as part of its strategy. This is aimed to gain a greater market share for its ELoA labs. This new action of buying Vision Source is widely believed to be a tiny step of this strategy.

Who is Vision Source? Owning 4,000 independent optometry practices, Vision Source is the largest independent optometry buying group in the world. The company works much like Amway. There are words in the field that “Vision Source is the optical equivalent of Amway”. Its long term members make profit while the company is still recruiting new members.

There has been rumors talking about that Essilor will probably buy the biggest and earliest online high-end optical retailer of eyeglasses and sunglasses- FramesDirect.com. It is true, maybe.

Let’s wait and look at the progresses of this merging case.

As the world’s first composite ophthalmic lens company, PixelOptics, Inc. of Roanoke, Virginia has now continued to its rollout of static composite enhanced multifocal glasses named atLast!. Nowadays, atLast is available in both a composite index 1.67 and 1.59 polycarbonate version. These products launched by Pixel were aimed to compete within the lined multifocal market worldwide which accounts for approximately 50 million pairs each year. But now, Pixel is planning to compete within the progressive addition lens market worldwide which also accounts for nearly 50 million pairs per year. Pixel’s products in the latter field are called electronic eyeglasses.

These new products have electronic dynamic or changeable focus lenses. One of the most important collaborators of Pixel is Panasonic Shikoku Electronics of Matsuyama, Japan, which is a globally well known electronics company. These new products can be dated back into 2005, in which year e-Vision licensed its intellectual property, trade secrets and know-how of electronic eyeglasses to Pixel. After that, Pixel has been aggressively and diligently furthering the development of electronic eyewear along with other nine partners around the world, including Panasonic. According to President and CEO of Pixel, those electronic eyeglasses auto focus faster than the blink of an eye using chemistry, electricity and optics. In addition, these glasses allow for clear focus from far to near and everything in between. Like progressive lenses in the market, electronic eyeglass lenses are lineless but provide wider and less compromised fields of clear vision than progressive ones.

Both Pixel and Panasonic are satisfied with this cooperation. CTO of Pixel said that it was a pleasure to have Panasonic Shikoku Electronics assisting with the development of those electronic eyeglasses. Panssonic’s consumer knowledge and scientific expertise has proven to be most valuable and positive. At the side of Panasonic, they thought “Panasonic is every pleased to have the opportunity of working on such an exciting project and one that will benefit so many people around the world”.

Luxottica is a global leader in designing, manufacturing and distribution of eyewear. Its eyewear products cover styles of fashion, luxury and sports. The company has been a market leader and its retail brands are well-known in the optical industry. Until September 30 of 2009, Luxottica Group had operated 2,939 optical stores across North America, including LensCrafters and Pearle Vision. But there is a further plan in Luxottica. This optical giant is seeking to get income by going into a new direction. During the past years, Luxottica has never succeeded in selling eyewear products through the Internet. Now, top officials in Luxottica think it is the time to bridge this gap.

On December 15^th, Luxottica announced a strategic, multi-year ecommerce alliance with drugstore.com, which is a leading online retailer of health, beauty, vision and pharmacy products. The simple goal of such an alliance is to expand online access to Luxottica’s contact lenses in the North American market, improving the company’s North American business. Luxottica wanted to utilize drugstore.com’s ecommerce platform and strength in online technology, marketing, customer care and fulfillment. This may be the simplest way for Luxottica to start online business. In detail, the leading online contact lens retailer Vision Direct under drugstore.com will conduct details of the cooperation. Vision Direct will help Luxottica Group develop branded contact lens ecommerce sites and provide customer care and fulfillment services.

This alliance has received satisfactory comments from both sides. The Executive Vice President of Luxottica named Valerio Giacobbi said that the agreement with drugstore.com would significantly help Luxottica achieve the goal to attract more customers, improving their acknowledge of contact lenses as an important vision care option. According to the CEO and Chairman of the Board of drugstore.com, the cooperation with Luxottica represented an unparalleled opportunity for drugstore.com to extend its partnership strategy. In the future, the two companies may conduct further cooperation in other related areas such as Luxottica’s wholesale business.

During the past years of VSP’s popularity, many member doctors of VSP have experienced crappy feeling. In those years, VSP have claimed they will send new customers or patients to member doctors. By this means, VSP persuades all of its members to participant in its plan. Some people may spit out their coffee if they read the comments made by Ric Steere. 

VSP offers crappy websites to allow member doctors to customize their services. It provides printable marketing flyers which should be distributed to patients by doctors. In addition, VSP has strict requirements on the price and profit the member doctors can charge. All in all, being a VSP member seems to be a disaster to some doctors. The claim of sending new patients made by VSP is really untrue. 

Now, this successful giant is going to infect other countries that have no idea how crappy VSP member doctors are. VSP plans to enter England after it has screwed up the optical community as a whole in the United States. By reeking havoc on another continent, this firm claims that it is going international. British doctors should keep their eyes widely open. This new action is just a reflection of the national health care reform in US. VSP has been scared. 

In the US, VSP member doctors are required to offer 30% off to patients who have bought VSP insurance. Doctors are still limited to charge certain service items. In addition, a contact lens program under VSP has cost private practices 20k-30k in revenue. Since its establishment, VSP has claimed its non-profit status. However, patients can easily search out using Google that the California Supreme Court denied this status. This can be easily testified by VSP’s practice management system and other interests. 

It is the time for British eye doctors to keep close monitor VSP’s action. Once in a state of being a VSP member, it is very hard to quit its panel. When a member doctor wants to leave the VSP family, he will become an absolute outcast.

Improving eyesight is possible at any age. Many people think that once your vision decreased you are unable to reverse it. This could not be further from the truth. You would not be able to see the beauty of a sunset in the evening, a rose with the dew drops on it in the morning or the faces and expressions of those you love the most. In spite of their tremendous worth, most people take their eyes for granted.

Dr. Bates theorized that most impairments to good vision are caused by strain on the eyes. His treatment model helps patients relax that strain, lessening distortions of the eye and lens. This leads to improved vision and prevent further deterioration. If one treatment does not work then try to move quickly on to something else. This will increase your chances of success. Do not give up until you find a treatment that works for you.

If you smoke, stop. That is one of the simplest things you can do. Smokers have a higher risk of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and dry eye disease. The risk of smokers going blind is four times greater than for people who don’t smoke. Another major technique among Bates exercises is called palming. With palming, the patient closes their eyes and relaxes their eyelids. They gently cover their eyes with their hands to block out all light. No pressure is applied with the hands to the eyes, as this would be directly counterproductive.

Some doctors recommend patching for children. This involves wearing a patch over one eye to help build strength in the opposite eye. This is a successful treatment that has helped millions of children improve their vision. Improve Your Eyesight with eat a bowl of blueberries with yogurt for breakfast and drink goji berry juice throughout the day. The blueberries and the juice are high in antioxidants which prevent free radicals from damaging the cells and causing disease.

Modern medical science has developed a number of drug therapies and surgeries designed to improve vision. Many people take advantage of these options. However, just as many people would prefer to avoid the risks, side effects, and complications of invasive drug therapy and surgery. The Bates method offers an all natural alternative that works with simple exercises and little to no risk of side effects.

According to research presented at the American Academy of Optometry, contact lenses prescribed for longer replacement intervals can lead to more extreme over-wear, causing undesirable clinical effects. An article from opticianonline revealed some of the concerning figures about this situation. According to results of the research, more than half of wearers of frequent replacement contact lenses did not comply with their prescribed replacement schedule.

Participants in the survey contained two groups: one of them wore two-week contact lenses and the other group wore monthly lenses. Their responses were both disappointing. The research conducted an online sponsor-masked survey which took a random sample of 645 frequent replacement contact lens wearers. The results were quite bad and similar.

In the group containing two-week lens wearers, only 43% of them replaced their lenses as prescribed. There were 65% of them replaced lenses every three weeks, 85% at eight weeks or more and 2% at ten weeks or more. When researchers came to assess the group who wore monthly lenses, only 36% of them maintained lens replacement as required. About 55% only replaced their lenses at five weeks, 23% at eight weeks or more and 14% at 10 weeks or more.

Among all of these unexpected numbers, the most surprising one was the percentage of patients who extended lens replacement to eight weeks or more. Such an interval was significantly longer than a normal requirement. This result considerably surprised the study author Sheila Hickson-Curran who was also director of medical affairs at Vistakon.

The survey of the research is just an example of the popular practice among contact lens wearers. Most wearers will ask their doctors to extend the Rx “this one time” but will not schedule an appointment when they run out of their lenses. Encountering such kind of patients, eye doctors would wish them go to a retail chain for Rx and materials instead.

Lenscrafters is in a tough trouble. An internal Lenscrafters memo says that the company has to make strategic choices and hard decisions that will result in a lean, efficient and effective go-forward organization. This is exactly describing the VSIP program launched by Lenscrafters. By some people, this program is considered as “cut the fat”. 

According to officials from Lenscrafters, the VSIP program involves two parts, recognizing and rewarding those contributive associates on one hand and streamlining work and reducing costs on the other hand. Similar to an early retirement program, VSIP has actually been successfully implemented by some other companies. This time, Lenscrafters set the eligibility criterion of VSIP at 50 years of age with 5 years of service. This is the strict eligibility criterion and the company will not expand it, so that associates that do not meet these requirements can not volunteer for the program. 

The company will announce approved participants in the VSIP on December 7. After direct communication with those participants, the company will cascade the information through the CSC Leadership Team to departments and teams. In fact, not all associates eligible for the 50/5 requirements will receive the VISP offer. Some roles in Manufacturing and Engineering, EyeMed Sales, Service and Production will be excluded. 

But associates ineligible for VSIP program can volunteer to be part of the Involuntary RIF and receive severance benefits. These people can be included in the involuntary reduction in force and should make a final decision after the VSIP program has finalized on December 7. Once being terminated, this group of associates can receive severance benefits. Before that, associates considering the Involuntary RIF can see Luxottica’s Standard Severance Benefits Plan, with which they can carefully balance potential gain against loss. 

The VSIP and involuntary RIF programs aim to cut off approximately 10% to 30% of the current workforce of CSC. After these two phases, the company will be able to maintain flat General and Administrative expense.

According to news at optics.org, a research team in the University of Murcia’s optical laboratory has invented a liquid-crystal device that can correct vision in both eyes simultaneously. This device can help optometrists prescribe corrective eyeglasses and contact lenses. In addition, this instrument can also be used to simulate the effect of laser refractive surgery or any other advanced vision correction. 

The useful device developed by the Murcia team actually consists of a single wavefront sensor and a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator. Through the way of modulating incident light, the liquid crystal can correct the wavefront of light entering the eyes. In detail, the liquid crystal contains proportionally rotated molecules. And researchers use approximately 58,000 independent pixels to control the wavefront of light entering each pupil. 

Capable of measuring and manipulating the optical aberrations from both eyes at the same time, the device helps optometrists control what is natural in normal vision. This breakthrough significantly changes the situation in the past when doctors had to use a bulky glass frame and mechanically switched and adjusted lenses. The invention of liquid-crystal device can profoundly replace the mechanical wheels and the traditional letter chart. In addition, this system is believed by Artal to help doctors conduct experiments that involve the working process of visual system and vision simulation before a lens implant surgery. 

In fact, this newly invented device is a natural extension of a former technology, which was also developed by the same team in Spain. As early as 2000, the team led by Pablo Artal created the first closed-loop instrument that was applied in the eye. After that, Pablo and his colleagues including Joshua Fernandez and Pedro Prieto have been trying to develop a binocular device that is capable of evaluating vision in both eyes simultaneously. After nearly 9 years’ efforts, the liquid-crystal device now announces their success. Currently, the team focuses on two directions of further research on both optical properties of the eye and the development of a more compact prototype.