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UK’s online optical store Metruki’s request for optometrists’ providing PD to patients was dismissed by the General Optical Council. This sounds that UK’s regulatory rules on online optical has a long way to go.

Optometry Scotland and the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) have hit out at online frame retailer Metsuki’s campaign to require pupillary distance (PD) measurements to be included on prescriptions. Metsuki wrote to the Office of Fair Trading about the issue and its campaign has received the support of MP Charles Kennedy (News 19.03.10).

However, ADBO president Barry Duncan said it would not be wise for the General Optical Council (GOC) to sanction PD measurements to be provided with prescriptions as it would jeopardise patient care.

‘It’s important that people understand that the dispensing of spectacles is a highly skilled and complex competency,’ he told Optician. Duncan added that PD measurement is only one of a number of equally important measurements that go towards accurate dispensing ‘and the PD alone can’t allow for comprehensive dispensing’.

Emphasising that practitioners were not refusing to give patients their PD measurements, Duncan commented: ‘It’s a professional service and you can’t offer a professional service without a charge.’ Duncan also revealed that Optometry Scotland and ABDO were attempting to meet with Kennedy to discuss the issue. ‘We hope to try and let him know why the comments he made are difficult to digest for a lot of people. I don’t think Mr Kennedy really understands the implications. The Liberal Democrats are making every effort to improve optical services rather than hinder them, so it’s disappointing,’ he added.

Duncan also revealed that both ABDO and Optometry Scotland would be speaking with the GOC.

‘We will do everything we can to prevent the quality of dispensing out there being reduced. We want to enhance the quality of dispensing,’ said Duncan.

We are sure that UK will finally take a bigger step on the matter of PD. Canada’s province of BC has deregulated in the same area. We hope the whole world will take the same step as BC did. Buying eyeglasses online will have no hurdles any more.

ASOS, Chicos

Without the help from eye aides, many people today can not have a vivid vision of other people’s facial expressions, such as the school professor, the boss or the most important person. They can even be a little confused if it is really them. In some cases, it is only possible to be sure of their gestures and the way they communicate. It is ok to say that a lot of people are quite familiar with these conditions. Thanks to the availability of prescription eyeglasses for their vision correction. Nowadays, eyeglasses can be next to one’s bed if he or she suffers from poor vision. For a large group of people, all things can be seen only through this medium. There are many scenarios suggesting that eyeglasses are very important.

However, it is still undeniable that there are more and more individuals turning to contact lenses. Even if these two kinds of devices cater the same visual need, contact lenses are preferable due to some reasons. Some people choose contact lenses for a younger look and some others go for vanity. Free from nerdy eyeglasses, one’s face may look more pleasant or appealing to others. In addition, contact lenses can provide a wider visual field than eyeglasses. This is because contact lenses are placed exactly over the cornea. The users do not need to move their heads when they want to see something in peripheral vision. Contact lenses users are easier to get naturally clear vision.

These advantages of contact lenses have never shamed eyeglasses in general. There are many circumstances that reflect advantages of eyeglasses. For instance, many people are quite busy with their job or business and they do not have the luxury of time to prepare their contact lenses. It is widely known that contacts require much time of maintenance. In this case, using eyeglasses is relatively more convenient. It is easy to have eyeglasses handy.

ASOS Chicos

Glaucoma is an eye disease caused by increased intraocular pressure (IOP) resulting either from a malformation or malfunction of the eye’s drainage structures.  The eye constantly produces aqueous, which fills the anterior chamber, the space between the cornea and iris. If the aqueous can’t filter out of the anterior chamber through a complex drainage system, glaucoma occurred. If left untreated, glaucoma may lead to permanent damage of the optic nerve, and resulted in vision loss. Normal people’s IOPs fall between 8 and 21 when the patients will be much higher, and it can be a signs for developing glaucoma.

There are several types of glaucoma, common types including open angle, acute angle closure, secondary glaucoma and congenital glaucoma. Some types of glaucoma such as angle closure and congenital have symptoms, for example, sudden decrease of vision, extreme eye pain, headache, or light sensitivity. But in most case, glaucoma does not have symptoms. This is reason why glaucoma has been called the “sneak thief of sight” causing the loss of vision gradually over a long period of time and is often recognized when the disease is quite advanced. So people with symptoms or those who are more than 40 years old should have an annual examination including the screening for glaucoma, for example measuring the intraocular pressure, or if necessary doctor will evaluate the health of optic nerve by ophthalmoscopy and the peripheral vision and the structures in the front of the eye by gonioscopy.

Most patients with glaucoma only need to control the eye pressure. They may use one or several medications, usually eye drops, to reduce the pressure. Surgery may be carried out when medical treatment fails to control the pressure, in order to allow fluid to drain from the eye efficiently.

British Columbia of Canada becomes the first region to approve the selling of contact lenses and frame eyeglasses from the government perspective. It is predicted that Ontario will be the second one following BC in this regulatory area. The new rule will be effective from May 1 2010. There has been a lot of anger among the ECPs in Canada, as well as in United States. It is probably that other nations like USA and Europe will take the same method toward the new trend of online optical practices.

My thinking is that as long as this new business model benefits the mass consumers, government will always be with it. Here is the news release from the Ministry of Health Services of BC in Canada.

The Province is giving six weeks’ notice that effective May 1, 2010, changes will be made to the regulations for opticians and optometrists under the Health Professions Act, including:
· Removal of most of the restrictions that allow only opticians or optometrists, or workers supervised by them, to dispense glasses or contacts.
· Allowing prescriptions issued by medical doctors and optometrists outside of the province to be filled within B.C.
· Allowing people to order glasses or contacts online without having to give the seller a copy of their prescription, sight-test assessment or contact-lens specifications.
· Requiring opticians and optometrists in B.C. to include in a prescription or sight-test assessment the measurement of distance between the client’s pupils, which is required for the proper fitting of glasses.
· Requiring opticians and optometrists in B.C. to give clients, free of charge, a copy of their prescription, sight-test assessment or contact-lens specifications – whether or not it is requested by the client – and also to give a copy, free of charge, to a third-party eyewear seller or other person if requested by the client.

Also taking effect on May 1 is a change to optician sight-testing. Opticians will now be able to independently conduct sight-tests for healthy clients aged 19-65. This eliminates the extra step of having a sight-test reviewed by a medical doctor who then issues a prescription. Instead, a screening process will be put in place to ensure a client is healthy enough to be eligible for the sight-test, and is fully informed about the difference between a sight-test and an eye-health examination.

It is believed that the reason why BC becomes the first province, is that the world’s earliest and biggest online optical retailers of contacts and eyeglasses, CoastalContacts.com, is in Valvoucer BC. Last year the onliner had a law suit with BC Optometry School.

It is reported that the optical giant Essilor has just bought majority of the stake of the earliest and biggest online retailers of eyeglasses, FramesDirect.com, in partnership with FramesDirect, Essilor launches web retail tool for US practices, the web is MyOpticalOnline.com

It says: A new internet service which allows independent practices in the US to sell optical products online to patients has been launched by Essilor America.

Following tests of MyOnlineOptical.com with a limited number of practices in partnership with US online retailer Frames Direct.com, Essilor is expanding the availability of its offer, according to US website Vision Monday. By adding an e-commerce engine to their own websites, Essilor said MyOnlineOptical.com would allow practices to extend their reach beyond office walls and office hours.

Essilor said practitioners would retain complete control of what is sold through their websites, determining both pricing and selection as well as preserving the look and feel of their practice website. Practitioners could chose whether to match, complement or increase their ‘brick and mortar’ product offering with up to 100,000 spectacle options, which Essilor suggested could keep patients from ‘walking out the door to a competitor’.

Randolph Brooks, president of the American Optometric Association, declared the association’s support for the venture, saying it would provide optometrists with an opportunity to ‘compete with online entities by offering additional visual correction solutions and therefore increase patient retention’.

Essilor UK managing director Marc Tersigni said the company had no immediate plans to test such a service in the UK, but added: ‘We want to help our customers who feel ill equipped to be part of the online market and may be losing business to the internet. How a service like MyOnlineOptical.com could help independent practices over here is something to be assessed and discussed with the optical associations later in the year.’

From the posts on the OptiBoard, most of the independent eye doctors oppose to such an online service. Some think the Essilor aims to grab the customer information through the so-called online service, which as Essilor put it, to help the doctors and opticians to move their businesses online.