editor's perspective

It's All About Attitude

BY JOSEPH T. BARR, OD, MS, EDITOR
December 1998

Daily disposable contact lenses are more cost-effective than ever and are an extremely safe and convenient form of vision correction for many of our contact lens patients. Specialty disposable lenses are proliferating, especially torics and now more bifocals. These lenses offer unsurpassed reproducibility and safety. There are many other spherical, toric and bifocal designs that are more effective than ever and are designed using better-than-ever manufacturing processes. RGP lens materials continue to improve, and the designs and manufacturing are the best we've ever seen. Solutions are more effective and less toxic than in the past. Contact lenses are so good, they should be jumping into patients' eyes. So why aren't they in so many practices? Even though managed care is such a challenge, there are many practices doing very well with all types of contact lenses -- simple spherical and specialty alike. The difference between these practices? Attitude. The busy contact lens practices see new products as opportunities to satisfy patients' needs, and they charge for their valuable services. The eyecare professionals and staff members of these practices are thankful for new and better options. The other practices haven't figured out that it can't be like the old days where lenses were marked up 300 percent. Their attitude about the contact lens field is not one of thanks or opportunity. Rather, they feel they can't profit enough on each patient, so they discourage patients from contact lens wear. Why bother to recommend contact lenses to even good candidates? Sure, there may be less profit per patient, but market research shows more people want them than are offered them, and we've shown over and over that successful wearers are profitable to a practice, even more so than spectacle-only patients. So what's wrong with this picture -- happy patients and a happy bottom line? Nothing. We have so much to be thankful for in the contact lens field. And we are especially thankful to our readers, our authors and our advertisers for their support in making Contact Lens Spectrum the leading contact lens publication.