Gretchen Rubin was spot on when she said, “The days are long, but the years are short.” What a year it has been. Political divisiveness. Ukraine. Stock market. Interest rates. Housing market. Winter Olympics. Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. And COVID-19 (yes, still with us).

A long-standing tradition of Contact Lens Spectrum has been to recognize a contact lens event of the year. This event is something that occurred in 2022 that stood out in the contact lens field as being extraordinary or remarkable. More recently, we started a tradition of naming a product of the year—which could be a specific contact lens, care solution, design, device, or concept (e.g., patent) that you think warrants recognition based on its impact or potential impact on the contact lens market.

As always, we would love to hear from you. If you have nominations for the event or product of the year—a person, event, idea, technology, theme, product, etc., that you think is substantial in the contact lens field and that stood out in 2022—please let us know by emailing me directly at jason.nichols@pentavisionmedia.com.

EDITOR’S POSTSCRIPT

It was with tremendous sadness that we learned of Art Epstein’s passing. Art was a dear colleague, mentor, and, most importantly, friend. Although we differ in publishers, Art and I were always on the same side of the fence. We would speak regularly about how we might approach issues, particularly those that were challenging to our industry, profession, and professional organizations. Although you may not have always liked his messages, Art was a master of prose; I can think of no one better to convey a difficult topic or challenge conventional wisdom. He was a servant to the optometric profession. Art made optometry a better profession and the world a better place. I miss him deeply.

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The goal of Contact Lens Spectrum is to provide you with timely and thought-provoking articles that will help you become a more successful contact lens practitioner. Please let us know how we’re doing! E-mail CLSpectrum@pentavisionmedia.com with your comments or article submissions.