Black Eyecare Perspective's Pre-Optometry Club to Celebrate Its Growing Members and Future Black Optometrists at Virtual April 27 Event

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. and RALEIGH, N.C.—The Pre-Optometry Club of the Black Eyecare Perspective (BEPPOC) is celebrating the achievements of its members who have gained admittance into the Class of 2025 at a school or college of optometry. The virtual event will be held on the evening of April 27, and is being hosted in partnership with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Adam Ramsey, OD, a Florida private practitioner and co-founder of Black Eyecare Perspective, with Dr Darryl Glover, noted, "You may know and have heard that we need more Black doctors, but the reality is in order to have more Black doctors, we have to actively recruit them as well as create more opportunities to not only help them survive but thrive in their pursuit.

National Optical Sales Show Little Change for Week of April 5 to 11, Jobson Practice Performance Tracker Says

NEW YORK—National optical sales changed little over the course of last week, April 5-11. All product/service categories were down by 1 index point, except gross revenue, which was flat when comparing overall optical sales last week with those of the previous week (March 29-April 4), according to the latest Jobson Practice Performance Tracker. These U.S. optical retail sales trends occurred as the country experienced its fourth consecutive week of increasing nationwide coronavirus cases, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. 

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker

VM Conversation: Essilor’s Pete Lothes Talks With Andrew Karp About Labs and Servicing Independent ECPs

NEW YORK—Essilor, the world’s biggest lens company, is also the biggest optical laboratory operator in the U.S. Since acquiring its first U.S. labs in 1996, Essilor has built a network consisting of over 90 locations that are part of its ELOA group or are independently-owned partner labs. Pete Lothes is in charge of the company’s lab operations. Lothes has spent his career in and around labs, first helping manage the family business in Columbus, Ohio and later heading Essilor’s Satisloh business unit, which is a leading manufacturer of lens processing equipment.

Third VM ‘Micro Chat’ Explores Access to Care and Social Determinants of Health

NEW YORK—With millions of Americans facing job losses and other economic hardships resulting from the pandemic, providing access to healthcare for those in need has taken on new urgency. The crisis is prompting healthcare policy makers and researchers to sharpen their focus on the underlying causes that prevent many people from getting the healthcare services they need. In a new video, “Access to Care: The Social Determinants of Health,” VM editorial director Marge Axelrad and lens and technology editor Andrew Karp discuss this timely topic and how it impacts vision care. The video, the third in a series of “Micro Chats on Macro Topics,” can be viewed here.

Just Issued Jobson Research Report, 20 Waves of Coronavirus Surveys, Portrays a Year of the Pandemic's Impact on ECPs

NEW YORK—Ever since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, Jobson Research has been polling ECPs and optical retailers about their experiences, the impacts on their practices and their assessment of PPP, PPE, gradual reopenings and more. A new compilation of Jobson's market research, examines 20 Waves of those ECP Coronavirus Studies, a compendium of some 128 questions that evolved during the initiative. The report, "20 Waves of Coronavirus Surveys," examining the evolving results from March 2020 through March 2021, has just been issued.