In this year of 2020, eyecare professionals, retailers and companies of all types in the optical and eyewear space are working to leverage their messages about the essential lifetime value of healthy vision and modern vision correction solutions to consumers, patients, public health decision makers and other healthcare professionals.

Concurrent with this and a part of the huge opportunity of the year 2020 is the renewed interest in specialization among practitioners.

From vision therapy to sports vision to neuro optometry and pediatric care, there are new tools and knowledge waiting to be discovered and appreciated by patients, parents and caretakers.

A major specialty area of interest is certainly myopia management, spurred on by an epidemic of it around the world as well as new studies and analysis of data and science research that supports a new view of this vision condition and its long term impact on patients. We outline a view of that in our cover story in this issue.

Driven not only by the desire and commitment to help patients lead productive personal and professional lives, the renewed interest in specialization speaks to a few things:

- A way to reinforce the medical scope of optometry and reflect the scale of contribution of a comprehensive eye exam.

- The need for practices, particularly independent practices, to distinguish and differentiate themselves and their services from the traditional competition.

- The opportunity to amplify eyecare in the greater realm of healthcare and connect it to the health and wellness of other parts of the body.

Want to share how adapting a practice specialty has worked for you? Please email or private message us on social to let us know. We want to shine a light on these 2020 stories.

maxelrad@jobson.com