optoblog.com

Ha-ha. You all are going to have a big laugh about this. An internet contact lenses price comparison website contacted me about possibly advertising on my blog. I think that’s pretty funny since you and I sell contact lenses in our respective practices, so why would we want to advertise to buy them online?

Anyway, I was thinking about more appropriate advertising, like products from ophthalmic distributors. But being a blogger, I’m not sure I want to accept advertising money because I want to avoid bias. What I would rather do is have vendors contact me about simply test driving their products, and then I can write a review about them.

If vendors think they have a cool product ready for prime time, then they shouldn’t be afraid of anything that a regular optometrist in the trenches has to say about it. Any publicity is good publicity, right?

Vendors, e-mail me at: david at optoblog dot com if you want me to test drive and give an honest opinion of your product.

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An interesting article about the Indian Health Service. Hat tip to Kevin, M.D.

I used to work for the Indian Health Service. By the way, I loved it. The work was great. The pay was acceptable*. The people were great. But we all know the system has problems, but an IHS optometrist is insulated from most of those problems…until you try to get a cataract surgery for one of your patients. We had to wait until the vision was 20/70 or worse before Contract Care would consider paying for a referral.

The reason? There’s no money!

*I didn’t leave because I was unhappy with pay. My wife’s and mine extended family is based in Idaho and Utah, so we left the service and moved back to Utah to be closer to the fam. That’s important to people like us. I would have transferred to Fort Hall, ID or Fort Duchesne, UT but these locations had just been filled by optometrists who look like they are going to be there for the long haul, so I saw no chance of being any closer than 8-9 hours away from extended family unless I went into the private sector.

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I saw at medGadget a commentary about MIT’s Technology Review coverage of a computer chip surgically implanted in the eye which continuously measures IOP.

MedGadget says:

a pressure sensor to measure glaucoma continuously, instead of once every 6 months in the ophthalmologist’s office.

I would just change that to read, “instead of once every 3-6 months at the optometrist or ophthalmologist’s office.”

But I was wondering at what point we implant these devices? Is the risk of the implant operation justified for a glaucoma suspect? If we already know the patient has glaucoma and we are managing with maximum therapy, do we need the implant? Can we even get insurance companies to come on board to pay for the chip and implant operation?

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Emily Webb wrote an article about optometrists and blogging for the newspaper of the Optometrists Association Australia. I’ll link to her article if they make it available on their website. She sent me a copy of the original print version and it’s found in Volume 28 Number 8 August 2007. Another optometrist interviewed is Dr. Stuart Macfarlane. For now I’ll just post the original transcript of my e-mail interview.

Emily Webb wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> It will just be a few questions:
>
> 1. Why did you start blogging?
>
I was introduced to blogging by Intel blogger and friend, Josh Bancroft, of tinyscreenfuls.com. It was when I went back to visit Portland during the October 2004 GWCO conference. He introduced me to the wonderful concept of web site syndication and the blogs that were using it. He also introduced me to the Clue Train Manifesto (cluetrain.com) which my take home message was that people want to give feedback to companies, and the companies should listen and change for the better in response to the open conversations they have with customers.

With optoblog.com I started out wanting to share optometry news and write reviews for ophthalmic equipment- like engadget.com and arstechnica do with computers and electronics. But I found out that just repeating the news I read from sources like AOAnews.com and revoptom.com is redundant. I don’t have to be a news machine if these source authorities would simply publish an RSS feed for their updated content. Instead, I try to focus on how I can be “part of a conversation” and what significance the industry news has for me. I would like to write more reviews, but they are more time consuming compared to jotting down a few rants about the state of the profession and ophthalmic industry. I wish more optometrists would give feedback to the ophthalmic vendors because improvements need to be made in the usability of products like PM/EHR software and digital exam equipment.

I’ve recently added a new feature: cartoons. My inspiration derived from savagechickens.com who draws hilarious cartoons on a yellow sticky note. Mine are on a sea-foam green back ground (like optometry thesis project report covers), and they’re kind of like political cartoons except they are just about our profession. Sure, the art is bad, but they could bring a smirk to your face.
> 2. What positives/benefits have come from the blog?
>
This request for an e-mail interview from an Australian writer is a highlight. I think the industry vendors have finally caught on to seeking feedback. Just this week I saw in my website logs that someone with an IP address from Johnson & Johnson (Vistakon-Acuvue) browsed around my blog and then searched my site for the word “Ciba.”
> 3. What do you like about blogging?
>
I can express my opinion, and maybe someone will validate it for me. I don’t get the opportunity very much to speak with my optometric peers about the state of our profession, and it’s my hope that blogging will start conversations with other optometric physicians. I could be way out there on a particular issue, so it allows me to go on the record, get the opinions of others, and then re-evaluate my stance. I hate the current state of web boards because they usually are exclusive and talk in secret behind closed doors. The ClueTrain Manifesto is all about open conversations, and I subscribe to that philosophy.
> 4. Your advice to novice/would-be bloggers?
>
I got into the geeky world of getting a web host and using WordPress.org for the back-end of my blog. It requires a lot of maintenance. I would just open an account at blogger.com or wordpress.com and let them take care of your back end- er…the technical side that requires almost constant tweaking and security updates. Ready-made solutions would allow you to focus on your content, ideas, and conversations.

Also, don’t dwell so much on the negative and writing rants exclusively (do as I say, not as I do).
> Also, do you have a photo you could email? It needs to be high res
> (300dpi) and preferably a portrait.
>
The best photo that I’ve got for now is attached. It’s taken with my digital camera at 72 dpi but the pixel size is 1280 x 960. When does this publish? If you gave me a few more days I might come up with something better.

Thanks for the interview!
-DJL
optoblog.com

David Langford, O.D.

> Cheers,
>
> Emily
>
>
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: David (optoblog) [mailto:david@optoblog.com] Sent: Friday, 30 March 2007 3:43 PM
> To: Emily Webb
> Subject: optoblog interview
>
> Sure thing. I can do an e-mail interview. I’m just some cheeky
> American who has only been in practice for 4 years, but fire away.
> For your background information I have attached my C.V.
> -David Langford, OD
>
> Emily Webb wrote:
>
>> Emily Webb wrote:
>> Hi David,
>>
>> I am a journalist with Australian Optometry newspaper, the member publication of Optometrists Association Australia. I am writing a feature on blogging and I’d love to interview you with a few questions via email. My email is [******]
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Emily Webb

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I needed to know what brand/style of PAL a patient was wearing, but I’ve always been too cheap to pay $36 for the Progressive Lens Identifier book from the OLA, so I searched to find an online version. An optiboard thread linked to Laramy-K Optical’s website. They have their own progressive lens chart, complete with laser markings.

And they even have a blog (although no RSS feed for posts, but curiously they have one for comments). They had even talked about me! That reminds me, I need to find some time to draw more cartoons. Ever since I stopped working at Lenscrafters, I haven’t had time to draw.

Anyway, Laramy-K gets my vote for one of the coolest optical lab websites.

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