Welcome to Optometry Simplified.
In this weekly newsletter, I've curated the best resources to help you grow personally and professionally.
My mission is to find what's best for my patients and my practice.
Here's what I've found...
Links I Liked
Hope for podcast junkies.
If you love podcasts but can’t keep up with the backlog, this article is a breath of fresh air. It breaks down practical ways to extract the best ideas from long-form audio without listening to every minute, helping busy optometrists learn more in less time. Perfect for staying intellectually sharp without sacrificing your clinic or your sanity. Wonder Tools
This is a mindset shift worth paying attention to.
If optometrists see themselves as the keepers and protectors of the ocular surface, interventional glaucoma starts to feel less radical and more inevitable. Many high-performing practices already operate this way, but this should be the ordinary standard of care, not the exception. When you read about interventional glaucoma through that lens, it’s hard not to think, "this is the way." Modern Optometry
Research I'm Reading
Think about adding lotilaner to your MGD management arsenal.
A new paper shows that lotilaner 0.25% not only cleared collarettes but it was also associated with meaningful improvements in meibomian gland dysfunction. It's a relatively small study with industry involvement, but it shows promise in lotilaner playing a meaningful role in restoring gland function to the right patients. Clinical Ophthalmology
Deep Thoughts
Most optometrists want to grow the medical side of their practice.
What gets in the way is not effort or intelligence. It is intention and sequence.
Many practices try to grow medical by starting with triggers. Or they start with equipment. Or they assume that if they buy a new treatment, the right patients will magically appear.
That rarely happens.
What we have found, both in our own practices and in the practices we coach, is that sustainable growth follows a very specific pathway:
Treatment → Testing → Trigger
It feels backward to many doctors. It is also the fastest, cleanest way to grow medical care without chaos.
The first question is not:
“What should we screen for?” or “What new technology should we buy?”
The first question is:
What treatment do I believe in and want to use more?
Not a theoretical treatment. Not something you saw at a meeting last weekend.
Something you already have access to. Something you enjoy offering. Something you have seen help patients.
This might be:
- A topical steroid for ocular surface disease
- Presbyopia drops
- IPL
- Specialty contact lenses
- Neurolens™
- Glaucoma therapies
You do not need a new widget to grow medical.
You need clarity about what you want to do more of. What have you already invested in that you can make a greater commitment to?
Once the treatment is clear, the next step is to ask:
What evaluation or testing identifies the patient who benefits most from this treatment?
This is where most practices skip ahead or guess.
Testing should not be random. It should serve a purpose.
If you cannot articulate why a test leads logically to a treatment, it will never be used consistently.
When testing is purposeful, it becomes easy to explain, recommend, and staff find it easy to support.
Now, you can decide which trigger to use.
Triggers matter. I have written about them before and their role in disease pillar integration.
But here is the counterintuitive truth: Triggers should be decided last.
A trigger is simply the sign or symptom that leads to the testing you have already chosen.
When practices start with triggers, they often screen broadly with no clear endpoint. That creates friction, inefficiency, and low follow-through.
When practices start with treatment and work backward, triggers become obvious.
When I took over a practice in 2019, we were seeing about 15 patients per week.
Before that, I worked in a referral center managing dry eye across the full spectrum of severity. I had access to every diagnostic and treatment option imaginable.
Now I had a slit lamp. That was it.
But I knew two things:
- Topical steroids can be incredibly effective in ocular surface disease.
- MMP-9 testing was one of the best ways to identify which patients would benefit most.
So I started with treatment. Then testing. Now I needed a trigger.
We used a four-question symptom finder, Yes-or-No questions developed at the 2014 Dry Eye Summit.
Any yes answer, combined with a sign such as MGD, hyperemia, or staining, led to initial recommendations and a one-month follow-up.
At that visit, we performed InflammaDry and an expanded slit lamp exam.
Positive test? Steroid prescribed.
That simple process rapidly increased our weekly encounters.
More importantly, it created enough volume and consistency to justify additional testing and in-office treatments later.
The pillar grew organically, responsibly, and profitably.
We now use this same three-step sequence for every new treatment and every equipment decision in the practice.
Treatment first.
Testing second.
Trigger last.
This is not theory.
It is not marketing fluff.
It is a simple system that creates clarity for doctors, staff, and patients.
And yes, that clarity is often worth five to six figures of revenue.
You can use it too.
You’re welcome.
Practice Performance Partners Pick
If you’ve ever felt like comprehensive eye care is being squeezed into a box-checking exercise, this conversation will resonate.
Christopher Wolfe challenges how managed vision care and insurance incentives quietly reshape our exams, our priorities, and ultimately our role as doctors.
It’s a thoughtful call for optometrists to reclaim the doctor–patient relationship and refocus on individualized, meaningful care.
Can you do me a favor? If you found any of these resources helpful, share this newsletter with one of our colleagues!
See you next week!
--Kyle Klute, OD, FAAO