Resources to Remember
The best keratoconus meeting of the year.
Based on what I'm seeing in the research and industry trends, keratoconus management is likely to expand for those of us doing primary, comprehensive eye care. Prevalence is likely higher than previously thought. New treatments have been approved. Now's the time to get the best education possible from the best experts at the International Keratoconus Academy. Use the code: ODSIMPLIFIED for 25% off!
Learn from global experts on how to implement myopia management.
These 4 days of immersive educational tracks for practitioners at all levels likely put my typical 3-hour myopia workshop to shame. If you want to go all in and learn from the best of the best, register for Vision By Design. Use the code: OptoSimplified for 10% off!
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Build a consistent protocol for every AMD patient
A one-day working session to systematize your AMD management and get your full team aligned for a higher standard of patient care
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Articles to Apply
Chronic eye disease is, unfortunately, very abundant.
Of the > 1 million patients screened via a national program to screen patients at various primary care offices, 1/3 (32%) of them had chronic disease, including retinopathy, nevi, ERMs, glaucoma, etc. Now, there is some selection bias here because this isn't true prevalence data; rather, the type of patient that visits a primary care office may be more likely to already be sick. However, it still shows that disease isn't too hard to find when we are looking for it. Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers and Imaging Retina
Quotes to Consider
"The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings. When we're left to our own experiences, we constantly suffer from a shortage of data." -- Steven R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
My Observations
Step 5 of our Comprehensive Optometry Simplified program is all about implementation.
My colleague Chris Wolfe, OD, wrote a great LinkedIn post arguing that optometry doesn't have an information problem. We have an implementation problem.
Psychologists have a name for this: the intention-action gap, the distance between what we intend to do and what we actually do.
For practice owners and entrepreneurs, the gap can feel enormous. I'll be honest: some of my most discouraged seasons came when my ideals ran far ahead of my progress.
But I don't think the goal is to close the gap completely. If you hit every goal without strain, you're aiming too low. Decades of goal-setting research agree that specific, difficult goals beat easy ones.
The trick is keeping the gap wide enough to pull you forward, but not so wide that it swallows you.
That's what Step 5 is built to do. We teach FranklinCovey's 4 Disciplines of Execution, which I simplify into three moves:
- Set one 90-day lag goal. One metric you want to move. Example: increase visual fields per refraction by 5%.
- Set two or three lead goals. Daily or weekly habits that drive that metric. Educate 100% of at-risk patients. Bring back every elevated IOP for a glaucoma evaluation.
- Track and review weekly with your team.
It works. We've seen it grow dry eye, myopia management, and glaucoma care in practice after practice.
But one thing is missing: the communal aspect of growth and change.
In most practices, accountability never leaves the building. Your team keeps each other honest, and that matters.
But your team works inside your systems and assumptions, so they share your blind spots. Nobody inside the building is likely to point out the thing none of you can see.
That's the point of this week's quote from Covey. Real effectiveness starts with the humility to admit what you can't see on your own.
Angela Duckworth makes a similar point in her new book, Situated. After Grit, the bestseller that built her career, she admits that passion and perseverance don't operate in a vacuum. They grow or wither depending on the situation, and the people around us are the biggest part of that situation.
She calls the answer situational agency: we can change our situation by choosing who is in the room with us.
Three of her four elements of a good situation are about people:
- Attract mentors. Find a coach or expert who has already built what you're building.
- Pick your peers. Find a group of ODs a step ahead or right beside you who will ask on Thursday what you said you'd do on Monday.
- Choose your culture. Most of us go to meetings for information. The real value is the conversation in the hallway, and the colleague who texts you three weeks later to ask if you actually did it.
Yes, you can do all of this on your own. You could feed every issue of this newsletter into AI and rebuild most of our consulting system in an afternoon. The information is free.
But implementation isn't.
So intend to go to that next meeting. Show up. Participate. Find people geared toward action and results, and ask them for help.
Here's to closing the gap.