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
Thinking scientifically is not natural. We must work at it.
This is the podcast that I wish I had done. Every optometrist and student should listen and learn from this excellent review of how to overcome bias and identify misinformation. As I've written about before, you can't trust your gut. Peter Attia, MD
One of the top 10 chronic eye conditions to master in primary eye care.
Vitreomacular interface disorders, VMT, ERMs, macular holes, etc., all originate from a common etiology. Understanding that helps determine how to manage each nuance of the disease. Verdaan Sood, OD, wrote an excellent article that covers everything you need to know about VMI disorders. Review of Optometry
Research I'm Reading
Have malpractice lawsuits increased as optometric scope expands?
No. A recent paper reviewed malpractice payments made by optometrists from 1996 to 2023 and found no evidence of increased risk with expanding scope of practice. About 39 cases per year were recorded, most of them being diagnostic failures rather than procedural mishaps. Optometry & Vision Science
Deep Thoughts
Every few months, a new communication framework makes the rounds in optometry circles. A new script for recommending premium lenses. A better way to present dry eye treatment. A closing technique borrowed from other professions. And the advice isn't wrong. Delivery matters, framing matters, word choice matters.
We teach our membership practices a specific way to script their communication in our Comprehensive Optometry Simplified program.
But there's a prerequisite almost nobody talks about, and without it, technique is just theater.
Conviction.
Before you can communicate well about a product, you have to actually believe in it.
Not perform belief but have it. And the difference is detectable in ways patients can't articulate but absolutely register. When conviction is absent, even polished technique reads as a pitch. When it's present, even clumsy delivery becomes effective.
Think about how you talk about a restaurant you love. You don't rehearse a script. You don't think about your closing call to action. You just tell people.
The enthusiasm carries the message. People feel the difference between someone who loves something and someone who's been trained to say they do.
This applies directly to what we do and nowhere more clearly than in dry eye and myopia management.
I've said it this way when teaching on dry eye: the extent to which you believe your asymptomatic patient should be treated is the extent to which your dry eye practice will grow. The same is true in myopia. If you believe a 9-year-old with -0.50 and two myopic parents warrants intervention, you'll find a way to say it. If you're uncertain whether it matters, no script will save you.
Communication technique is worth developing. But it's a multiplier, not a foundation. You can't technique your way to influence. You can, however, influence without perfect technique if what you're saying is something you genuinely believe.
The prerequisite is conviction. Everything else is refinement.
Practice Performance Partners Pick
Most practice owners manage tasks, not people, and wonder why their best staff keep walking out the door.
In this episode, Ted McElroy, OD, gets into what it actually looks like to coach the whole person: scheduled check-ins, better questions, and the kind of genuine curiosity that builds a team worth keeping.
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