IcareLabs Blog

We know that cancellations without notice can negatively affect your optometric practice. It’s not always an easy task to provide every patient with the best experience and care from their arrival to their departure.

Doing your best to give your patient an experience that’s hard to forget (of course, in a positive way) will contribute to a decrease in patients not showing up for their scheduled appointments. It will also increase great reviews and word-of-mouth referrals, which can greatly contribute to attracting new patients to your business.

The other day I had the pleasure of reading a very good article featured in 20/20 written by Palmer R. Cook, OD. He dug very deep into Chromatic Aberration and the effects it has on patients.

Part of my job here at IcareLabs is assisting our customers with trouble shooting problem patients. Often the issue is clarity or blur when not looking through the optical center. Lenses work great while looking straight ahead but with even minimal eye movement the clarity goes away. We always look at Rx, base curve, and lens design. This is the lowest hanging fruit.

Keeping employees on the manufacturing floor happy is one of my key goals. Let’s face it, the job can be physically and mentally stressful. I am constantly looking for something to engage the employees in some fun and stimulate some good feelings about how special each and every one of our employees are to IcareLabs.

Transitions lenses have a new digital availability guide now available for all ECPs. This is an easy way to look up all of the amazing Transitions photochromic technology, right at your fingertips. With all of the different combinations currently on the market, it can sometimes be a bit confusing. Luckily, this online guide takes out all of the guesswork.

Over the next year we will try to post a few articles geared towards those who are new in the industry or maybe those looking for a little refresher. We will simply title these our "Optics 101 Series".

To create a good pair of glasses that offer the best optics, fit, and comfort all start with the frame. Frame choice is the foundation that can either make or break the satisfaction for your patient.

The main goal of opticianry is recreating perfect 20/20 vision for your patient. The second goal should be doing this with the thinnest, lightest lenses possible. This will give your patient added comfort and good cosmetics. We are going to break this down into 5 parts of how to give your patient the best overall satisfaction, comfort, and performance of a pair of glasses.

Kodak Lens is one of America's most trusted brands. While many ECPs are familiar with their progressive lens options, did you know they also have premium branded anti-reflective coatings? Let's take a look at all three no-glare coatings offered by Kodak Lens and see how they can best meet your patient's needs.

Following up on the huge success of the new XTRActive Polarized lenses, Transitions will be launching the new XTRActive New Generation technology. We'll take a look at availability, features, and the expected launch date in this blog.

LinkedIn is known as a great social media for growing your professional network or looking for new employees, but you can also leverage it for your retail optical store. All it takes is a little out-of-the-box thinking on your part and you can easily add another online resource for your patients.

If polarized lenses are not an important part of your patient care plan, they should be. Almost everyone could benefit from a pair of polarized lenses as they simply reduce glare better than other products on the market.

While the subject of base curves comes up multiple times a day in my discussions with our customers, I have avoided writing about it for years for three reasons:

1. It is a complex topic that confuses many.
2. It is not seen as important to others.
3. It gets misunderstood by the majority of the rest.

Similar to religion and politics, it's a subject that can destroy friendships. The correct base curve is always a battle of which of 3-key factors is the most important: optics, fit, or cosmetics. But, it does not have to be this way.