Association of Technical Opticians

In the past I have heard many rumors mostly in online forums, things like Essilor and Luxottica teaming up. Crazy I know, but lately our industry has seen a twisted and disturbing trend of corporations taking advantage of the independent practitioners. Some of the latest headlines VSP losing their status as a non-profit and then purchaseing Marchon to then further squeezing the same profession their non-profit status was supposed to support. 1800contacts partnering up with Walmart to provide exams, because the law doesn’t allow them to sell contacts to expired prescritpions they need and avenue to get them in valid prescriptions. To the latest Essilor and Frames Direct partnering to provide eyeglasses online.

This trend has been predicted far before I could ever concieve of it, but here we are. ECP’s are at a precipice where a choice needs to be made. Some call to boycott Essilor, but they didn’t start this disturbing trend they just see an oportunity to exploit it. The many ethically bankrupt companies that have traded in sustainable growth for fast cash are growing and the mentality to have ECP’s join them is alarming. I won’t atempt to pursuade anyone into boycotting essilors products, but I personally won’t be using their products or services.

The real problem that needs to be addressed is our professions fractures, until optician, OD and OMD learn to work together large corporations will exploit this weakness. Eyeglasses need to be fitted properly and dispensed by qualified professionals, this cannot be accomplished with online eyewear so our patients are beign swindled and now our vendors want in on it.

With the summer upon us, it is very important that we let our patients know the importance of proper UV protection. This means we need the resources to properly educate them. The EPA has create a sunwise program that allows us to monitor the UV index in our geographic locations by way of a zip code widget. ATO created a simple 7′ x 7′ placard that can be attached to a front window or a front door to allow foot traffic to see the UV index for the day at a glance along with a short description fo the proper precautions to take. The 7′ x 7′ placards are designed to mimic the EPAs UV poster which is also attached alogn with a few other relevent materials. Use these resources to inform patients about proper sunwear.

UV Guide (pdf)
UV Poster (pdf)
UV Handout (pdf)

UV Index Lookup Tool
Zipcode

Designed as a great resource for local grocery stores to display, this poster is optimized for printing at 24′ x 36′ at a resolution of 150 dpi. To download click on the thumbnail image below to take you to the larger version of the document.

Over the years people have asked for a FREE study guide for the ABO. It is not something that just anyone would be willing to provide, it takes dedication and resources to put together a study guide with any substance not to mention if it was free the authors and contributors would gain nothing monetary from it. One independent lab has put together the framework to make it possible and their work must be commended. Laramy K known as a premium independent ophthalmic laboratory has always been on the cutting edge of our industry with professional educational resources and a web forum that allows professional in our industry to share with each other the many intricacies of our industry. Laramy K, one year ago took and started an ambitious project to provide a free ABO study guide and the first version is available today for download as well as web consumption. I urge those that download it to provide comments, critiques, or just kudos to the lab for their work and dedication to our industry. Without further delay here’s that link:

ABO Study Guide (link to Laramy-K site)

I had a request for ABO/NCLE logo’s in digital format, I have always wondered why they are not available on the ABO website. Here is a zip file with the adslick in png format. Crop and use them as you wish.

Certification Adslicks (zip, png)