A lens that changes both vision & quality of life.
Sponsored Content
By Landon Hagberg, OD
Oct. 18, 2023
When you have a product that both changes patient lives and significantly adds to profitability, you know you have a winner. That winner for our practice was provided by Neurolens. The power of this revolutionary product was heightened even further by the release of the Neurolens Measurement Device, Gen 2, and, more recently, by the release of the N3 VR headset experience.
Immediate Impact on Practice
We did our initial Neurolens training and installment on April 4, 2022. Since that time, we have sold over 600 Neurolenses and counting. Like you, we consistently track our deposits per exam among other key metrics. We have found, after adding Neurolens in 2022, that our deposits per exam increased by more than $70 per exam! For our practice, that has been over $300,000 per year in additional revenue.
We have had Neurolens for 18 months, with 2023 our first full calendar with this product in our office. Financially, Neurolens has created substantial growth in our optical-lens profitability. A managed-care frame and lens patient, on average, generates around $200 in profitability. The Neurolens lens portion alone approximately doubles that to about $400. Then, we add in the profit on the frame, since insurance is not an option, and we are now around $500 of profit for the same patient who is getting Neurolenses.
We are averaging around 30 Neurolens sales a month, which equates to approximately $9,000 more profitability per month if those same sales had just been managed-care jobs.
Life-Altering for Patients
I have a patient who was referred to our office to be run on the Neurolens Measurement Device, Gen 2 (NMD2). The doctor was having a difficult time getting the right prism amount. After running the NMD2 on this particular patient, I was able to see that she needed Base In prism at distance and Base Out prism at near.
We prescribed her two separate pairs of glasses with the contoured prism of Neurolenses to neutralize the double vision she was experiencing. She is a patient for life and sings the praises of our office to everyone she can. She is amazed that we were able to get her prescription right so quickly when she had been struggling for years to find someone who could help her.
More jobs with high digital device demand, and people on their phones more, means more need for a product like Neurolenses. This transformative lens has allowed our patients, myself included, to be more productive when doing near work. I hardly ever need to take a break and feel much more productive. Our patients tell us the same things.
New Patient Education Tool
The new N3 virtual reality (VR) headset is set to be a game-changer as both a binocular vision measurement device and as a patient education tool. Some doctors in our office are still gaining confidence when it comes to educating patients on how Neurolenses work and the benefits they will provide. Because N3 has a patient education piece built in, it enables an easier jumping off-point for discussion as the patient has already been educated as to how eye misalignment may be impacting their life and how Neurolenses can help. N3 even provides the patient the opportunity to indicate they would like to know more, so our doctors will be able to begin the conversation with confidence. Also, the technology provided by the N3 experience is well received by patients, who are wowed by this advanced technology.
In addition, N3 will improve efficiency for us. Each of the tests to determine the need for Neurolenses can be done in the exam room and free up 3-5 minutes, reducing bottlenecks.
Along with the education provided by N3, I also demonstrate to each patient how their eyes focus together and how much effort is required for their eyes to align and focus on distance and near targets.
I use the trigeminal nerve map image provided by Neurolens to explain that by relieving the demand on the nerve relaying information to the eyes to align, the nerve signals will go back upstream and downstream and reduce the overload and false signals going throughout the rest of the trigeminal nerve. This results in better vision and less musculoskeletal discomfort.
Tremendous Results
A patient came in for her annual comprehensive exam with the main goal of updating her glasses after noticing her vision becoming slightly blurry. During the initial examination, she completed the Lifestyle Index questionnaire and scored a 5 for Headaches.
When I entered the room to begin my part of the exam with this patient, we reviewed her Lifestyle Index and discussed her chronic headaches. They were severe, with the patient experiencing 4-5 chronic headaches a week and sometimes even daily. She had been dealing with daily headaches for the past 40 years. I informed her about our new technology, which identified her as an excellent candidate for Neurolenses.
I explained that these special glasses would improve her eye alignment, alleviate strain on her eyes and trigeminal nerve, and provide relief from chronic headaches. She was enthusiastic about trying these new glasses, as she had exhausted all other options for chronic headache relief. We scheduled her for a follow-up appointment in six weeks.
When the patient returned for her appointment, she entered the office with an immediate outpouring of praise for our staff and expressed her happiness with her Neurolenses. She reported that her chronic headachces had disappeared, and she had never felt better. She had even stopped taking her headache medication, and the headaches had not returned. As I entered the exam room to check on her, she continued to share her joy with me.
Helping Me Help Patients
Neurolens has helped me feel like I am helping patients. They come in over and over again telling us their success stories. This is why I went into optometry, to help people see better. Now I am helping them see better and relieving symptoms that people thought there was no solution to. I am the happiest I’ve been with my career in the last 12 years.
Landon Hagberg, OD, is an owner of Eye Associates of Nampa in Nampa, Idaho. To contact him: hagberg.6@gmail.com
