EyeCode Media

Dr. Brad Byergo received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Missouri­Columbia in 1998. He received his Doctor of Optometry degree from the University of Missouri­ St. Louis School of Optometry in 2002, where he graduated with highest honors. Dr. Byergo joined the Midwest Eye Associates team in 2002, and has been the medical director of the practice since 2004. He is a member of the St. Louis Optometric Society, the Missouri Optometric Association, and the American Optometric Association. In 2012, Dr. Byergo and Midwest Eye Associates joined forces with Vision Source, the largest network of independent Optometrists in the country. Dr. Byergo currently serves as the administrator for Vision Source St. Louis. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Vision Source Outstanding Leadership Award.

Dr. Chadderdon graduated from the Southern California College of Optometry in 1981. He practiced four years at Eisenhower Medical Center in Ft. Gordon, Georgia, while serving in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1985; he joined Dr. Hinson in partnership. Shortly thereafter, the practice name was changed to Family Eyecare Associates and the Tama office was added. Dr. Chadderdon has additional training in pathology, contact lenses and children’s vision. He is a member of New Hope Christian Church, Noon Lions Club, Rotary Club, Chamber Ambassador, and he coaches youth sports. He has served on the Junior Achievement Board, Mid-Iowa Community Action Health Advisory Board, YMCA Board, and the United Way Executive Committee serving as co-chair in 2006. He is an active member of the Iowa Optometric Association, currently serving as Eyecare Benefits Chairman. He served as the 1995-1996 president and was named young OD of the year in 1986 and OD of the year in 2007. He is active in the American Optometric Association serving as state representative on two committees. He serves as a member of the Iowa Army National Guard now retired at a rank of Lt. Colonel.

Dr. Kosanovich is in practice in Englewood, FL. He is a past president of the Florida Optometric Association and a current member of the AOA's State Government Relations Committee. He is running for a position on the AOA Board of Trustees in 2020.

Dr. McNeely is a Past President of the South Carolina Optometric Association and a member of the AOA's State Government Relations Committee. A native of Florence, Alabama, Dr. Johndra McNeely graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of North Alabama in Professional Biology. She received her doctorate of optometry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she graduated with honors and received the VSP Excellence in Primary Care Award for her graduating class. Dr. McNeely has completed an externship at the Tuscaloosa VA hospital focusing on eye disease and primary care, and she has been in practice in the Upstate since 2009. Her special interests in optometry include diabetic eye disease and children’s vision.

Dr. Amir Khoshnevis received his Doctor of Optometry at Pennsylvania College of Optometry and his B.S. in Biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Khoshnevis has held appointments and positions with numerous national health care entities. He is the recipient of several awards including 2011 Philanthropist of the Year by Optometry Giving Sight. Dr. Khoshnevis is the founder of Vision Source Studio 20/20 with two locations in Charlotte, NC. Amir has been a Vision Source Administrator since 2003 and has served as an Advisory Board member and Senior Advisor to the company. Recently, Dr. Khoshnevis joined the Vision Source leadership team as Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer where he works to ensure that the voice and vision of the private practice optometrist continue to guide the network.

Dr. McFerron received her Bachelor of Science from The University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2003. Her Doctorate of Optometry was received in 2008 at the Oklahoma College of Optometry at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In July 2008, Dr. McFerron moved from Oklahoma to Oregon where she practiced in Woodburn for 3 years. In October 2011 Dr. McFerron bought Canby Eyecare from Dr. Don Chase after 37 years of ownership. During her education, Dr. McFerron was trained in ocular disease, specialty contact lenses, and pediatrics, as well as all forms of primary care optometry. She is certified to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents to treat glaucoma, iritis, “red eye” and other anterior eye diseases. Dr. McFerron’s main interests in optometry include contact lenses, ocular disease, and pediatrics. Dr. McFerron is a member of the American Optometric Association (AOA), the Portland Metropolitan Optometric Society (PMOS), and the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association (OOPA). She also a past President of OOPA. In 2013 Dr. McFerron was named the Oregon Young Optometrist of the Year. In her spare time Dr. McFerron enjoys exercising, reading, cycling, cooking, and traveling to see her family and friends that are spread all across the US.

This week we take listener questions: How many people are tuning in? Where do you get your music? What do you think about intravitreal injections by nurses? What is up in Arkansas? Is there a scope of practice limit that could be made on ODs?

Dr. McElroy, founded Ted A. McElroy, OD, PC in 1994 in Tifton, GA. He is a graduate of Southern College of Optometry. In 2004 he served as the Georgia Optometric Association President and is currently serving as the treasurer of SECO International. Dr. McElroy was the recipient of the 1997 GA Optometric Association’s Young Optometrist of the Year, the 2005 GOA Optometrist of the year and the 2009 GOA Bernard Kahn Award Recipient. His passion is his connection with his patients. His goal is to exceed his patient’s expectations, service and to offer his patients a better quality of life. Dr. McElroy strives to provide his patients with an experience that cannot be found anywhere else in eye care. He is continually looking to industries and businesses outside Optometry to find these examples of excellence. Dr. McElroy is a founding member of The Roya Enterprise, an organization dedicated to assisting aspiring practice owners. He enjoys speaking to students on the joys of private practice and is an author published in Optometric Management, also serving on their editorial board. He spends a great deal of his time with his wife and two sons traveling to swim meets, going to Disney World and enjoying time with them.

Dr. Jeffrey Krohn was unsure of where his future would take him as a college student. After bouncing around from Architecture (Cal Poly, SLO) and Business (Point Loma College) and Engineering (Fresno State), his father helped him “see” that his future was as an optometrist. After completing the optometric training, he was asked to join the same faculty that taught him for two yeas. With a desire to put down roots in the valley, he and his wife moved to Fresno in 1989 with their son, Austin. Over the past 20+ years in Fresno, they have been involved with church and community activities, have had 3 daughters (Aubrey, Olivia and Emmaline) and have been blessed with great staff and great friends. Dr. Krohn has a particular passion and interest in patients who require specialized and unique contact lens designs, and receives referrals from other doctors and organizations from up and down the central valley. We discuss Dr. Bob Vandervort, who was a mentor to both Jeff and I, and below is a picture of Jeff posing as Bob at a skit while he was in school:

Dr. Scott Schachter founded Advanced Eyecare and the Eyewear Gallery Optometry in 1994 in Pismo Beach, California. He believes in the importance of providing full scope eye care for his patients and was one of the first optometrists in California to become glaucoma certified. Like many practitioners, the ocular surface disease was a neglected part of his practice for almost 2 decades. Then, in 2011, while undergoing his own LASIK preop visit, Dr. Schachter realized his own dry eye disease was causing the majority of his higher order aberrations. Dry eye disease was no longer limited to just the surface — Dr. Schachter started thinking of it as a vision disease. Since that auspicious LASIK preop visit, Dr, Schachter has worked to become a leader in the dry eye world. He has been published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and is a regular columnist for Optometry Times and Ocular Surface News. In addition, he has presented papers at the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) and presented posters at AAO, American Optometric Association, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Check out The Ocular Surface Academy!

Caroline Blackie is an internationally recognized clinical and scientific expert in the field of dry eye with specific focus on meibomian gland dysfunction. She has authored and published over 40 scientific articles in this area. She currently serves as the Medical Director for Ocular Surface Disease for Johnson and Johnson Vision, providing medical and scientific leadership to drive and shape innovation in this therapeutic area. Dr. Blackie joined Johnson and Johnson Vision after 12 years with TearScience. At TearScience, she served on the small team of individuals who imagined, designed, developed, tested, and brought to market all of the TearScience Products. Passionate about the patient experience, she also successfully divided her time between clinical research and development and private practice, accruing approximately 20 years of direct patient care experience in her career. Her years in direct clinical care, fuel her desire to elevate and transform the standard of care towards a more proactive approach to ocular surface health. Brian Regan is a growth, launch and turnaround sales and marketing executive with history delivering innovation for patient care, revenue growth and significant investor value. Skilled in leadership of sales and marketing, business strategy, market research, KOL development, customer service, CRM, and metrics reflecting progress on KPI’s.

Dr. Louis Catania is an internationally renowned lecturer on optometry’s role in diagnosis and treatment of anterior segment diseases. He was a Pennsylvania College of Optometry faculty member until 1995, serving as Associate Professor. Dr. Catania also directed the Center for Continuing and Post Graduate Education (now the Department of International and Continuing Education). As the first Director of the Center for International Studies, Dr. Catania played a pivotal role in expanding the College’s educational scope worldwide. He is the author of Primary Care of the Anterior Segment and an accompanying audio-visual series. Dr. Catania was named Alumnus of the Year in 1994. He has served as senior clinical consultant for Nicolitz Eye Consultants for the past 15 years. In 2013, Dr. Catania was named the American Academy of Optometry’s Eminent Service Awardee. Dr. Catania was inducted into the National Optometry Hall of Fame in 2016. To get the most current episodes of the Eye Documentaries Podcast, search "EyeDocs" in your favorite podcast app.

This weeks discussion was with Dr. Amanda Lee. In addition to practicing optometry for 20 years, Dr. Lee has been a professional speaker and consultant for Alcon, Bausch & Lomb and MacuLogix. She earned her BA in Biology from Central Connecticut State University before earning a BS in Visual Science and Doctorate of Optometry from Pennsylvania College of Optometry. She also completed a Residency in Primary Care/Ocular Disease at The Eye Institute in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Mike Rothschild began his practice from scratch in his wife's rural hometown and enjoyed immediate practice success that multiplied for several years. This success took more and more time away from what really mattered in his life. More patients led to more staff, more equipment and more hours at the office. Not being able to do it all, Mike's practice began to suffer until he realized that he didn't know how to lead a team. He studied leadership strategies from some of the most successful businesses in the service industry and successfully implemented them into his own practice. He learned the importance of systems, communication and teamwork to reach goals that he could never attain alone. He now shares those experiences with doctors and their teams and has a unique ability to ask the right questions, to keep digging until he finds your individual "why". And it's different for everyone and most often it involves many aspects outside of the practice. Mike Rothschild graduated from the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis and was honored as an Outstanding Clinician. He lectures internationally on topics of practice management, leadership, contact lenses and ocular disease. He practices in Carrollton, GA and married to Christy. They have two children.

Dr. Shay graduated with honors from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008, where she majored in Rehabilitation Science. In 2012, she received her Doctor of Optometry degree from Southern College of Optometry (Memphis, Tennessee). In addition to graduating at the top of her class, she was also honored to receive the SCO Outstanding Clinician Award. Dr Shay is highly skilled in full scope optometry and has extensive experience in the specialties of Glaucoma, Contact Lenses, Dry Eye Disease, and Pediatrics. Dr. Shay participates in the InfantSEE program, which provides a free eye exam to babies 6-12 months old. One of her passions is early detection of vision problems in children. As part of her training, she worked at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where she had the opportunity to examine and treat soldiers with traumatic brain injuries. In 2018, Dr. Shay and Dr. Tim won the Hayes Center for Practice Excellence Award from their alma mater Southern College of Optometry for demonstrating excellence in private practice. Dr. Shay likes to travel, read, watch and play sports. She especially enjoys spending time with her husband, Dr. Tim, and their two daughters. For links to documents discussed in today's show click here!

Dr. Permann, a native of Pickstown, South Dakota, attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry. He completed his Doctor of Optometry degree at the University of Missouri – St Louis College of Optometry. He completed externships at several locations in the St. Louis area, the VA hospital in Kansas City, MO and at Vance Thompson Vision in Sioux Falls. He joined Dr. Menning’s practice in June of 2015 and is now the owner of 605 Vision, formerly Dr. LL Menning. His professional interests include comprehensive vision exams, ocular disease management, including diabetic exams, ocular surface disease, complex contact lens issues, and orthokeratology. He is an InfantSEE provider and a member of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the South Dakota Optometric Society (SDOS).

Today I will share a snippet of one of our first episodes with Dr. Bob Vandervort. The goal of the podcast is to explore the history of our profession, where we were, where we are and where we are going. While you are enjoying this first episode you can subscribe to the Eye Documentary Podcast by typing EYEDOCS into the search tool of your favorite podcast app. Check it out on iTunes here.

Today I had an awesome conversation with Dr. Belinda Starkey. Belinda is the outgoing president of the Arkansas Optometric Association, a VS member and played a critical role in the passage the new Arkansas law that authorizes optometrists to provide minor surgical procedures including laser surgery to care for their patients. Dr. Starkey and I discussed some of the common pitfalls when attempting to pass this legislation and how the Arkansas Optometric Association overcame these obstacles. If you have any suggestions on who I should speak with next, please contact me at [email protected]

Today I had a great discussion with my good friend Dr. Aaron Werner. Aaron is a co-administrator for the San Diego area, but he is also the senior director for professional development at Vision Source. Aaron ad I go way back to our days on the AOSA Board of Trustees. We reminisced on those times and the evolution of our professional roles, we also discussed running, cultivating relationships and how to describe chocolate to someone who has never tasted it. Please enjoy our conversation, and as always, if you want to get the most current episodes, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and give us a 5-star review. If there is a topic you would like to have discussed, please contact me at [email protected]

Doug is the Vision Source co-administrator in Indiana, and he is also a CodeHead for the American Optometric Association. We discussed common pitfalls that he sees offices making when it comes to billing and coding, as well as common questions he gets as a CodeHead. I think our discussion on Medical Decision Making is likely the most helpful! Please enjoy our conversation, and as always, if you want to get the most current episodes, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and give us a 5-star review. If there is a topic or person you would like to hear on the podcast, please email me at [email protected]

Today I had an amazing conversation with Dr. Mick Kling. Mick has a business finance consulting company called Impact OD and we discussed his roots with LeadershipOD, Business Finance, Profit First and fiscally sound ideas for cash flow and business management. Please enjoy our conversation, and as always, if you want to get the most current episodes, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and give us a 5-star review!

Today I had a great discussion with Dr. Pamela Lowe! She truly has built a practice for preventative ocular care and her passion for early disease detection and prevention is contagious! We had a conversation about myopia control, macular degeneration and incorporating new technologies into your practice. Enjoy the show! As always, if you want to get the most current episodes, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and give us a 5-star review!

Today's discussion is with Jessica Stoffel, the director of Managed Vision Care Programs at Vision Source. We had a great conversation about optimizing our offerings so that patients and our practices can receive the maximum benefits from their benefits! If you have questions about the Managed Vision Care, please reach out to Jess @ [email protected] Show Links: Essilor Game Plan Maximizing MVC Plans VS Live Groups (Check out this amazing resource at least once per day!): Insurance Billing & Coding Maximizing Profitability Office Management Round Table VS Live in general

Today's discussion is with Tami Franklin, the director of VS Learning and the VSR Program. We spoke about the cost to benefit ratio of the VSR program (tilted significantly in the benefits column) and guided staff training. If you have questions about the VSR Program please reach out to Tami @ [email protected] Want to access VS Learning? Click here.

Today I had a great discussion with Dr. Anthony Podany. Dr. Podany is not an optometrist, he is a clinical and research pharmacologist at Nebraska Medicine who specializes in HIV and Tuberculosis treatments. I have wanted to have Tony on since I originally conceived of starting a podcast because of my deep fascination with the health and social implications of HIV. We discussed historical, current and future HIV treatments and how that impacts clinical and social aspects of the disease. Understanding Dr. Podany’s perspective has really helped me serve my patients better and I hope it does for you as well!

My guests today are Bill Walsh & Tim Floyd from ABB Optical Group. After some of my conversations with Tom Quinn and Drew Bateman, I reached out to Bill and Tim because they have a unique perspective in helping doctors evaluate the opportunity in their practice with: Soft contact lenses RGP lenses Specialty contacts ABB is a Vision Source Vendor and we had a great discussion about how we can start contact lens discussions with patients that build the medical side of our practices and how that translates into overall practice growth.

Today I had a great discussion with my good friends Drs. Darren Wright and Rusty Crotty. We discussed: Gradifi Bonus structures Empowering new associates Succession planning CEO Summit Additional resources from the show: 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Right Now Media at Work

Today I had a great discussion with Dr. Jason “JT” Tu. TY serves as the Vision Source Co-Administrator of San Diego and he is the president-elect of the California Optometric Association. I always enjoy speaking with JT and today's conversation was no different. We discussed immigration, association involvement, and building tight-knit communities! JT is doing big things in our profession and you can see why when you understand his history! If you want to get the most current episodes, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and give us a 5-star review!

Today I had a great discussion with my good friend Dr. Drew Bateman. If you don’t know Drew, he is the president-elect of the Nebraska Optometric Association and has built a highly successful practice in Lincoln Nebraska. We spoke about how we have discussions with our patients on PD and online glasses, in addition, we talked about secret societies in optometry and our new upcoming podcast, that explores critical events and pivotal people in our profession!

Today I had an awesome discussion with Dr. Tom Quinn about Contact lenses in general, but Dr. Quinn was a principal investigator of CRT lenses and so our conversation naturally drifted to orthokeratology, myopia control, and Brien Holden who was a mentor of Dr. Quinn’s. He shared some important pearls on implementation, patient conversations and provided clear direction on the insurance implications of fitting orthokeratology that was hugely helpful!

Dr. Jeff Hilovsky and I discuss the impact that his leadership work has had on his community. Our larger discussion today is on the impact he has had on ACO relationships in his region and what we can learn to apply locally. Jeff practices in Delaware and he is retired from the Air Force Reserves as a Colonel and Commander of the 512 Aerospace Medicine Squadron. He is a past President of the Delaware Board of Optometry, a past President of the Delaware Optometric Association. Show links: Fire Your Doctor My EyeLab

Today I had a discussion with Dr. David Caban, the Vision Source Director of Managed Care Initiatives for the North East. David has a long history in our profession of moving the ball forward so patients have access to the breadth of services we provide. We discussed the evolution of the Vision Source and SNE-PTN Relationship, and how optometry evolves to play a larger role in demonstrable, high quality, cost-efficient health care.

Michael Steinkrauss is the Associate Director of Transformation at the Southern New England Practice Transformation Network. We spoke about how our Vision Source offices have been able to show CMS the value of the services and what this means for the future. We also discussed interoperability, alternative payment models and the unique position both locally and nationally that Vision Source practices are in to continue to grow in the future. Enjoy!

Part 2: Dr. Pete Kehoe is a past president of the AOA, practice owner and Vision Source member. We discuss challenges and opportunities for our profession, strategies for being effective leaders of our practices and time management among many other things. This discussion is broken down into 2 parts.

Dr. Pete Kehoe is a past president of the AOA, practice owner and Vision Source member. We discuss challenges and opportunities for our profession, strategies for being effective leaders of our practices and time management among many other things. This discussion is broken down into 2 parts.

Dr. Carlson, AOA Past-President and private practitioner highlights the keys to building a better team to enhance your practice and practice culture.

Dr. Carlson, AOA Past-President and private practitioner highlights the keys to building a better team to enhance your practice and practice culture.

Dr. Carlson, AOA Past-President and private practitioner highlights the keys to building a better team to enhance your practice and practice culture.