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February 18, 2025
By Brianna Rhue, OD, FAAO, FSLS
Photo Credit: Dr. Brianna Rhue
I have been in the myopia management space for quite sometime and have had my successes and failures. I often tell the story of how I became an optometrist because of my own journey. I got my first pair of glasses in second grade and started wearing contacts in third. That experience changed my life, and it’s why I’m so passionate about what I get to do today.
When it comes to myopia management, I consider myself a highly passionate practitioner. I’ve immersed myself in the latest research over the years to perfect my patient protocols, understand the science and treat my young patients to the best of my ability.
So, why at this stage in my career would I decide to implement a new software like Ocumetra’s mEYE® Suite?
The truth is, even when you are experienced and confident, you can still encounter friction. You can still find yourself over-explaining the same concepts or failing to move a parent from a “maybe” to a “yes.” Implementing mEYE® Suite wasn’t just about adding a new tool. It was about shifting my entire mental model and streamlining my practice for better clinical and commercial outcomes.
The Problem with ‘Experienced’ Confidence
Before mEYE® Suite, I had been using various risk calculators. I was comfortable with the data. But I realized that while I was confident, I was often over-talking or doctor-splaining. We as clinicians tend to get stuck in the weeds of diopters and refractive error.
I had to make a mental shift, and I had to help parents make it too. Our profession has always thought of myopia as just a refractive error. As a result, our patients come in expecting the same thing. With the research we have available to us today, we need to move from thinking in diopters to thinking in millimeters – and making sure parents understand this shift as well. Once I realized that the traditional way of explaining myopia wasn’t efficient or as effective as I hoped, I knew I needed the right tools to show parents exactly what we were trying to prevent.
Streamlining the Workflow: Cutting Through the Noise
Since implementing mEYE® Suite, our workflow has completely changed. In a busy clinic, “simple scales, complex fails.” If a process is too hard to explain or takes too long to input, it won’t be used.
Now, my team has a strict protocol: every kid under 15 gets an auto-refractor reading, topography and axial length measurement. That data is entered into mEYE® Suite before I even walk into the exam room. When I sit down with the parents, the report is already there.
This has allowed me to eliminate the noise that often comes up in myopia exams and get straight to what matters. Instead of spending 15 minutes explaining the physics of a dual-focus lens, I show them a graph. I can say, “Here is where your child is today. Without intervention, here is where they are projected to be at age 18. This is the treatment I am prescribing to change that trajectory.”
It turns a complex medical discussion into a collaborative decision. It moves the parent to a “yes” sooner, which is vital because we cannot afford to delay intervention. Waiting from age seven to eight, or eight to nine, means we’ve already missed the boat on significant prevention.
The Clinical Shift
Clinically, mEYE® Suite has given me the confidence to know exactly how aggressive I need to be. For example, if I see a 7-year-old with a -1.50D prescription, I can run the calculator and see that they are in the 99th percentile for their age. As a clinician, I know I need to start myopia treatment as soon as possible. When talking to parents, these graphs make it easy to understand exactly what I’m thinking.
I’ve also found that this has solved the “one-parent” problem. Frequently, only one parent comes to the exam. That parent might be onboard with a $2,000 treatment plan, but then they have to go home and explain it to a partner who wasn’t there. Usually, they can’t. They struggle to justify the cost because they can’t visualize the risk and probably only remembered 10% of what I said.
With mEYE® Suite, I can print a personalized report or have them scan their unique QR code. They take that home, show their partner the projection graph, and the decision is easier because it’s visual. It empowers the parent to be the messenger. It bridges the gap between my expertise and their household decision-making.
Real-World Impact: The “A-ha” Moment
I recently had a case that reminded me why this shift is so important. A mother brought in her 13-year-old daughter who was a -14.00D.
When we reverse-engineered her history, she had been seeing a doctor every year since she was six. Each year, her prescription got stronger, and each year, the mom was told she wasn’t a candidate for contacts. When that mom saw the projections and realized that treatments did exist that could have slowed down her daughter’s myopia years ago, she was devastated. She was angry that nobody had told her.
As clinicians, it is not up to us to decide if a treatment is “too expensive” or “too much work” for the patient. It is our responsibility to present the options efficiently so the parent can make an informed choice. mEYE® Suite ensures that no parent leaves my office saying, “I wish I had known.”
It’s Okay to Change Your Mind
I have a sticky note in my office that says “It is okay to change your mind.” For a long time, I thought I was doing myopia management at the highest level. But implementing Ocumetra has taught me that there is always a way to be more efficient and more precise. It has allowed me to fall in love with the process all over again because I can see the light go on in a parent’s eyes when they finally “get it.”
If you aren’t using a tool that objectively shows the risk of axial length growth, you aren’t practicing myopia management to its fullest potential. Simplify your workflow, trust the data and start getting to “yes” faster. Your patients’ futures depend on it. This is no longer a let’s wait and see conversation, but let’s intervene and how.
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Dr. Brianna Rhue earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona before earning her Doctorate of Optometry at Nova Southeastern University. She completed her residency at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami and is the owner of West Broward Eyecare in South Florida. Dr. Rhue is passionate about health care technology, myopia management, specialty contact lens fits, and practice management. She enjoys sharing her love for technology and myopia management through speaking engagements to help optometrists understand business, technology, and new areas of care to help all parties involved. Dr. Rhue is the co-founder of Dr. Contact Lens, which made the INC 5000 list as the 41st fastest growing company in the U.S., and TechifEYE. Outside the office, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, playing tennis, standing on her head in yoga, and traveling. |
