January 15, 2025
By Ronald Krefman, OD, FAAO, focalCenter Vision Analytics
By 2050, 50% of the world’s population will be myopic, furthering a predicted sevenfold increase in the prevalence of impaired vision. Your local efforts to reduce myopia progression are critical to preventing future vision loss and stemming its immense impact on livelihoods, health systems, and society. Unfortunately, as of now, intervention is severely lacking. A recent Jobson survey of ECPs found that only 63.6% offer myopia control, yet 50% of their patients aged 18 and younger are myopic. This aligns with a Vision Council survey wherein only 62% of parents of myopic children said their child’s eye doctor suggested a treatment plan, while 18% did not get a plan or referral.
Addressing Myopia Locally
Curtailing this epidemic begins at the front lines — that means with you. Whether you are considering or already practicing myopia management, your success in combating this scourge starts with your understanding of the magnitude of the problem locally.
To quantify the threat of myopia (and the opportunity to treat it) in your community means applying known prevalence rates to local population attributes. However, this data is not readily available, and the calculations are complex. Fortunately, a new application, localEyes MYOPIA can do this analysis for you. It delivers an interactive exploration of the local prevalence and impact of myopia as well as revenue estimates for practicing myopia management at any eye care location in the U.S. and soon in Canada. This tool enables eye care providers to quantify, prioritize, and target nearby needs and opportunities to manage myopia successfully. The nine pages of content in the localEyes MYOPIA report answer the following questions about local myopia:
How wide is my reachable market?
Research tells us that 90% of the population lives within a 13.66-minute drive to the nearest optometrist, that trips for routine health care visits take an average of 17.5 minutes, and that 93.2% of consumers patronize local merchants within 20 minutes from home for general purchases. Exceptions include rural consumers (17% of all purchases) or persons traveling for special needs who will typically allocate more than 20 minutes of travel time. The localEyes MYOPIA report considers all of these facts and zooms in-or-out to views of 10-, 20-, or 30-minute drives from your office, allowing you to compare differences in myopia profiles between the nearest, adjacent, and outlying communities.
What is the demographic distribution of nearby children?
Beyond merely counting kids, localEyes MYOPIA presents the local distribution of children by two key myopia factors: age and race. You can use these distribution shares for benchmarking against your current patient mix for strategic marketing.
How big is my addressable myopia market?
Your total addressable myopia market (TAM) is reported along with details by age, race, and severity of myopia now and five years in the future. This is equivalent to the “whole pie,” or all nearby children with myopia, without consideration for the likelihood of parental consent or your practice’s capture rate. Knowing the magnitude of the TAM allows you to plan and justify investments in proper state-of-the-art equipment, staffing, software, and marketing campaigns.
How can I explain the importance of myopia management?
Nearly 40% of those with high myopia suffer from uncorrectable visual loss by age 75, representing an annual economic burden of $60 billion in the United States. Using nearby prevailing fees, the individualized enormous financial risk and life-altering consequences of refusing myopia management are highlighted. The narrow difference in individual lifetime costs between managing versus simply correcting childhood myopia are also illustrated.
Your report further creates a sense of urgency by detailing the odds of developing common high myopia sequelae, such as myopic maculopathy, retinal tears and detachment, glaucoma, and cataracts, along with the percent reduction in risk from preventing high myopia for each condition. Highlighting the number of nearby adults with high myopia further reinforces your discussions on the importance of electing pediatric myopia management.
What is a realistic caseload and revenue estimate for my locale?
Applying conservative parental adoption rates, the localEyes MYOPIA report illustrates scenarios of the “attainable” market (aka Serviceable Available Market or SAM) based on conservative election rates of 5% to 15%. These are the nearby myopic children likely to enroll in myopia management protocols from any nearby provider (not just you).
Your “obtainable” market (aka Serviceable Obtainable Market or SOM) is determined using a cautious capture rate between 0.05% and 0.5% of the addressable market. This is the portion of your market that you can realistically capture. Besides counting cases, you are also shown likely revenue estimates based on average annual fees ranging from $1,500 to $2,500 per case. Considering that an average orthodontic practice converts about 50% of their consults into patients, averaging 344 pediatric cases annually, each around $5,500, these myopia capture rates, case counts, and revenue estimates are realistic and achievable values.
How does this tool help me with getting the word out?
To build awareness of the problem and associate your practice as a solution provider, your outreach efforts are simplified by providing you with three geo-fenced, exportable lists of nearby stakeholders and potential partners in the battle against myopia: local pediatricians, neighboring public schools, and private schools in your trade area.
Which zip codes should I target first?
Your serviceable market is further broken down by listing up to 100 of the nearest zip codes and ranking each with metrics for prioritizing neighborhoods most in need of and amenable to myopia management.
Act Locally
Population and workforce statistics tell us on average, there are more than 450 myopic children for each practicing optometrist in the U.S. How does your locale compare? Where are these children within your trade area? Who can you engage to get the word out about controlling myopia? Your localEyes MYOPIA report provides the answers along with other needed insights to start or grow your local effort to control myopia, improve the future of nearby children, and benefit your local community while optimizing your fair share.
![]() |
Ronald Krefman, OD, FAAO, is the founder and CEO of focalCenter, a vision industry consultancy. Dr Krefman has been in the eye care industry for 40+ years. He has served as a faculty member of the University of Illinois Department of Ophthalmology Medical School, a private practice optometrist, founder of an innovative reading glass company, and editor of eye care journals. Dr. Krefman has post-graduate training in psychometrics and patient-reported outcomes at Harvard. Dr. Krefman served as principal investigator for multiple clinical trials/effectiveness studies, has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications, and has patents issued for eye care products. focalCenter conducts market research, including developing psychometrically validated questionnaires, creating industry-wide benchmarking programs, resourcing and statistically analyzing vision industry data, providing industry dashboards and insights to ophthalmic media, data aggregators, industry trade groups, PE firms, retailers, manufacturers, vendors, and other stakeholders as well as reporting innovative geo-analytic views of vision consumers and providers. |
