CooperVision News

The EYEdea Lab: first-of-its-kind event a success at Optometry’s Meeting

To address the many challenges facing today’s eye care practices amidst unprecedented change in the industry, CooperVision, Inc. unveiled the Best Practices EYEdea Lab. This first-of-its-kind “think tank” took place on June 21 in the exhibit hall at Optometry’s Meeting 2018 in Denver. In the EYEdea Lab, Best Practices honorees leveraged their collective experiences and expertise to advance the profession.

2018 Best Practices honorees were joined in the EYEdea Lab by several past award recipients to develop novel, high-value solutions for the industry, working together to conduct research, collect ideas, and bring recommendations forward. These outcomes will be unveiled at the Global Contact Lens Forum at Vision Expo West in Las Vegas this September.

The collaboration was facilitated by Dr. David Ricketts, Innovation Fellow at Harvard University. He kicked off the initiative when 2018 honorees met for the first time this spring, at the exclusive CooperVision Best Practices Summit in Austin, Texas.

“With optometry’s evolution, eye care professionals must adapt for their practices to not only survive, but thrive,” said Michele Andrews, OD, Senior Director of Professional and Academic Affairs, North America, CooperVision. “Our Best Practices honorees have found ways to do this in their own communities, but now we are challenging them to take their vision a few steps further—to push the boundaries of what’s possible and develop a roadmap for thousands of their peers to adopt.”

The event was very well attended by conference goers and was interactive, with honorees leaving the EYEdea Lab space to interview Doctors of Optometry on the exhibit hall floor and even bringing them back to take a look at the problems and solutions being developed.

“It is fitting that the Best Practices honorees tackled this project right on the show floor, in the middle of everything, surrounded by their peers and so many contributors to optometry,” said Dr. Andrews. “It was inspiring.”

As an expert in innovation, science and technology, Dr. Ricketts guides and teaches leaders in various industries how to understand the untapped value in their markets, and discover and solve high-impact problems in order to outperform the competition. In addition to his work at Harvard, he has held appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon University, and North Carolina State University.

Prior to the event, Dr. Ricketts outlined his goals for the experience. “Innovation is not only about bringing together the experts in a field, but having them focus on defining and testing real solutions for their industry,” said Dr. Ricketts. “The EYEdea Lab will be a hands-on innovation deep dive led by the 2018 Best Practices honorees. Key to making transformative solutions will be the direct engagement and participation of attendees in the exhibit hall to help uncover and test the new insights developed in the Lab.”

For more information about the EYEdea Lab and its outcomes, visit www.eyecarebestpractices.com/eyedea-lab.