Grow Your Eye Care Practice: High Impact Pearls from the Marketing Experts

A crash course in marketing for eye care professionals, Grow Your Eye Care Practice: High Impact Pearls from the Marketing Experts guides readers through this crucial area of business development.

With an increase in patients undergoing elective procedures and an increase in the amount of providers, marketing has become the most important way for eye care professionals to grow their practices and differentiate themselves from their competition. Since marketing is not addressed in any formal course in medical school, optometry school, residency or fellowship, many eye care professionals lack basic understanding and skills in this area of growing importance to their businesses.

To meet this critical need, editor Dr. Ming Wang and associate editors Shareef Mahdavi, Michael Malley and Dr. Tracy Swartz have created this essential, timely handbook aggregating the key ophthalmic marketing pearls, teachings and experiences of some of the leading national and international marketing experts.

Grow Your Eye Care Practice begins with an overview of the history and current state of ophthalmic marketing, including a fascinating look at the commoditization of eye care as was demonstrated with the introduction of LASIK. The core chapters address foundational and innovative marketing concepts and their application to eye care, including:

• Market research, segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Patient experience
• Branding versus call to action
• Word of mouth referrals
• Digital marketing, including social media, websites and SEO
• Innovative marketing approaches
• Ethics and laws governing medical marketing
• Upcoming disruptive marketing technologies

Grow Your Eye Care Practice: High Impact Pearls from the Marketing Experts is an indispensable desktop reference for all eye care professionals--ophthalmologists, optometrists, administrators, practice managers, business associates, residents, fellows, medical students and optometry students―who wish to improve their marketing skills, grow their practices and differentiate themselves from their competition.

Ming Wang, MD, PhD is the CEO of Aier-USA, Director of Wang Vision Cataract & LASIK Center―An Aier-USA Eye Center, and clinical professor at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee.

A former panel consultant to the US Food and Drug Administration Ophthalmic Device Panel and a founding director of Vanderbilt Laser Sight Center, Dr. Wang has published more than 120 scientific papers including a paper in the world-renowned journal Nature and numerous book chapters. He also has edited 9 ophthalmic textbooks including Corneal Dystrophies and Degenerations: A Molecular Genetics Approach and the following books published by SLACK Incorporated: Corneal Topography in the Wavefront Era: A Guide for Clinical Application; Irregular Astigmatism: Diagnosis and Treatment; Keratoconus and Keratoectasia: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment; Corneal Topography: A Guide for Clinical Application in the Wavefront Era, Second Edition; Atlas and Clinical Reference Guide for Corneal Topography; Refractive Lens Exchange: A Surgical Treatment for Presbyopia; Surgical Correction of Presbyopia: The Fifth Wave; and Grow Your Eye Care Practice: High-Impact Pearls From the Marketing Experts.

Dr. Wang holds several US patents for his inventions of new biotechnologies to restore sight, including an amniotic membrane contact lens, an adaptive infrared retinoscopic device for detecting ocular aberrations, and a digital eye bank for virtual clinical trials. His invention of an amniotic membrane contact lens (for which he has obtained 2 US patents) has been used by more than 10,000 surgeons in the United States and worldwide in treating ocular surface diseases to restore sight. Dr. Wang is an investigator in the US Food and Drug Administration clinical trial of a sclera­spacing procedure to treat age-related loss of near vision (presbyopia) and ultraviolet cross-linking for the treatment of keratoconus. He introduced the femtosecond laser to China and performed China’s first bladeless all-laser LASIK procedure using this laser in 2005. He also performed the world’s first femtosecond laser–assisted artificial cornea implantation (Alphacor [Coopervision Surgical Inc]), and the first Intacs procedure in the United States using a new version of Intacs (Addition Technology, Inc) for advanced keratoconus.

Dr. Wang was a recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Chinese American Physicians, Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year, and a Trevecca University honorary doctorate degree.

Dr. Wang is the CEO of Aier-USA, the US expansion of Aier Eye Hospital, the world’s largest eye group with more than 500 locations in 3 of the 5 continents; the founding president of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce; and cofounder of the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Group. He founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization named Wang Foundation for Christian Outreach to China.

Dr. Wang introduced many state-of-the-art technologies to the state including small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE), toric implantable contact lens, bladeless all-laser LASIK, laser refractive lens exchange for the treatment of presbyopia and laser refractive cataract surgery, Intacs and cross-linking for keratoconus, and an amniotic membrane contact lens.

The proceeds of Dr. Wang’s autobiography, From Darkness to Sight, are donated to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which is dedicated to helping blind orphan children from around the world. The book is being made into a full-length major motion picture.