AWP: Beyond the Exam Room: Purpose, Myopia, and Population Health
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Who is Tony Sommer and what is his journey into eye care?
Isn't that cool? I spent so much money being professional and what gets me excited is the countdown.
Absolutely. Before we hit
record. Welcome to the Aaron Werner podcast on iCode Media. As you can tell, my guess is we're going to laugh a lot today. So hopefully if you're drinking coffee in the car listening to this, you might want to put it down. Or
if you have a
good coffee out the nose story, feel free
to share those
too. So, Tony, I'm excited to have you on for lots of different reasons. And first, I think you have the best LinkedIn page. Not that I'm a social media guru guy. But for me, LinkedIn just kind of felt like Facebook for professionals. And you can kind of see who's upset at their job and who's mad at their boss based upon the articles they post. And I'm not going to call anybody out. I look forward to your stuff. Not only are you the Sunrise Sunset guy, and I'm very proud to have had a sunset picture put up on there. Thank you. But you put up the National Park stuff, which is just... Awesome. And I would have never thought to look at national parks. That's really cool. You've worn various hats throughout your career, and I'll have you introduce yourself in a minute.
But you've never been, and I don't know how to say this the right way, so I'll just say it. You've never been the brand guy. Okay. So, like, whatever product or widget you had in your bag, you know, wasn't the silver bullet that was going to fix everybody's problems and solve world hunger and all that kind of stuff, right? You just, you look at what it is, you challenge, you ask the right questions, what I think are the right questions. You make me think, which I appreciate. And even today, there was a post about different... myopia ophthalmic lenses and what they treat, right? And it wasn't pro one or the other. Like, hey, this is what the study said. This is what it is. And it invokes a conversation. And I think that's how we all get better.
So I really appreciate that mixed with the, just the gorgeous photos that, you know, I can live vicariously through other people while I'm stuck behind a computer.
And
then the national park stuff is just great. So, you know, thank you one for your service for all you do there.
Absolutely. And thank you for having me, Aaron. This is a distinct pleasure. I could not be happier.
So this is fun. So for those who don't know Tony, like I said, you wear a lot of hats and you've worn a lot of hats. Give us a brief intro as to who you are.
Oh, my goodness. So I've been around the block a lot. Kind of the joke that I always have to your point about many hats is I can't seem to keep a job. So I always seem to move around. I have had the distinct pleasure of working in a number of different settings, started my career in the military, transferred out and came into like the business world, which is completely different besides the haircuts and the clothes. Yeah. But I found myself in vision care and eye care, right? Because it's healthcare and it's something big and wonderful and everybody can get behind that, honestly. That's not sarcasm, which I use heavily.
100%.
So I've worked for all the Contact Lens folks, except Johnson & Johnson. So Seba Vision, I've worked for, which dates me. I was going to say, you have to explain
who Seba Vision is now.
Seba Vision was a predecessor company of Alcom before they came together under the guise of Novartis. I left as that was coming together. That's a whole other conversation over coffee or drinks. Okay. Balsham Law, where I had a great time, VP Sales. And then Natural View, VTI. That's where I dipped my toes in myopia and just like drank from the fountain of knowledge because it's cool. And then I was at Cooper Vision running their specialty of myopia practice for the entire company in the Americas. So just a great, great arc. And then I found my true love, which is Treehouse Eyes, right? Because I'm a myopia guy. I'm a myopia enthusiast. I'm myopia adjacent. I am not a doctor at all. I know many doctors like you.
And I learned a great deal from every time I'm in the clinic, every time I talk to patients and parents.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Tony Sommer and what is his journey into eye care?
0:02–6:55
2
How did Tony’s military and corporate background shape his purpose in vision care?
6:55–13:28
3
Why does Tony consider eye health to be population health?
13:28–19:53
4
What personal experiences drove Tony to focus on myopia management?
19:53–27:40
5
How does TreeHouse Eyes approach building a sustainable myopia practice?
27:40–35:45
6
What are the biggest innovations and challenges in myopia management today?
35:45–41:41
7
How can optometry practices overcome misconceptions and grow their pediatric focus?
41:41–48:32
8
What final advice does Tony give to keep passion and purpose alive in eye care?
48:32–54:47