The Myopia Mindset

Dr. Leah Johnson and Dr. Cary Herzberg react to new research where indigo light prevented myopia in tree shrews, and explain why they still tell parents to send kids outside. This is a preview to one of our subscriber only episodes on Substack. Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an inbox update when we post a new episode, early episodes, a weekl...

After ten years building Treehouse Eyes, Matt Oerding says the practices that succeed at myopia management aren't the ones with the best story. They're the ones with a system, a doctor with conviction Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an inbox update when we post a new episode, early episodes, a weekly newsletter - PLUS bonus content for paying...

Why a lens-design software company opened its own lab, and how they get new fitters to a first-fit win. Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an inbox update when we post a new episode, early episodes, a weekly newsletter - PLUS bonus content for paying subscribers. Mark Cosgrove , Dr. Sukh Gill and Josh Martinez . You may know them from Doctor’s O...

If there’s ever a Mount Rushmore of myopia management, Dr. Thomas Aller is on it. His work shaped where this field is today, and most are using a version of it every week, whether we know it or not. So I wanted to hear how it actually started. The answer: frustration, a payphone, and a lot of stubbornness. Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an i...

This is a preview to one of our subscriber only episodes on Substack. Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an inbox update when we post a new episode, early episodes, a weekly newsletter - PLUS bonus content for paying subscribers. This month’s question came from Dr. Andrew Brauer, by way of a text he sent Cary. Andrew had heard Cary say something...

Dr. Matthew Martin on front-loading the hard part of ortho-K so the next ten years mostly run themselves, and why doctors who keep redesigning happy patients are making their own work. This is a preview to one of our subscriber only episodes on Substack. Get the full episode here: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Substack Subscribers get an inbox update when we post a new episode, early episode...

Dr. Shefali Miglani is one of the most successful myopia management doctors I know. She's also the only guest who opened by telling me she failed. She had the lens, the technology and the topography map, and parents still nodded politely and walked out without signing up. When she figured out why, it changed everything. She'd been talking about her technology, her training and herself, and the par...

Dr. David Ng went inside Vision China 2026 — AI risk models trained on more than a million records, ten-year axial trajectories predicted from a single retinal photograph, and a national approach to childhood myopia that makes ours look accidental. Dr. Cary Herzberg, Dr. Andrew Brauer and Dr. Priscilla Chang break down what it means for the rest of us. This is the third story from this month's Myo...

Dr. Jennifer Lyerly walks through the STAR study numbers, the parents who just want the glasses, and the 25-year-old nobody knows what to do with. Join Us on Substack: full podcast + articles + bonus content myopiamindset.substack.com

Subscribe on Substack: Weekly podcast + article + bonus content ↓ https://myopiamindset.substack.com Dr. Carrie Hartigan on building a pediatric-only practice, training a myopia coordinator, winning pediatrician referrals, and why one flat fee changed how she treats every kid. ABOUT THE SHOW The Myopia Mindset — conversations with the optometrists and myopia specialists figuring this out in real t...

Dr. David Ng was a happy general practice OD in 2002. Then he put a retinoscope in front of his three-year-old son. SUBSCRIBE ON OUR SUBSTACK https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ New episode alerts in your inbox, early episodes, video podcasts, newsletter, and bonus content you wont find anywhere else!

Welcome back to Myopia News Monthly , our ongoing segment where we grab the biggest stories in myopia management and actually break them down. Get the full episode, details, video and bonus content on our Substack: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/p/ama-myopia-disease-resolution

The FDA just gave myopia management a second chance. Last October, Sydnexis’ SYD-101 — the low-dose atropine drop that would be the first FDA-approved pharmaceutical treatment for pediatric progressive myopia — was rejected in a Complete Response Letter that left most of us scratching our heads. The Phase 3 STAR trial was the largest pediatric myopia program ever completed (847 children, ages 3–14...

He inherited a handful of poorly-fit ortho-K patients, gave himself six months to master the specialty, and ended up co-founding a lens design company. Dr. Sukh Gill returns for a deep-dive interview. SUBSCRIBE on SUBSTACK for weekly articles, bonus content, and video podcast episodes. https://myopiamindset.substack.com/

Here’s a question Dr. Cary Herzberg wants every optometrist to ask in the mirror: if you dropped every vision care plan tomorrow, could your practice survive? For most young ODs, the honest answer is no. Not because they aren’t great clinicians — optometry school made sure of that — but because, as Cary puts it, “they don’t teach you how to make a living.” Cary has spent 50+ years in myopia manage...

This month’s Myopia News Monthly brings Dr. Andrew Brauer and Dr. Priscilla Chang to the table for three stories — and one genuine disagreement. SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK Get the rundown, links to articles, weekly newsletter, bonus content, and the video version of every podcast. https://myopiamindset.substack.com/

For all the noise around artificial intelligence, the most useful question for a myopia practice isn’t “Will this replace me?” It’s “Can this help me do the work I already know I should be doing?” That’s the premise of this week’s episode. I sat down with my friend Louise Curcio — a fractional marketing director with a focus on AI-augmented marketing, and formerly the director of myopia management...

Welcome back to Myopia News Monthly, where we cover the top stories in the myopia management industry so you can grow organically into the expert you were always meant to be. This month’s panel: returning guests Dr. Andrew Brauer , Dr. Cary Herzberg , and Josh Martinez of Doctor’s Own Design/Aurora GP Lab, Inc. + SUBSTACK - Full Episodes + Bonus Content + Weekly Articles This Month’s Stories 1. HH...

Optometrists haven’t gotten a real raise in 20 to 30 years. Vision care plans are paying a fraction of what exams are worth — and the doctor is covering the overhead, the staff time, the insurance admin, and the billing. The plans cover none of it. They are, as Dr. Cary Herzberg puts it, living rent-free in your practice. Become a subscriber on our substack = full episodes + newsletter + bonus con...

Get the video podcast, a weekly article, and exclusive bonus content on Substack: https://myopiamindset.substack.com/ Building a myopia management referral network sounds simple on paper: introduce yourself, explain what you do, and ask other ODs to send you their myopic kids. In practice, it's a grind — cold calls that go nowhere, front desks that don't pass the message, colleagues who don't see...

Every month there’s more happening in myopia management than any one clinician can keep up with — new studies, new products, new debates. That’s exactly why we built this series. In this episode, I sit down with two practitioners who’ve been in the trenches of myopia management: Dr. Andrew Brauer of Eye Care Center of DuPage and Dr. Cary Herzberg , with 40+ years of myopia management experience. W...

It’s Myopia Awareness Week — and we’re releasing the bluntest episode we’ve ever recorded. Awareness weeks tend to be glossy. This one isn’t. Dr. Cary Herzberg has been doing this work for forty-five years, and Part 2 of our panel opens with him asking a question that should sit uncomfortably with the profession: it’s 2026, we have FDA-approved tools, and we’re still trying to convince colleagues...

Twenty years ago, the myopia toolbox had one drawer: ortho-K. Today, U.S. optometrists have FDA-approved soft contacts, an approved spectacle lens, off-label low-dose atropine, and a steady drip of next-generation options coming through Health Canada first. So how do you actually decide what to put a kid in? In Part 1 of this two-part panel, Matthew sits down with Dr. Jennifer Lyerly (True Vision...

A Texas ophthalmologist sits down to explain the lifetime risks of myopia to a 6-year-old's mom — and mid-sentence realizes the mom, still in her 20s, has already had retinal detachments in both eyes from her own untreated nearsightedness. That's the gap this episode is about: the gap between what we know myopia does to people, and what the FDA's drug division decided was "not clinically meaningfu...

What does it look like to build a full-spectrum myopia management program inside one of the country’s top pediatric hospitals — and what can every optometrist learn from it? 🔗 Subscribe on Substack - video podcasts + articles + exclusive bonus content 📸 Instagram / TikTok / Linkedin - connect + daily insights In Part 1 of this special episode of the Myopia Mindset podcast, host Matthew Herzberg...