With sports being a lucrative industry, why not set up your own sports vision clinic?
Sport is a huge part of our culture and a significant field within the medical industry. Without well-maintained and properly treated eyesight, the majority of athletes cannot excel—which presents a great opportunity for optometrists to establish specialized sports vision clinics. We interviewed two experts in the field to find out more.
Sport dominates huge swathes of the cultural landscape in the United States and many other countries, serving not only as media entertainment but also as a fundamental aspect of our national identities and daily lives. According to research published by Harvard University, one in four adults in the US plays sports on a regular basis.1 That’s equivalent to 83 million people participating in soccer, baseball, hockey, tennis, and various other disciplines.
Tapping into the sports vision market
It is a big part of our cultural identity and even bigger business, with the American sports industry alone estimated to be worth over $83 billion in 2023, with substantial further growth anticipated in the next five years.2 It’s a lucrative market for companies to capitalize on. So why shouldn’t optometrists carve out their own niche by setting up specialist clinics focused on sports vision?
The vast majority of sports activities rely heavily on eyesight, and individuals with perfect or nearperfect vision have an undeniable advantage over their competitors. Yet sports vision remains a relatively small specialty in optometry.
Given the unique demands of their activities, sportspeople require specialized treatment more than what the average person needs. This makes sports vision an essential discipline in optometry.
Specs for sports stars
In one comprehensive study, researchers distributed a questionnaire to 1,573 individuals who regularly engaged in sports activities to inquire about their eyesight. Nearly all respondents (93.8%) reported having their vision checked at least once recently, with 53 subjects (3.4%) having undergone refractive surgery. Among those who had not undergone refractive surgery, 580 (38.2%) reported vision defects, 474 (31.2%) were myopic, 63 (4.1%) were hyperopic, and 241 (15.9%) were astigmatic.3
This study found no significant association between sports and different levels of myopia prevalence in the adult population. The only observable difference was between people who played indoor and outdoor sports. Hence, it suggests that being predisposed to sports doesn’t necessarily mean having better eyesight than the average person.3 Dr. Keith Smithson, cofounder of Sports Vision Pros (Leesburg, Virginia), can attest to this.
Dr. Smithson, who also serves as the team optometrist for the Washington Nationals baseball team, played soccer throughout his university years. His interest in sports drove him towards the medical field, where he merged his passion for soccer and medicine. He believes that sports vision should be a priority for optometrists—regardless of whether they operate a specialized practice or not.
“Every doctor or optometrist should be knowledgeable enough to understand the sports components of vision testing and effectively address the needs of athletes. At Sport Vision Pros, we do everything we can to educate doctors and clinicians about what they can do for athletes within their everyday exam room. This doesn’t necessarily require additional equipment or resources.”
Dr. Kevin Smithson
A niche discipline with big results
“Every doctor or optometrist should be knowledgeable enough to understand the sports components of vision testing and effectively address the needs of athletes. At Sport Vision Pros, we do everything we can to educate doctors and clinicians about what they can do for athletes within their everyday exam room. This doesn’t necessarily require additional equipment or resources,” remarked Dr. Smithson.
While sports vision remains a fairly niche discipline in optometry, Dr. Smithson pointed out that there’s been a significant uptick in sportsfocused technological development. He cited eye-tracking technologies like RightEye (Bethesda, Maryland, USA), which he described as a “great little technology that helps me get additional data points for athletes.” He also uses a virtual reality training program at his clinic called SharpEye Shootout (Deadeye Gaming, Inc.; Delaware, USA), a game that is designed to improve visual acuity and decision-making speed.
Athletes, not patients
Dr. Jennifer Stewart, founder of Look New Canaan (New Canaan, Connecticut, USA), echoes Dr. Smithson’s sentiment. She suggests that optometrists looking to reorient their clinics towards sports visions don’t necessarily need to immediately adopt new tools and technology. The first step they can take is to change their mindset about their patients.
“We typically don’t use the word ‘patient’ when talking about our sports vision clients, we refer to them as athletes. These athletes come to us to enhance their sports performance, not to solve an issue with ocular health,” Dr. Stewart said.
“What makes this practice different? Typically, it is conducted in a larger, open space and not in an exam lane. The technology and tools are different, and the training is not a typical eye exam. These individuals are often high-performing athletes, as opposed to patients coming to us to address an issue. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a different mindset for each group,” explained Dr. Stewart.
“We typically don’t use the word ‘patient’ when talking about our sports vision clients, we refer to them as athletes. These athletes come to us to enhance their sports performance, not to solve an issue with ocular health.”
Dr. Jennifer Stewart
“My best advice to optometrists is to prioritize location first: Where will you be training these athletes? What type of equipment will you need? How much space do you have? Who will be doing the training? Most athletes are available during the afternoons, evenings, and weekends—how will you staff that?”
Dr. Jennifer Stewart
When Dr. Stewart started as a sports vision specialist, she felt that there wasn’t a great deal of support for people like her who wanted to specialize in this area. That’s what motivated her to launch her own course, Sports Vision Training: See Faster, Play Faster,4 an educational blueprint for optometrists wanting to specialize in this field.
The challenges she faced have also given her valuable perspectives for optometrists looking to specialize in sports vision as well.
“My best advice to optometrists is to prioritize location first: Where will you be training these athletes? What type of equipment will you need? How much space do you have? Who will be doing the training? Most athletes are available during the afternoons, evenings, and weekends—how will you staff that?” Dr. Stewart added.
She further explained that there is a lot of groundwork to be put into place to be successful in this field. “You should make a wish list of everything you want, and then go through that and see what you need, what you can afford, and what you have space for. You can get very creative with inexpensive tools, you are only limited by your creativity and vision,” she said.
Small changes, big impact
Dr. Smithson also offers educational courses, available on the Sports Vision Pro website,5 designed to help optometrists enter the sports vision field. These lessons include free 10 hours of educational courses accessible to clinicians across the globe.
He emphasized the importance of viewing oneself and the patient as a team in both optometry, in general, and sports vision, in particular. He added that a collaborative approach to maintaining ocular healthcare is crucial to ensuring the best outcomes for athletes and patients alike, regardless of their health concerns.
“Becoming a sports visionfocused optometrist is all about making slight adjustments in how you typically approach a patient. We’re all a part of a team, and we all work together to maximize the skills of our athletes,” Dr. Smithson said.
“I want the eight-year-old tennis player who comes into my clinic to be successful, so that they continue to play and learn life lessons. That way, later in life when they need some determination, they can fall back on the skills that they learned from playing tennis for many years as a youth,” he concluded.
References
- Poll: Three in Four Adults Played Sports When They Were Younger, But Only One in Four Still Play. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Available at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/pressreleases/poll-many-adults-played-sports-when-young-but-few-still-play/. Accessed on March 22, 2024.
- North American Sports Market Size From 2009-2023. Statistica. Available at https://www.statista. com/statistics/214960/revenue-of-the-north-american-sports-market/. Accessed on March 22, 2024.
- Zeri F, Pitzalis S, Di Vizio A et al. Refractive Error and Vision Correction in a General Sports-Playing Population. Clin Exp Optom. 2018;101(2):225-236.
- Learn. Learn online from OD perspectives and Dr. Jennifer Stewart. OD Perspectives. Available at https://learn.odperspectives.com/pages/courses. Accessed on March 22, 2024.
- Basic Training. Sports Vision Pros. Available at https://www.sportsvisionpros.com/svp/category/ Basic%20Training. Accessed on March 22, 2024.
Editor’s Note: This article was published in COOKIE Magazine Issue 15.
