If you haven’t seen the Bell Ophthalmic website lately, you’re in for a big surprise. The new site is nearly 10-times the size, features a full online catalog, and special functions that help with on-site maintenance, repair and installation for our customers in New Jersey, Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Our support page offers emergency contact through text messaging, phone and email. An additional function allows you to request and schedule on-site maintenance and repair services.

Take the tour and let us know what you think. We’re committed to making our site the most useful tool possible for our customers.

Our new site was designed by Ideopia advertising + interactive agency, Cincinnati.

Canon Financial Services has decided to extend their popular promotion through June 30, 2009.

This offer is valid exclusively for the new Canon CR-1 Non-Mydriatic camera, the CF-1 Mydriatic camera, the Canon Autorefractors, and the Canon Autotonometer.

The benefit of the program is that you can take delivery of the instrument for use now, and take up to six months to decide whether to buy or lease.  There are no upfront fees.  If you decide not to purchase the equipment prior to the first payment due date, the lease will commence for 60 months.

This is a great tool for improving practice cash flow.  Please give us a call for more details.

With spring in full bloom many of your patients feel the discomfort of seasonal allergies. You can help with these tips from Dr. Mark Dykewicz, M.D., professor of internal medicine and chief of allergy and clinical immunology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine.

Dr Dykewicz says there are five important things you can do to prevent or relieve symptoms during allergy season when pollen or mold counts peak:

1. Use over-the-counter antihistamines for relief. For some people, these drugs are very effective at reducing the classic symptoms of seasonal allergies, including sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes and, occasionally, scratchy throat.

2. Keep the home’s doors and windows closed to help prevent pollens and outdoor molds from entering.

3. Limit outdoor activity, particularly in the morning when pollen counts are high, or on windy days when pollen and molds are blowing about. In general, pollen counts are highest in the morning, usually from about 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.

4. When traveling by car, keep the windows up to helps keep out pollens, dust and mold.

5. Take showers and change clothes. Pollen collects on clothes and in your hair. So when you’ve been outside for any significant amount of time, shower and change into fresh clothes as soon as you get home.

“When you’ve done all you can on your own and you can’t find relief, then it’s time to see your doctor,” Dykewicz says.

A group of retina specialists at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) recently released the second phase of the Multifocal Electroretinogram (MERG) study of patients placed on supplemental vitamins, minerals and carotenoids - a combination also known as Macular Health. The results of Phase II of the study represent the first-ever documentation of long-term improvement in eye health in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients, individuals at-risk for total blindness due to deterioration of the macula.

Macular Health is a vitamin supplement that slows vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration and reduces the risk of total blindness. The supplement was developed in 2003 by a retina surgeon at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB).

Macular Health is based on the National Eye Institute’s (NEI) Age Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) and also contains vitamins such as lutein, zeaxanthin and bilberry in a one-capsule, easy-to-swallow form. The Macular Health formula has been proven for short-term and long-term improvement in eye health in patients with AMD. For more information about Macular Health, visit www.macularhealth.com.

Not too long ago, in many offices, a Goldmann 3 Mirror Lens and a Volk 20D Indirect Lens represented the complete inventory of ophthalmic lenses.

Not so, today! If you visit the websites of Haag-Streit, Ocular Instruments or Volk you will see lenses that allow you to examine every nook and cranny of the human eye. Diagnostic fundus lenses, contact and non-contact lenses, diode lenses, argon lenses, Yag lenses - they are all available.

Bell is an authorized distributor for these companies. Bear in mind that you can purchase these lenses from several of the manufacturers respective websites, but you will, generally, be charged the suggested list price. We offer the same lenses, but with a professional discount.

Peruse the web, and choose your lens. But when you are ready to purchase, give us a call. You will save a few dollars.

In days past, doctors and other local businesses had little choice on where to advertise. The Yellow Pages monopoly categorized and catalogued local businesses and prospective patients reached for the directory first. Now the Yellow Pages have been replaced by the Internet and patients go online to research purchase decisions including medical care.

Today your website is your most important marketing tool and should be treated as an investment in your practice. While some companies offer low cost boilerplate websites, these plug and play sites do little to advance your practice, especially in differentiating your company from the one down the street. In today’s economy, it is critical that you establish value in your services and make sure that your prospective patients understand why you offer superior care.

Resist the low price come-ons and call a local professional advertising agency to talk about a new website. Ask to see other sites in their portfolio. Look for the marketing in their previous sites. Besides presenting the basic contact information, does the site sell the products? Is it easy to navigate? Is it appealing? If you type the web address into Google, does it show up in the search engines on page 1?

There are many “invisible” things that a professional company can do to enhance your website in the search engines and it starts with the writing in the website. If the web company expects you to write the copy, move on to the next firm.

Look for creativity and innovation from the agency. It’s a good sign if they ask many questions about your practice and how it works. A creative company will take that information and make recommendations that will greatly enhance your investment.

Your website should offer information that patients will use to make a decision to visit your office.

Your website should offer information that patients will use to make a decision to visit your office. It could include a news section, a place to post timely articles on eye care, a function for the patient to sign up for your newsletters, staff bios, testimonials, and patient tools.

If designed properly, your website can automate many of the tasks that burn staff time. Appointments can be scheduled online, appointment reminders can be automatically generated and registrations and insurance forms can be downloaded and completed before the patient arrives in the office.

Shop carefully for a company to design your new website. It’s an investment in your practice that will yield great returns.