The Latest News and Notes, plus Conversation with Nicole R. Fram, MD

Eyeluminaries

Nicole Fram, MD, MPH, is a wearer of many hats and seems to be able to wear them all well. In this episode, she sits down with hosts, Jim Mazzo and John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, to discuss taking over as managing partner for Advanced Vision Care and Samuel Masket, MD, balancing her many professional roles, and shares her point of view on new and upcoming products and technologies in eye care.

• Welcome to the Eyeluminaries podcast :10
• News and notes with John and Jim 1:07
• Alcon completes acquisition of Ivantis 1:11
• FDA approves Genentech’s Vabysmo for AMD, DME 3:54
• Sight Science’s TearCare system for MGD receives 510(k) clearance 6:32
• About Nicole Fram 9:54
• The interview 11:23
• What is it like to take over a practice from Sam Masket? 13:02
• Being a mom who is running a practice, sitting on boards, being an OSN section editor now, and chairing or sitting on all these committees, how on earth do you do it all, Nicole? 15:51
• Are you getting better at saying no to some things? 18:05
• I know COVID made us kind of rethink everything, which included meetings. But what do you think the future of these meetings are? 19:32
• What do you think about the way this market is going to evolve? How is pilocarpine going to compete with some of these other products? And how do we differentiate between these different offerings? 22:39
• How are you deciding which companies’ technologies you decide to spend your very valuable time on? 29:25
• What do you think about the ICA lens? Is that going to take some of what you used to do with LALs? Where's that going to fit in potentially? 31:53
• Thank you, Nicole Fram 36:12
• Thanks for listening 36:50

Nicole Fram, MD, is the managing partner of Advanced Vision Care and a clinical instructor of ophthalmology at the Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles.

John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, is a faculty member at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute and in private practice at Harvard Eye Associates in Laguna Hills, California.

Jim Mazzo sits on numerous ophthalmic industry corporate boards and committees after serving in executive roles with Allergan, Avellino Labs, Carl Zeiss and AMO.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to [e-mail]. Follow John Hovanesian on Twitter @DrHovanesian. You can reach Dr. Fram on Twitter @NicoleFramMD.

Disclosures: Hovanesian consults widely in the ophthalmic field and specifically with Alcon, Ivantis and Sight Sciences, who are discussed in this episode. Mazzo reports being an adviser for Zeiss, Bain Capital, Avellino Labs, CVC Capital, Anivive Lifesciences; executive chairman of Neurotech, Preceyes BV and TearLab; and sits on the board of Crystilex, Lensgen, IanTech, Centricity Vision and Visus. Healio could not confirm relevant financial disclosures for Fram at the time of publication.