DEL.ICIO.USLocal business eyes $100K Forbes.com prize
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, October 20, 2008
Dee Newnan peers at the screen of a kiosk in the middle of a hallway at Discover Mills Mall near Lawrenceville.
She covers one eye, then the other while reading progressively smaller blocks of text.
Vino Wong / vwong@ajc.com
Dee Newnan covers her right eye while using the free EyeSite self-service vision test kiosk at Discover Mills Mall.
Vino Wong / vwong@ajc.com
Bart Foster is the CEO and founder of SoloHealth. EyeSite, a free and convenient self-service vision test, is one of its products.
• Headquarters: Duluth
• Employees: Less than 10
• History: The company emerged from an internal project begun in 2005 at CIBA Vision, the Atlanta-based eyecare products manufacturer where Foster once worked. The project spun off from CIBA in 2007 as its own, privately held company with Foster at the helm.
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In a few minutes, Newnan has tested her vision for the first time in years.
“It told me everything is good,” Newnan said of the self-service vision testing machine being test-marketed by SoloHealth of Duluth. “I know I still have to go to the doctor.”
A boisterous walkway between the Medieval Times dinner theater and a discount shoe store might seem an odd place to get your eyes tested.
But SoloHealth founder Bart Foster said it’s a perfect place to capture people like Newnan — people who haven’t had their eyes checked in years and might benefit from a trip to the eye doctor.
“This doesn’t replace a visit to the doctor,” he said. “The exam is the hook. Once we get them to sit down, we can educate them about eye health.”
And refer them to a nearby eye doctor for an exam, and perhaps a new pair of contacts or glasses.
Such is the business model behind former Ciba Vision executive Foster’s new company, which Forbes.com readers have chosen as one of five to participate in the final round of the online magazine’s Boost Your Business competition for $100,000 in funding.
In addition to providing a copy of the test results, the machine offers to forward the users’ contact information to an eye care professional who’s paid to be included in the machine’s database.
It’s by increasing business at participating doctors and eyewear shops that SoloHealth hopes to turn the corner to profitability.
It’s too early to tell if it’s working. Twenty machines are sprinkled throughout metro Atlanta malls and retailers, Foster said.
Foster said anecdotal evidence suggests users are following through with appointments, but the machines have only been in place for a month.
Finding ways to get consumers to think about eye care more frequently has long been a challenge for the industry, said Ed Greene, CEO of The Vision Council — an eyewear manufacturer’s industry trade association.
The council tried to encourage consumers to “Check yearly, see clearly” in a marketing campaign, but the message didn’t gain traction among medical professionals and failed to move the market.
While SoloHealth’s EyeSite machines won’t replace mass marketing and widespread health messages, they could provide a substantial boost, said Greene, who serves as an adviser to SoloHealth.
“If they could get into, say, every Wal-Mart with all of its customers, you’re talking about a pretty big number,” he said.
SoloHealth has plenty of challenges to becoming profitable, said John Lovelock, a research vice president with Gartner Research who follows the use of self-service kiosks in health care.
The company first must convince providers that they have a problem only SoloHealth’s vision-testing machine can solve, a process that could take quite some time and burn up capital, Lovelock said.
On the other hand, the public has demonstrated it’s at ease with such technology, the market has been growing steadily and SoloHealth is alone in the self-service vision testing field, Lovelock said.
