PAGE 6
GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n
fwbusiness.com
Lutheran’s Bauer awarded Sagamore Brian Bauer, n CEO of Lutheran Health Network and Lutheran H o s p i t a l ,
Reporter’s
NOTEBOOK
received the Sagamore of the Wabash award Dec. 12 at a joint meeting of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. State Sen. Jim Banks, R-Co-
HEALTH CARE Barry Rochford
lumbia City, presented the award, which is one of the Indiana’s highest honors, to Bauer at Sweetwater Sound on behalf of Gov. Mike Pence. Bauer was appointed CEO of the health network by its board of Bauer directors in October after serving as interim CEO following the departure of Joe Dorko in June. He became CEO of Lutheran Hospital in 2011 after serving as CEO of Terre Haute Regional Hospital. “His substantial impact on our region during the short time he has been here makes this distinction well-deserved,” Banks said in an announcement. “Brian is among the youngest recipients to receive a Sagamore of the Wabash from our governor and that is a testament to his effectiveness as a servant leader who is shaping the future of our region in health care and beyond.” Bauer has been the honorary chair of the Indiana March of Dimes’ 2012 March for Babies, the National Kidney Foundation’s 2012 Kidney Walk and the American Heart Association’s 2013 Heart Walk. He is a board member of Greater Fort Wayne Inc. and was appointed by Pence to the Region 3 Works Council.
PHYSICIANS SUBJECT TO NEW OPIOID PRESCRIBING RULES Indiana’s Medical Licensing Board on Dec. 15 implemented new rules for physicians and osteopathic physicians who prescribe opioids to patients. The rules are the result of legislation passed earlier this year by the General Assembly that calls for new standards and protocols for prescribing opioids. Patient cases are subject to the new rules if a doctor
prescribes 60 or more opioid-containing pills a month or a morphine-equivalent dose of more than 15 milligrams a day. In an announcement, the licensing board said the prescribing rules could be applied to other medical professions or other prescribers — for example, veterinarians and dentists — in the future. The Indiana Board of Pharmacy is expected to consider the new rules at its meeting in January. The new rules call for, among other things, a series of regular face-to-face meetings with doctors and their patients, counseling on the use of the drugs and the creation of treatment plans for patients. Patients whose prescriptions meet the threshold also must consent to drug tests and random pill counts if they’re deemed necessary by the prescribing physician. The new prescribing rules are available at www.in.gov/pla/2832.htm.
IPFW TO LAUNCH NURSING PRACTICE DOCTORATE Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne will launch its first-ever
doctorate degree program — in advanced nursing practice — in spring 2015. The board of trustees at Purdue University, which manages IPFW’s Fort Wayne campus, approved the new systemwide degree program Dec. 16. In an announcement, IPFW said following an accreditation visit, students will be able to enroll in the doctor of nursing practice program in spring 2015. The university expects to enroll 10 students in the program’s first year. The program has the backing of area health-care providers, Ivy Tech Community College Northeast and the Indiana University School of Medicine-Fort Wayne. The doctor of nursing program, which will be available at other Purdue University system campuses, is expected to be approved by the Indiana Commission of Higher Education
early next year. “This is a major milestone for IPFW and is in response to community needs in advanced nursing practice,” IPFW Chancellor Vicky Carwein said in the announcement. “This program will put more nurses out on the front lines who possess the highest level of clinical education.” Citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the university said there are about 2.5 million positions for registered nurses across the country, and 233,000 jobs will be added each year through 2016. If you have items for the health-care column, please contact Barry Rochford by email at brochford@kpcmedia.com, by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 311, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.
December 20-26, 2013
Longe produces prescription lenses for Google Glass users BY BARRY ROCHFORD brochford@kpcmedia.com
Google Glass, the small, wearable computer somewhat resembling a pair of eyeglasses, is designed to let you record and share the world around you, and augment your experiences through the use of a small video display just above your right eye. But even though it looks like a pair of glasses, even though it’s called “Glass,” it doesn’t improve your sight. And for those who depend on actual eyeglasses to see, trying to wear both at the same time can be a bit awkward. Longe Optical in Fort Wayne has begun producing prescription lenses for Google Glass, using its new ClearVu Digital technology that makes what the company calls “high-definition” lenses. Jeff Ostermann, president of Longe Enterprises Corp., said 65 percent of the U.S. population wears prescription lenses. “If they really needed those, there just wouldn’t be a way for them to even use this device,” he said of Glass. “And that’s a problem we wanted to solve.” Google has made the $1,500 Glass units available to more than 8,000 developers and others who are helping the company beta test the product before a wider rollout that’s expected next year. The Glass units come with their own protective and tinted lenses that clip in to the device’s bridge piece. Longe Optical used those lenses and the device’s existing lens mount as a reference in developing its own prescription lenses that clip in to Glass. “It may seem simple, but there’s actually a lot of engineering that our team back at the lab had to do to be able to make these work in terms of how to drill the (mount) holes in such a way that it doesn’t split and to get the shape and even the curve of it just right so the prescription wasn’t distorted,” Ostermann said. In November, the company, which was started in 1949 and is owned by Sweetwater Sound founder Chuck Surack, installed new equipment to produce its ClearVu Digital lenses. For a long time, lenses have been made by taking something resembling a hockey puck of glass or other material that’s curved on one side and then grinding it into a prescription lens. The resulting lens, Ostermann said, would have the correct prescription in the center, but around the edges the prescrip-
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Longe Optical’s “high-definition” lenses clip in to the Google Glass device.
tion would be off enough to distort what’s being seen. “If you’re even just a few millimeters off, the actual prescription when you get out to the edge of your lenses is different,” Ostermann said. “It’s not what the doctor gave you. It’s not what they actually prescribed for you.” With the new technology, Longe uses computer software to generate an algorithm that customizes the prescription across the curvature of the lens. A diamond-tipped cutting machine then creates the desired lens. “The resulting impact of that really is … it’s like going from analog TV to HD-TV,” Ostermann said. Using that same technology to create lenses for Glass users just made sense, he said. “We thought, well, being kind of tech guys ourselves, we thought it would be a shame to take this beautiful Google Glass and put it with this old-fashioned lens that’s not giving you the best quality vision,” Ostermann said. There is an ongoing debate on whether it’s appropriate to wear Glass in certain situations. A driver in California was cited for wearing Glass earlier this year. Other users have reported being asked to remove the device when in, for example, a restaurant or store. Ostermann said he doesn’t think the n
See LONGE on PAGE 7