SoLo Eye Care & Eyewear Gallery was founded in 2005 as the first full-service practice of eye care in Chicago’s South Loop Community. SoLo Eye Care was developed as a fusion of medicine and fashion. We offer full-scope medical eye care services in a boutique eyewear environment. Our Michigan Avenue boutique is the former home of the first Ford Motor Company outside the city of Detroit and is a designated landmark building by the city of Chicago. Great care was taken in our renovation and expansion to promote a chic art gallery feel while preserving the character of the space to create an enjoyable, comfortable experience for our patients. Our services have since expanded to the Bridgeport, Bucktown, Gold Coast, and University Village neighborhoods. All locations echo our commitment to the patient experience while boasting unique environments curated to their surrounding community.

As an extern at SoLo Eye Care, you will have the opportunity to be exposed to many optometric specialties, while working side by side with the doctors. Students will split time between SoLo’s Michigan Avenue and Bridgeport locations. Both locations present a unique patient population. This not only provides our externs with the opportunity to gain experience in specialty contact lenses, pediatrics & vision therapy, disease, and primary care but also challenges our externs to provide exceptional care given the different socioeconomic backgrounds of the patient populations.

Learning Objectives:

1) The extern will become proactive in a fast-paced, full-scope private practice. Externs will stretch their optometric skills base to become more thorough and efficient throughout the exam. They will learn different approaches on how to treat many common primary care conditions such as presbyopia. Externs will also become familiar with how to delegate with optometric staff to provide a streamlined patient experience.

2) Externs will be able to apply their knowledge to many optometric specialties, including anterior & posterior ocular disease, myopia management, and pediatrics. The extern will become proficient with advanced contact lens fittings. Externs will have the opportunity to be hands-on with Ortho-K, Hybrid, Scleral, and Specialty Rigid and Soft Lenses.

3) The extern will become familiar with the day-to-day tasks a private practitioner faces and the challenges private practices face. Externs will have the opportunity to discuss their future practice plans with 2 industry-leading cold-start consultants, Dr. Robert Steinmetz and Dr. Eric Baas.

4) The student will learn how to work with ophthalmology and co-manage both ocular disease and ocular procedures. Opportunities to observe surgical procedures, such as LASIK and cataract surgery, can be arranged at the request of the extern.

5) OPTIONAL: One extern a quarter will have the opportunity to perform Vision Therapy and work with Pediatric and Binocular Vision specialists, Dr. Val Smolyansky and Dr. Alaina Bandstra. The extern will perform VT with the patient and curate their therapy plans. Please indicate interest in VT in your letter of introduction.