(Clockwise from top left) Rob Allen, OD, Maria Sampalis, OD, Mohamed Abou Shousha, MD, and Adam Ramsey, OD
NEW YORK—A select assortment of vision care professionals, including a leading corporate optometrist, several successful independent ODs and a top research ophthalmologist will share their insights about vision care’s role in the Future of Healthcare at next month’s Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit. These “Vision Voices” will complement presentations by experts in integrated healthcare, finance, vision technology and consumer behavior who will be featured throughout the daylong Summit program. Maria Sampalis, OD is a leading figure in corporate optometry. She is the founder of the 28,000-plus member Corporate Optometry group on Facebook and is also the founder of CorporateOptometry.com and CorporateOptometryCareers.com. She recently launched the buying group CODA (Corporate OD Alliance).

Dr. Sampalis’s work has been widely recognized in the vision industry. In 2016, she was named Rhode Island Young Optometrist of the Year, and in 2019 she was named as one of Vision Monday’s Most Influential Women in Optical. She operates a private practice, Sampalis Eye Care, and also subleases from For Eyes in Cranston R.I.

At the Summit, Dr. Sampalis will discuss how the role of corporate optometrists is changing, particularly in regard to enhancing the patient experience.

Robert Allen, OD is CEO and a founding partner of Associates in Eyecare Optometrists (AIC), which has grown to eight offices in Northern Virginia and two in Washington, D.C. under his leadership.

A recipient of the Virginia Optometric Association’s Young Optometrist of the Year in 2000, Dr. Allen has served as a clinical investigator for FDA phase III drug trials as well as a clinical evaluator for new contact lens designs. He has lectured on clinical topics at continuing education conferences. As an acknowledgment of his academic and leadership achievements, he was named a fellow in the Virginia Academy of Optometry.

At the VM Summit, Dr. Allen will address the financial/business model that AIC has developed to expand the group's optometric offices and presence in Northern Virginia.

Another vision voice at the Summit will be Adam Ramsey, OD. A Florida board-certified optometrist and owner of Socialite Vision in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Dr. Ramsey also operates three satellite locations on Seminole Health Services Clinic in South Florida. His private practices highlight cutting edge technology, innovative eyecare and optical services.

Dr. Ramsey also serves as the Indian Health Services' director of optometric services, providing professional eyecare for underserved Native American communities. Dr. Ramsey is the vice president of T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society, and chairman of the board for the Palm Beach County Optometric Association. Some of his accolades include the 2018 Small Business of the Year Award from the Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beaches, and 2018 Business of the Year Award from Legacy Magazine.

Dr. Ramsey compiled the ebbs and flows of his experience as an optometrist into his 2020 debut work, Play Chess Not Checkers: The Practical Guide To Warm Start Your Dream Optometric Practice. In his book, Dr. Ramsey gives aspiring optometrists and entrepreneurs, alike, step-by-step guidelines for opening a successful practice, coupled with personal life lessons to endure and overcome the test and trials of new business ownership.


As a Vision Voice at the VM Summit, Dr. Ramsey will be addressing a modern, independent OD's point of view of how, through practice and social media and local community, there are new ways to build a successful business and patient connections.

Mohamed Abou Shousha, MD, FRCS, PhD is an ophthalmologist, vision scientist, entrepreneur and inventor. He holds 30 patents on autonomous diagnostics and vision augmentation using AI technology and wearable devices. Dr. Abou Shousha leads the AI & Computer Augmented Vision lab of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which U.S. News and World Report has named the world’s leading hospital for ophthalmology. He is a recipient of a multimillion-dollar award from the National Institute of Health and the Achievement awards of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Abou Shousha has founded Horus Ophthalmics, a Bascom Palmer spin-off company, that has developed patented autonomous AI-powered diagnostics and vision augmentation. He and his team have built downloadable software application for use on commercially available AR/VR glasses that autonomously diagnose and correct for visual field defects, double vision and visual distortions, among other vision defects.

Dr. Abou Shousha is a consultant for Magic Leap. At the Summit, he will join Jennifer Esposito, vice president, health for Magic Leap, in a conversation about how Magic Leap’s spatial computing technology can be used for diagnosing and treating eye disease.

In addition to these Vision Voices, several independent optometrists will discuss telehealth and how it is changing the patient experience.

"The Vision Voices will help us understand how the broad healthcare trends we're examining present both a challenge and an opportunity for vision care,” said Marge Axelrad, SVP and editorial director of the Vision Monday Group.

The Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit is an exclusive live event that will be held March 25 at The Times Center in New York. Now in its 14th year, the VM Leadership Summit attracts senior industry executives, optical retailers, leading eyecare professionals, suppliers and key opinion leaders from the worldwide optical industry. The program, “The Future of Healthcare: Beyond 2020,” will illuminate the dynamic changes coming on stream in the healthcare field and examine the opportunities for vision care and optical to play a broader, more significant role in it.

Click here to learn about other speakers at the VM Summit.

To learn more about what attendees will learn at the VM Summit, watch this video featuring Axelrad and VM’s Andrew Karp.

Essilor, Luxottica and VSP Global are Platinum Sponsors of the 2020 VM Leadership Summit. Gold Sponsors include CareCredit, EyeCarePro, GPN, The Vision Council, Patch and Think About Your Eyes. Alcon and Ocuco are Silver Sponsors.

Registration for the VM Summit is available now at www.visionmonday.com/Summit.