Melanie Cole (Host): Welcome to Conversations With MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole and today we're discussing MIT Optical, a full service optical store for the MIT community. Joining me is Cheryl Arlington. She's the Senior Optician at MIT Health. Cheryl, it's a pleasure to have you with us today. Tell our listeners about MIT Optical. What services do you offer and who can use them?

Cheryl Arlington, R.D.O., A.B.O.C. (Guest): So, MIT optical, we offer frame adjustments, frame repair. We sell new glasses. We can put existing lenses into new frames. We can put new lenses into your own frames, so you don't have to purchase new glasses. We also offer contact lenses and we also have sunglasses. So, we pretty much cover it all.

Host: That's so cool for the MIT community. And you offer hundreds of eyeglass frames at heavily discounted prices, yes? Including the major brands and designers even.

Cheryl: That is right. We try to keep a little bit in stock for everybody.

Host: Really excellent. What a great service. So, you recently moved to a new location on campus. Tell us about the new space, your hours and how you've been operating during COVID.

Cheryl: So, we have moved across campus into the medical department. We are located right on the first floor. So, you can't really miss us. We're right next to the desk. Our hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM and with COVID, everything, unfortunately now is by appointment only. However, we do have many appointments available, same day or next day.

So, if you have an emergency or broken glasses, we can certainly get you right in. So, even with the appointments, were still making appointments available pretty quick. So, during COVID, if you come in for an appointment to pick out new glasses, we will have you put on some gloves and anything that you try on, we disinfect it. We have a brand new Zeiss UV box designed exclusively for glasses. So, it sanitizes all the glasses. So, it's a lot quicker than having to wash each pair by hand. And patients obviously are required to wear a mask, while in the office. And only gloves if you're picking out new glasses. If you're just here for a quick adjustment, we take care of you. We have you sit at a table and we take care of you. And then after each patient leaves, everything is disinfected. So, everything is quite safe here.

Host: Thank you for telling us about that and that's so convenient for the MIT community. So, you also offer prescription safety glasses, which are pretty important. Tell us a little bit about the ordering process and what these kinds of glasses are for.

Cheryl: Okay. We do certainly offer safety glasses to all of MIT. We service the facilities people with glasses, and then any of the medical staff, they can get goggles, which are considered PPE so that they don't have to wear the big screen type masks over a mask. We cover all different types of safety glasses for all different professions and including the students as well.

We have a lot of chemistry students. So, we cover it all with the safety glasses. If you are getting safety glasses through MIT, you would speak to the supervisor of whichever department you're in and they would supply you with a form. And once you have that form and it will need a current prescription, you can call us and make an appointment and we will set you up with some safety glasses that your department will cover it no cost.

Host: That's really cool. And especially when you talk about chemistry and there's so much need for safety glasses, but you also offer other specialty eyewear for swimming, cycling. Tell us about that. That's really cool.

Cheryl: Correct. Yes, we do offer swim goggles. They're not made exactly to prescription. They're a lot less expensive that way, but we can get you pretty close to 20/20 vision with the goggles. And they run about $75, which really isn't that bad. We also, have glasses, if you cycle. We have fashionable sunglasses. We have all types of glasses pretty much all sports. So it's really nice. The cycling glasses, we have lenses that transition. We also have different types of coatings for different situations, so we can pretty much make up just about anything.

Host: Well, thank you for telling us about all of it, but I think one thing we haven't discussed yet, is price. Glasses can be very expensive. Specialty eye wear, all of these things can be pretty expensive. Tell us a little bit about the prices. Are they competitive? What are the benefits of using MIT Optical for members of the community?

Cheryl: So, MIT Optical, we are very competitive. We're definitely lower than any of the opticals in our area. It's hard to compete with the online optical shops, but you don't get service there. When you order online, there's nobody to adjust them. Nobody to make sure they're made correctly. You don't even know if the measurements you have are correct for the pupillary distance.

So, it's more custom here. So, yes, we are very competitive. As far as pricing goes, we have glasses, frame starting at just a hundred dollars, actually $50. We have $50, 75 and a hundred. And then of course we have more expensive frames if you'd like, and we do offer a 25% discount off of the total of the purchase, whether it's just a frame, a whole pair, lenses only, you do get a discount.

Host: Well, thank you so much, Cheryl, for joining us, wrap it up for us. What would you like members of the MIT community to know about the optical services at MIT Health?

Cheryl: I just want people to know that we're here to help them, whether they got their glasses here or not, whatever you need. We're here for MIT. We are here for the whole community and whether it's safety glasses, sunglasses, or just a quick repair on something you didn't even get from us, don't hesitate. Just please give us a call and schedule an appointment. And like I said, the appointments, we can get you in same day, if not, next day. So, there's no backlog or backup.

Host: What an informative segment this was. Thank you so much, Cheryl, for joining us today.

That concludes this episode of Conversations with MIT Health. Please visit Health.mit.edu for more information and to get connected to one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other MIT Health podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.