optoMED optometrists

Welcome to optomed Optometrists at Norwood.

As you can probably tell from our name, we are an optometry practice with a very strong medical focus. The health of your eyes is more important to us than just dispensing eyewear, which appears to be the primary interest of most corporate optometry practices if you happen to notice their marketing.

Due to the enormous demands for eye care from an ageing population, optometrists are becoming the general practitioners in this area of medical care. Large waiting lists at public hospitals and extremely busy eye specialists mean that optometrists are increasingly becoming the primary eye care providers for diagnosis, treatment and referral of a multitude of eye problems. As a result, the medical care provided by our profession is taking on a much more important role.

At optomed, we take this role very seriously and have invested, and continue to invest, in state of the art equipment and instruments which enable us to care for your eyes and your vision. We also have 45 minute appointments instead of the usual 15 to 20 minute appointments offered by most corporate optometrists so you’re not processed and we spend time getting to know you and your unique visual requirements.

Our practice has been established for around 30 years and most recently was owned by Rex and Annette Wallis who provided caring, independent eye care for many years at Norwood. The new owner of what is now called optomed is Rob Seiler who received his Bachelor of Optometry degree in 1979 from the University of NSW after previously completing a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Adelaide. His special area of interest is the detection and management of eye disease.

Sue heads our dispensing team, and is one of the most qualified optical dispensers in Adelaide having more than 35 years experience in the profession. She is responsible for the amazing selection of unique eyewear in our practice, most of which you will not find anywhere else. 

Our optometrist Rob, along with Sue, and our new dispenser Marion, look forward to seeing you in our practice and, in addition to the serious side of looking after your eyes, having some fun choosing your new look from our large range of high quality, unique designer frames.

45 minute consultations

An eye examination at most optometry practices (especially corporate practices) is usually 20 to 30 minutes in duration. In fact at some practices you may spend even less than 20 minutes with the optometrist as they have staff who do much of the testing and the optometrist may see you for only 10 to 15 minutes.

At our practice, the optometrist is the only qualified person doing the whole eye examination and you will have a full 45 minute consultation in which to explain all your visual wants and needs. There is no rush to finish the exam and get you out of the consulting room in order to see the next person. You won’t feel like a number or someone to be processed in an assembly line of people.

independent optometrist

Most people would regard their eyes and their vision as their most precious asset and would not give them up for all the money in the world.

Who would you prefer to look after the health of your eyes… a large corporation whose core interest is selling franchises and meeting profit targets… or a small independent optometrist who owns the business and actually cares about you and your eye health?

the optometrist does the whole examination

In order to see as many people as possible, many corporate optometry practices now have unqualified staff performing much of the eye examination and you may see the optometrist for as little as 5 minutes.

Firstly, for some procedures, such as a visual field examination, this is a clear breach of Medicare rules and Medicare benefits may not be claimed.

“Under the Health Insurance Act 1973 all optometry services including perimetry must be performed by an optometrist, or performed by an optometrist on behalf of another optometrist, but not by a technician acting ‘on behalf of’ an optometrist, for Medicare benefits to be claimed.“

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Secondly, if the optometrist is not doing much of the examination, he/she will not have access to valuable information relevant to the accuracy of the final spectacle prescription and the health of the eyes. How a patient performs during much of the examination such as degree of cooperation and reliability of responses can dramatically influence the final outcome and provide important clues to possible pathology.

the same optometrist

Have you been going to a large corporate optometry chain and seen a different optometrist every time? Wouldn’t you prefer to see the same optometrist every time you have your eyes examined in the same way you see your family doctor?

Most corporate optometry practices have large numbers of optometrists working for them and they tend to rotate them to different locations so you see someone new every time. Your optometrist never gets to know you and you never get to know them. At our practice, you will be welcomed by the same optometrist every time. Rob Seiler, our optometrist, knows most of our patients by their first name and is always readily available to spend time with you and get to know your visual requirements in detail.

australian owned

Our practice is a wholly owned Australian small business benefitting the local community and generating cashflow which remains totally in Australia.

We are competing with large corporate optometry chains who are owned by large overseas companies based in tax havens and much of their cashflow ends up outside of Australia. They are not owned by optometrists and their core business is either selling optometry franchises or making huge profits for shareholders.

Support your local small business and your fellow Australians.

state of the art equipment

We have made a huge investment in state of the art equipment in order to produce the most accurate prescription for your glasses and to diagnose and manage the large number of different eye diseases that can affect your vision. Without this equipment many serious eye conditions can be missed or incorrectly diagnosed and you may also end up with a faulty pair of glasses.

Check out some of our high tech equipment…

computerized visual field screener | automated refraction system | non contact tonometer | auto refractor | optical CT scanner

unique eyewear

Have you noticed that you keep seeing the same frames wherever you go? We have too which is why we are always trying to find new and different styles that you won’t easily find anywhere else. Who wants to be seen in the same frame that everyone else is wearing?

Please come into our practice and see for yourself or browse our eyewear collections where you’ll find hundreds of frames to choose from. We’re sure you’ll find one that is uniquely you.