22 May 2025
Optometry professionals have been invited to register their interest in trialling a new wellbeing app designed for healthcare professionals.
The Evya Where the future meets wellbeing app aims to help individuals to track habits, assess the activities that support their personal wellbeing, and connect with others.
Optometrists, Sheena Tanna-Shah and Piyus Tanna, founders of Inspiring Success and Optometry Wellness, a company providing mental health and wellbeing CPD and coaching, launched the app on 11 May.
Speaking to OT following the launch, Tanna-Shah explained: “We have been running wellbeing CPD for a couple of years, in which we offer a lot of personal development sessions where people are working on their own goals. Those sessions can be a huge relief for people to talk about their journeys and reflect on their goals, whether health and fitness, relationships at work, nutrition, or sleep.”
“I felt like we needed some [kind of] forum where people were able to continue that journey. We wanted to create something where everybody could come together to talk about mental and physical wellbeing and be supported,” she added.
The pair collaborated with Kishan Devraj, optometrist and founder of the Ask Fellow Optoms app, to develop the Evya app.
The new app features a log of daily habits which can be personalised to the individual user.
Tanna-Shah said: “You can make it really personalised to track daily habits and log it as a digital journal. It can then tell you how these habits have affected you by collecting data from smartphones and watches.”
Based on this data, the app will provide users with insights, indicating actions they can take to improve their wellbeing, such as ensuring they are keeping hydrated, or going to bed earlier.
The app will also host communities where users can connect around a common subject or goal, such as fitness or nutrition.
“I am excited about adding a ‘How has your day been?’ forum where people can share, using their name or anonymously. There will be a community, and I will be there as a coach to support. If somebody is having a hard time, they might just want someone to listen and understand, or they might want next steps and advice,” Tanna-Shah shared.
The developers are asking optometrists to register interest in trialling the app for free. It will become available on Android and iPhone in the coming weeks.
Following a trial period of several months, developers will take on board feedback before launching officially later in the summer.
Tanna-Shah said of the development process: “I think we all bring something different to the app. Kishan is the artificial intelligence king, Piyus and I have the wellbeing background. It’s good to bring everything together and hopefully with all the insight we’ll receive [from user trials], we’ll officially launch by the end of August.”
Optometry professionals can register interest in trialling the app via the website.
Comments (2)
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Paddy Optom02 June 2025
The app is part of the weapons arsenal but both The Association of Optometrists (AOP) and College of Optometrists urgently need to establish comprehensive policies and clear guidelines to protect young optometrists from inappropriate workplace pressures related to sight test volumes and conversion rates. These professional bodies have a fundamental duty to safeguard both the professional standards of optometry and the wellbeing of their members, particularly those at the beginning of their careers who may be most vulnerable to commercial pressures.
The current situation requires immediate attention from both organizations to develop a framework that includes:
**Clear Professional Standards**: Explicit guidance stating that clinical decision-making must never be compromised by commercial targets. The quality and thoroughness of sight tests should be based on clinical need, not arbitrary volume quotas or conversion rate expectations.
**Protective Mechanisms**: Formal procedures for young optometrists to report pressure from employers without fear of retaliation, including confidential reporting channels and advocacy support when facing unreasonable workplace demands.
**Educational Resources**: Training materials and workshops specifically addressing how to navigate commercial pressures while maintaining professional integrity, particularly for newly qualified optometrists who may lack experience in handling such challenges.
**Enforcement Powers**: Clear disciplinary pathways for employers who compromise patient care or professional standards through inappropriate pressure on optometrists, including potential sanctions and public naming of non-compliant practices.
This issue deserves national media attention because it strikes at the heart of healthcare integrity. When optometrists are pressured to prioritize speed over thoroughness or sales over clinical necessity, patient safety becomes compromised. The public has a right to know if their eye examinations are being influenced by commercial targets rather than their individual health needs.
Media coverage would serve multiple purposes: highlighting the ethical concerns within the profession, pressuring regulatory bodies to take decisive action, and alerting patients to potential conflicts of interest in their eye care. The comparison to similar issues in other healthcare sectors - such as GP consultation times or dental treatment pressures - would help contextualize this as a broader healthcare system problem requiring systematic solutions.
Both the AOP and College of Optometrists should proactively engage with media outlets to demonstrate their commitment to addressing this issue, rather than waiting for it to become a public scandal. Professional leadership requires getting ahead of problems that could undermine public trust in the optometry profession.
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Anonymous23 May 2025
Thank you for launching an app to combat stress in the optometry workplace. However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that the root causes of stress for many optometrists extend far beyond individual coping mechanisms or digital wellness tools.
The most significant sources of workplace stress are systemic: relentless sales pressure, a rigid focus on "brand standards," unrealistic conversion rate targets (such as the 65% benchmark), the existence of "ghost clinics," and the increasing influence of non-clinical managers or suits making clinical decisions for which they lack qualifications. These issues are well-documented as primary drivers of burnout and dissatisfaction in the profession.
While well-intentioned, offering an app to manage stress can feel like addressing the symptoms rather than the disease. It’s akin to locking someone in a prison and then handing them an app to help them cope with incarceration, rather than questioning why they’re imprisoned in the first place.
To truly improve wellbeing in the profession, we must address these structural issues directly:
Sales and Conversion Pressures: Many optometrists report feeling like “robots on a conveyor belt,” with time pressures and sales targets undermining their clinical autonomy and job satisfaction.
Non-clinical Interference: Decisions about patient care should be made by qualified clinicians, not dictated by retail managers or corporate suits.
Workplace Culture: A healthy practice recognises the importance of the optometrist’s role, manages workloads, provides adequate rest, and fosters supportive teams—factors repeatedly cited as essential for reducing stress.
Education and Early Intervention: These realities should be openly discussed at the undergraduate level so new professionals enter the field with realistic expectations and the skills to advocate for change.
Addressing these underlying causes—starting with honest conversations during training and continuing with meaningful reforms in workplace culture and management practices—would be a far more effective way to reduce stress and burnout than any app alone could achieve.
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