Future Focus Episode 9: Thriving in Rural Optometry with Dr. Amal Ahmed

June 11, 2025

In the latest episode of Future Focus, Dr. Amal Ahmed joins hosts Dr. Amrit Bilkhu and Dr. Alexa Hecht to talk about the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come with a listing or a launch plan. When a retiring optometrist in Beaumont, Alberta offered to sell her clinic, Dr. Ahmed said yes—and rebuilt it from the inside out.

In the episode, she walks through how she handled the transition: a three-week renovation, a shared handover period, and a quiet shift in services that turned long-term patients into strong advocates. Dry eye care became a focal point, not through marketing, but through consistency—and demand followed.

The conversation strips away the noise around ownership and focuses on what matters: timing, trust, and follow-through.

Takeaways:

·        Building a patient base by preserving—and elevating—what came before

·        Launching dry eye services with high demand and high conversion

·        Growing quickly through word-of-mouth, not advertising

·        Making ownership accessible through timing, trust, and a smart renovation

·        Advice for grads: plan early, ask real questions, and look beyond the city limits

Tune in: Apple | Spotify | Amazon

Full episode details & downloads here.