In this episode, we're continuing our focus on the Future of Eye Care with Jim McGrann and David Spear, CEO and President and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively, of Advancing Eye Care to discuss the future of equipment technology. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Diagnostic equipment plays two critical roles both today and the future - it provides the clinical insight needed to take great medical care of patients and provides an impactful patient experience through improved efficiency and experience.
2. The advancement of treatment options for ocular conditions will further drive the advancement of diagnostic technology to aid and improve the clinical experience.
3. Technology and equipment won't ultimately replace the intuition and knowledge of the doctor. The future of eye care will provide the doctor the opportunity to be more efficient and effective, especially through the exam flow. 
4. Add all the technology as long as you can plan for and implement it effectively and efficiently. It provides added top line value and is an investment in the value and worth of the business. 
5. The future of technology should enhance the doctor's quality of life and quality of work. 
6. The future of technology should integrate the medical exam and retail experience into one seamless experience with little to no perceptible change. 
7. AI is here to stay. You should be thinking about it when it comes to technology in your practice. 

What Jim is reading:

• The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos
• Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $55,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In today's episode of the Future of eye Care Series, we discuss the opportunities within dry eye management with dry eye implementation expert Michelle Schnabel. 

Key Takeaways:

1. The dry eye disease market will grow from $6 Billion to over $7 Billion in the next five years. While many optometrists have expanded dry eye management within their practice, there will be so many more patients to treat from now into the future.
2. Michelle believes there are three different levels of dry eye disease management today in practice. Where does your practice fall?
   1. Full Service Practice - Leverages variety of tools and equipment to both diagnose and actively manage the disease v. just the symptoms. They retain all patients in their practice and create the opportunity to develop referral relationships with others.
   2. Referral - This practice refers primarily based on symptoms. They may manage some of the symptoms but refer for more active treatments.
   3. Shared Care - This practice diagnoses and actively manages dry eye patients but does not have full treatment options and therefore will share the care with other practices in the area that may have additional treatment modalities.
3. Successful implementation of dry eye management in clinic depends on your why. Beginning with the why for adding services, communicating it frequently among the team, and finding ways to measure and track success.

What Michelle is Reading:

• Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $55,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with the CEO of Visibly Brent Rasmussen to discuss the future of eye care and the role remote vision testing could play, especially in private practice. 
 

Key Takeaways:

1. 35% of individuals who take Visibly's online vision test fail the exam - resulting in a recommendation of referral to a provider. From a standpoint of private practice, this type of technology has the potential to drive more patients INTO a practice.
2. Visibly is primarily a visual acuity testing software and provides the ability to refract the patient remotely (available only in Europe currently). Both visual acuity testing and full refraction involve an eye doctor throughout.
3. There is clear patient consumer demand for the ability to do portions of their eye exam remotely. The average consumer that uses Visibly is a 27 year old female with an income of $42,000 a year that feels they may not be able to come in for an exam every year. While this is hard to swallow for most optometrists and private practice owners, this technology could provide the business an opportunity reach this demographic in a unique way. 140 million individuals skipped their annual eye exam last year.
4. For private practice, remote visual acuity testing could be leveraged as a marketing tool to connect your patients more to your practice, as part of an e-commerce strategy, and/or way to shorten the time the patient is in the practice which is tied to increased patient purchasing within the practice.

What Brent is reading:

• Leading with the Heart by Mike Krzyzewski

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $55,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with the founder of Digital Optometrics to discuss tele-optometry and the role of a patient-in, doctor-out model, today and as part of the future of care.
 

Key Takeaways:

1. Digital Optometrics was born out of both a patient demand for access, especially in rural areas/ healthcare deserts and solve the gap in provider demand.
2. DO has performed over 1.8 million remote eye exams and currently performing 2500 pre day on the system.
3. Today’s patient consumer wants convenience of care access independent of when the doctor is in the office. 9 out 10 times, patients will choose convenience over waiting to see their trusted doctor.
4. DO has a current NPS of 85/100 and is reflective of all populations that leverage the service
5. Private practices interested in leveraging tele-optometry could provide exam services outside normal business hours, choose to be the doctor to provide care or leverage DO’s doctors as desired, consider hiring doctors from out of state, expand their existing space, or open practices/ locations in other locations without having to immediately have an onsite doctor to care for patients.

What Howard is reading:

• Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $55,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode of the Future of Eye Care series, we sit down with PECAA's Kathy Long to discuss strategies for success in implementation. The future of eye care will bring all sorts of new technologies, new services, and significant change to how we take care of patients. Implementing these changes successfully is key. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Kathy's Four Steps to Implementation
   1. Identify the need for change and what needs changed
   2. Prepare everyone for the change
   3. Implement the change
   4. Track results for that change
2. Bringing your team onboard from the very beginning is critical. Clearly explain what will be changing, the why behind the change, and get their input and feedback on how to be successful. Ask their opinions up front.
3. Before pushing Go, it's important to detail out all the steps necessary to be successful with the implementation. You cannot be too detailed as it will minimize surprises that pop up and throw you off course.
4. Tracking and managing the plan after beginning execution is just as important as pulling the trigger. Make sure you set aside time for track the new change, ask your team for their feedback and what they've noticed - good or bad, and have key data points (KPIs) that will tell you whether or not you're being successful.

What Kathy is reading:

• Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want Out of Life's Toughest Situations by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $55,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this first episode of the Future of Eye Care series, we sit down with the head of VSP's Global Innovation Center, Ruth Yomtoubian to discuss the future of eye care and how innovation happens.

Key Takeaways:

1. Innovation isn't just about disruption and the future. True innovation respects the past, understands the presents, and seeks to solve the problems of the future.
2. Two key trends Ruth is following outside of eyecare that likely will impact eye care:
   1. Hybrid care - the best of in person and virtual in a single experience (e.g. Forward Care, Carbon Health, Eden)
   2. Future of Benefits (e.g. upskilling, maternal care, leisure/ travel benefits, mental health)
3. Innovation often starts with solving a single problem for a small group that leads to noticeable impacts for larger populations. Don't overlook small opportunities to innovate and create large wins within your business.
4. Spatial computing will also impact eye care and the patient consumer's awareness of the importance of eye and vision care.
5. Innovation is truly about setting yourself up for the future. Generative AI is a technology that will dramatically impact health care and eye care. In many ways, small businesses have the opportunity to leverage these easier than larger corporations. Considerations for generative AI include data readiness and "human in the loop" operation. 
6. Five innovation questions to ask yourself:
   1. Can you create value in an ambiguous environment?
   2. Do you go beyond challenging the status quo?
   3. Do you get in the trenches? 
   4. Do you truly believe that ideas come from anywhere?
   5. Do you know yourself?

What Ruth is Reading:

• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia MD
• Move Fast and Fix Things by Anne Morriss, Frances Frei

Additional Resources:

• VSP Global Innovation Center LinkedIn Page
• VSP Global Innovation Center page
• Future of Benefits report
• Future of Generative AI in Healthcare report
• Futurist Reports page
• Emerging Tech Accessibility Guide
• Hybrid Care Insights Reel
• SXSW 2024 Official Panel: Future Eye: 10 Vision Trends That Will Transform Healthcare

In this short episode, Dr. Manning introduces the Future of Eye Care Series, a new series from the Practice Advantage podcast. Over the coming weeks, we'll be exploring the demands of the patient consumer in the future, the advancements technologies and technology companies are making in healthcare and eyecare. Artificial intelligence is a huge topic of conversation in all industries.

In this series, we'll talk through how the industry is evolving and how other companies view innovation. We'll also talk through change management and how to successfully make process changes or bring in new opportunities to your practice. 

We look forward to you joining us on this journey!

There's a new resource available from the Practice Advantage podcast! Download the Practice Advantage Reading List to see all the books recommended by our distinguished guests over the last 3 years. 

Setting goals is critical to business success. In this episode, Dr. Manning shares goal setting tips for accomplishing the success you want this year. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Start with the end in mind. Envision December 31, 2024 and look back on the year. What happened over the course of the year. Where's the practice and what success did we have along the way?
2. Set SMARTER Goals. Your goals should be:
   1. S - Specific
   2. M - Measurable
   3. A - Achievable
   4. R - Relevant
   5. T - Time-bound
   6. E - Evaluated
   7. R - Readjusted and Rewarded
3. Avoid death by goals. Setting too many goals is a distraction and prevents you from doing the most important work. We recommend setting 3-5 key goals for your growth this year.
4. Bring your team in along every step of the way. Allow them space to provide feedback and input. Encourage them to stretch and share why the goals are important. Buying in to the goals gives them motivation to accomplish them.

** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $30,000 in 2024 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Jerry Robbin to discuss the clinical and business impacts of dehydrated amniotic membranes in practice and his paradigm shifting experience with the PECAA K-DISK. 

Key Takeaways:

1. For a practice to truly expand in dry eye management, a number of things are important to have:
   1. Diagnostics - Inflammatory testing, tear osmolarity, and meibography
   2. Treatment Options - ZEST or BlephX, meibomian gland treatments including thermal pulsation and IPL/LLLT, Amniotic membranes
   3. Willingness to Prescribe Medications - Meibo, Tyrvaya and others
2. Different dehydrated amniotic membranes are processed in different proprietary ways which could impact their effectiveness on the eye.
3. While amniotic membranes can certainly be used for complex, severe cases, the earlier they're used the better the outcome the patients will have. Any moderate dry eye patient having difficulty with ocular surface healing would benefit. 
4. When managing patients with dry eye, always be on the lookout for patients that would benefit from an amniotic membrane and do not hesitate to educate on the option when appropriate. 
5. Dr. Robben is now using K-DISK 80% of the time patients need an amniotic membrane. The bidirectional nature and ease of handling make application easier than other membranes and has seen significant improvement in patients' outcomes. 
6. Dr. Robben recommends bringing the patient back for a follow up visit to place the amniotic membrane v. doing it same day in practice for both reimbursement purposes and patient expectations/ deductible considerations. 

What Jerry is reading:

• The Lifestyle Investor by Justin Donald

** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams extended through December 31, 2024. Earn up to an additional $15,000 in 2023 and up to $30,000 in 2024. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Mila Ioussifova and Roger Kennedy to discuss the clinical and business impacts of cryopreserved amniotic membranes in practice, especially with patients with dry eye. 

Key Takeaways:

1. The easiest way to bring amniotic membranes into your practice are by just doing it. Learn about application tools, patient education, billing and coding from the companies themselves and just go for it.
2. Amniotic membranes aren't just for train wrecks. Persistent ocular surface disease, reduced corneal sensitivity, and moderate dry eye are all great cases for amniotic membrane use.
3. Knowing the patient's deductible status ahead of time aids in the conversation. Dr. Mila presents amniotic membranes as one of hte only treatments that are covered/ billable to insurance and it's the only regenerative approach to corneal tissue and nerves. Knowing the deductible status prevents the patient from being surprised. The wow effect matters.
4. Don't be afraid to publicly market your dry eye and amniotic membrane treatments to patients on your website and patient communication. Have a word of mouth strategy and execute it.
5. Communicate the service and value of your products to other specialists in the area treating patients with conditions that cause dry eye.

What Mila and Roger are reading:

• Think Again by Adam Grant
• Shift Your Brilliance by Simon Bailey
• Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza

** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams extended through December 31, 2024. Earn up to an additional $15,000 in 2023 and up to $30,000 in 2024. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**