Global Head & General Manager at Alcon
COVID-19 was a blindside. Nearly overnight, it plunged the world into the unknown. What would we do when our factories stalled? When our hospital beds filled? When our healthcare system seemingly screeched to an abrupt halt due to a rapidly spreading, novel virus?
We did what humans always do: We worked together. We adjusted. And to this day, we continue to make difficult choices that impact practices and patients. While it’s impossible to predict when the pandemic will come to a resolute end, it is clear that we’re already facing a three-pronged, global challenge.
First, with the emergence of new variants—and with hotspots peaking and waning around the globe—we are seeing some surgical backlogs as hospitals and clinics continue to place moratoriums on non-emergency medical procedures. Second, the aging population of the U.S. means the number of patients awaiting such surgeries will only continue to increase. Finally, we’re approaching an impending shortage of surgeons, especially in the ophthalmic space, where there will be an estimated deficit of 6,000 eye surgeons nationally by 2025.
As leaders in the ophthalmic industry, an industry that was disrupted by COVID-19, we recognize a crucial aspect of healthcare’s future is clinic efficiency. We cannot wait until “post-pandemic” to turn our attention to this. We must begin to prioritize it right now. Here’s why:
How the Pandemic Shifted Perceptions
Perhaps the biggest challenge in creating more efficient eye care clinics is a perceived one: the change management associated with implementing new, streamlined digital solutions can seem insurmountable.
Like many areas in medicine, the practice of ophthalmology is often rooted in the processes and workflows that surgeons learned during their early training. With this, there is a reliance on accessing patient data and formulas from multiple sources and creating and using physical, printed copies of surgical treatment plans and records. While we’ve witnessed a steady movement toward digital solutions over the past decade, a true movement away from manual processes will take time.
But consider: The broad adoption of telemedicine, data analytics, and electronic health records (EHRs)—even just a few short years ago—was considered something of a pipe dream. As recently as 2018, major outlets were reporting on “Why telemedicine has been such a bust so far." But out of necessity for digital records capable of being accessed from anywhere, the pandemic cleared many perceived barriers. In fact, leading telehealth platforms have reported an increase between 257% and 700% in the number of virtual patient visits during the pandemic.
And if we look at the prevalence of EHRs in the broader medical industry (which grew in the U.S. from 42% to 92% usage among physicians from 2008 to 2018), we can also see a willingness from physicians to incorporate more digital solutions into their practices. Initially, physicians were apprehensive to adopt EHRs. Now, it’s basically become a best practice. EHRs cut down on manual data entry by increasing standardization, securing data and allowing for the integration of features like AI that enable doctors to pull records and treat patients quickly in the midst of chaos.
Proving ROI at the Front Desk and in the Operating Room
So, what exactly is an efficient clinic, and how do we get there?
Fundamentally, clinic efficiency means practices are optimized to drive both patient efficiency and patient outcomes through the digitization of their operations. To get buy-in on a piece of clinic or OR technology, it must demonstrate how it leads to better integration, fewer steps and improved outcomes. In eye care, patients increasingly expect better results, faster. This is evidenced by the growing demand for cataract refractive procedures.
Comprehensive digital solutions allow eye care clinics to reduce administrative errors associated with manual data entry since medical history and data can be accessed from EHRs. Utilizing the cloud for data collection and encrypted storage, practitioners can also streamline practice management and reimagine surgical planning. For example, improving medical record systems and patient information in ophthalmic portals helps to not only ensure clinical accuracy but also to manage the influx of patients and, very importantly, reduce staff stress.
Think: freedom from record-keeping logistical nightmares and the ability to create, review and revise surgical plans from anywhere, anytime, without being tethered to a specific device or office location.
Minimizing Refractive Surprises with Real-Time Insight
We know that centralizing data—and being able to access it from multiple locations—has become essential to helping ophthalmic surgeons make vital decisions in real-time. Integrated measurements and diagnostics can evaluate patient data with artificial intelligence and analytics, helping surgeons minimize real-time surgical surprises by providing robust pre-op analysis, data-based insights, and optimization tools for continuous procedural improvement. By transferring digital data among intraoperative technologies, practices can also reduce potential sources of error and help improve surgical precision and execution to deliver more personalized care.
In eye care, unified digital data platforms can help surgeons become more confident when making decisions diagnosing cataracts. By merging multiple sources of data—diagnostic devices, surgical equipment and EHR systems—they can make smarter decisions for patients.
Creating more efficient, digitally-enabled practices could be imperative for not only resolving the medical backlog, within ophthalmology and broader medicine, but also creating a sustainable, connected healthcare system that truly makes an impact on patient care.
The Path Toward Post-COVID Practices
At Alcon, we believe connectivity matters. We know that every time a piece of our technology minimizes redundant data entry or provides robust reporting, it translates to more time that doctors get to spend truly caring for patients. We know how important it is to drive efficiencies and save time in the clinic and the OR—not just in ophthalmology, but in the healthcare industry at large. Connectivity plays a key role in all of this.
The future of ophthalmology and healthcare will require close partnership between med-tech companies, practice administrators, surgeons, and more to build future-ready medical systems and EHR services. Now more than ever, as we continue to navigate the pandemic, driving efficiencies in the clinic and OR is critical to mutual success.
Seba Leoni is the Global Head and General Manager for the Alcon Vision Suite. He has responsibility for leading Alcon’s ecosystem of surgical instrumentation, services, and digital solutions across cataract, refractive and vitreoretinal specialties globally.