instrumental strategies
Is It Time to Evolve Your Practice?
Marco's computerized refractor will give you and your staff the gift of time.
GARY ANDRUS, O.D.

As the profession of optometry changes and advances, we feel more constraints on our most precious asset: time. Anything that helps ease the daily flow of patients through our practices is of tremendous value. Marco has developed a new electronic refractor (the Evolution) that greatly aids the refraction process and allows this information to flow efficiently through our practice.

Your back will appreciate it

Marco's Evolution is a user-friendly electronic refractor that transmits objective information from our Marco automatic refractor/keratometer and our Spectrum automatic lensometer in the pretest area directly to the exam rooms. Within the rooms, we accomplish subjective refraction with automated chart projectors and an electronic Evolution refractor, which we control with an illuminated hand-held remote control.

One button set-up of various tests including binocular balance, phoria/vergence testing and JCC allows us to move smoothly through the refraction sequence. We spend no time or excess energy reaching and stretching from projector to phoropter. After nearly 10 years of practice, shoulder pain and neck stress at the end of the day has abated. An attached printer in each exam room also provides a printout of all objective and subjective information collected during the refraction process, including visual acuities (VAs), keratometry readings and contact lens conversion values.

	Marco's Evolution lets you update your practice's most valuable piece of equipment.

Operational in 30 minutes

The Evolution is easy to install. A Marco representative trains the doctor in less than 30 minutes, so you can have the system operational for your patients the same day.

This new refraction process has been beneficial to both staff and patients. Our staff certainly doesn't miss setting the dials of the old phoropters to the autorefraction findings by hand -- the Evolution inputs the information automatically, thus saving valuable time and speeding the refraction process. In the past, I've introduced refraction to our technicians on the traditional phoropters and found it a difficult task. The Evolution's hand-held remote and illuminated phoropter screen shows the patient's prescription, VA and chart target simultaneously. So it's been easier to instruct our staff -- a real boon since we're considering delegating the initial refraction to them.

The majority of our patient's professions are computer-oriented and the Evolution refractor has helped our practice stand out in a competitive local eyecare market by making our exams a technological experience. Several times each day, our patients remark on how impressed they are with the system. They also say it makes the whole refraction process easier, helping to reduce the "one or two" anxiety. From our perspective, being able to swiftly show the improvement in vision from the current prescription to the new subjective results helps patients justify eyeglass and contact lens purchases, which drives the optical side of our practice.

A change for the better

Purchasing and instituting a new technology can be a trying endeavor. However, implementing the electronic refractor the Evolution was hassle-free and made positive changes to our exam process immediately. For our practice, this refraction system, as the Evolution name implies, was our next step.

DR. ANDRUS IS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE IN KING OF PRUSSIA, PA. CONTACT HIM AT (610) 337-4055.