instrumental strategies

Software Handles Patient Education
Multi media package offers animated lessons and marketing tools.
By: JEROME SHERMAN. O.D., F.A.A.O.

The 3D-Eye Office can run on an unlimited number of computer workstations.

As a professor at the State University of New York in New York City for more than three decades and now as a consultant to Eyemaginations (EM), I reason that its 3D-Eye Office v4.0 could greatly benefit our students, our patients and our bottom line. The multi-media package includes
a software program detailing educational, marketing and training information on anatomy, pathology, clinical procedures and dispensing related content; it's close- captioned and multilingual.

Our faculty thinks it would help educate our patients so they can make informed decisions about what services or products they might desire. I also think that this new package will supplement as well as simplify the role of our students and faculty.

Because SUNY has a clinical facility with more than 100 exam rooms and a 100+ clinical faculty, implementation will be far more complicated than in a private office. But the faculty thinks the benefits could prove enormous.

Meet a new kind of eye office

Eyemaginations' 3D-Eye Office is a three-dimensional animated communication platform that provides a full library of eye-related animations driven by a PC-based software system. The primary purpose of the 3D-Eye Office system is to educate patients about services and products offered within an eye care practice by grouping videos into "playlist(s)." The selected playlists help patients make informed eye care decisions based on explanations of how and why procedures and services are performed. At SUNY, the playlist will obviously be different in our contact lens clinic than in our laser center or glaucoma institute.

Working it

Minimal training is required to run the 3D-Eye Office, and the software features built-in training lessons. Doctors may be involved in using the software, or they can delegate it to staff. You can set it up for patients to use it in kiosk mode, or you can run it on a continuous loop. The kiosk system is a free-standing unit that can service any busy practice in the waiting room by allowing patients to interact without the involvement of the doctor or staff.

Educate and market too

The 3D-Eye Office includes about 170 full-feature 3-D animations on subjects such as ocular anatomy, refractive errors, ocular pathology, clinical procedures, dispensing and contact lenses. The interactive HeyeLites, a program that displays pictures of a patient's eye and shows results in a 3-D format, is especially helpful. The program also has a sketch pad function for doctor interaction with the image; it's very useful in demonstrating to patients precisely what problems you uncovered during the exam. The Eye Office can run on an unlimited number of your office's computer stations.

Additionally, the EM software allows in-house marketing. A custom media feature enables the user to add talking heads, pictures, music, or commercials to the playlists.

The list goes on

Although the original intent was to produce animations for patients, the recent ones are so superb that I use them for teaching purposes. In addition to the animations included in the multi media package, EM creates approximately 60-80 new ones yearly that may be purchased for a flat fee. OM