INNOVATION CHANGES EVERYTHING . . .

NEW TECHNOLOGIES HELP SHAPE OUR PRACTICES AND THE WAY WE DELIVER CARE TO PATIENTS

Cristina Schnider, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O.

I’M SURE every generation says this, but I can’t believe all the changes we’ve seen in the last 20 years. Some of the change is transformational, permanently altering the course of our lives, professional and/or personal, and some is incremental, often barely perceived at the time.

For me, the iPod is an example of a transformational new product released in my lifetime. At first glance, it wasn’t all that revolutionary — it was small, portable and allowed us to listen to music pretty much anywhere . . . but we already had all that in the SONY Walkman. And, though the iPod had elegance and simplicity, it wasn’t the actual device that changed everything ­— it was the system and infrastructure that came with it, forever changing the way music is bought, sold, played and even created.

But the innovation didn’t stop there. It quickly led to changes in mobile phone technology that evolved to the point where, like the music industry, the publishing, phone and even service industries will never be the same again. And the list goes on — all spawned from that simple little device with ear buds attached.

These changes can be viewed as monumentally good or bad depending on your position in the affected industries. Have a look at the sidebar by Yahoo Tech founder David Pogue on page 7 to hear more about disruptive technologies that are changing our world.

INNOVATION IN OPTOMETRY

In my opinion, ACUVUE Brand Contact Lenses spurred similar changes for optometry. And yes, I may be biased, having worked for the company for more than 16 years. But, at the time the original concept of dispensing a six pack of lenses to our patients was floated, I was well entrenched in the study of rigid gas permeable lenses for continuous wear (RGP EW), and was very sure that was what was going to change the world! Being a beer drinker, I also envisaged a tiny little cardboard six pack, filled with contact lens vials instead of beer bottles, as the innovation being discussed at the time! (By the way, if you’re asking, “What’s a contact lens vial?,” you are a post-transformation optometrist, and your transformational change may not yet have occurred).

What ACUVUE Brand helped change wasn’t just the contact lens — it was a move from a labor-intensive, expensive and often variable process to integrated, high-speed, data-driven systems that quickly and accurately lead us to solutions suitable for the masses. This mass customization has spread well beyond contact lens manufacturing, by the way. We see it in most of our diagnostic instrumentation today (think visual fields, for example).

As a result, we’re able to concentrate less on the laborious part of fitting the device or doing the test and concentrate more on our professional services and making a real connection with our patients. I, personally, see massive opportunities for us as eye care professionals to take all the benefits of this period of innovation and turn it into the kind of experience that feeds our souls and builds our practices.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR PRACTICE NEEDS

To know how to ride this wave of change and truly benefit, it’s helpful to understand our own needs, as well as those of our patients. An easy way for me to think about needs is in terms of “heart” (caring, changing lives), “mind” (learning, knowing things) and “pocketbook” (making or saving money or time).

DON’T ASK WHAT PEOPLE WANT; WATCH WHAT THEY DO TO GET TO WHAT THEY WANT — HUMANS ARE NATURAL PROBLEM SOLVERS.

We need to operate in all areas to be successful, but usually there are one or two that really give us joy. For me, a self-proclaimed geek, it’s definitely about the science. But I have friends and colleagues who are happy to leave all those science classes back in optometry school and instead focus on how it can help their patients, or how it will affect their bottom line.

So be honest, what’s your #1 “Joy Ride” — helping, knowing, or earning? This is the “feeding the soul” part. If you can figure this out for your patients and staff, you’ll quickly master the “builds your practice” part as well. I call this the “Productive Dialogue”, and it’s modeled after what we do every day — listen, collect data, explain and follow up! And because all this innovation and ‘mass customization’ helps us to be more efficient, it frees us up to more clearly focus on the heart, mind and pocketbook equation for our patients.

Here’s how it works; it’s a lot like the old “SOAP” format (Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan)!

PUTTING INNOVATION TO GOOD USE

And a final hint about putting all that free time innovation has brought us to good use: Engage your entire staff in the quest to uncover the unmet needs of your patients.

Chances are good that your staff members spend more time in casual contact and conversation with your patients than you do. Ask them to report any problems or symptomatic behaviors they notice and what their best guess is as to what a solution might be.

The chart below contains just a few patient needs and solutions related to ACUVUE Brand product offerings to help get you started. OM

Disruptive Technology

There’s nothing so exciting as watching a new technology disrupt — and improve — our lives. There was Sony’s Walkman, the dawn of portable music. Then, Apple’s iPhone debuted, connecting us, for better or worse, to the Internet at all times. There was the original Google.com, a card catalog for the Web that anybody could use.

And there’s more happy disruption to come, as I outlined in my recent talk at the American Optometric Association Optometry’s Meeting. (I was there on behalf of the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., team, whom insisted I try on their new 1-DAY ACUVUE MOIST Brand MULTIFOCAL Contact Lenses for reader-wearing baby boomers like me. Presto: They gave me back my 30-year-old eyesight. Talk about disruption!)

People buzz a lot about smartwatches lately. But guess what: Wearable tech will have a bigger impact coming in the side door, in the form of health trackers. We’ll buy 70 million of them this year, strapping them to our wrists and clipping them to our clothes. What started out as simple step counters, like the original FitBit, can now measure your blood oxygen and glucose, monitor your heart rate, and track your sun exposure. Imagine: 24-hour insight into your own body. The health implications are staggering.

The age of robotics is finally upon us, too. Self-driving cars are almost ready for prime time. In fact, Google’s cars have driven 1.8 million test miles without causing a single accident. Drones are revolutionizing photography, engineering, law enforcement and movie making. And robots are finally looking like humanoid — with two feet and all. They’ll be taking care of us at home when we’re old, no question about it.

But maybe the most meaningful disruptive tech is what they’re calling “the sharing economy”: Services like Uber X, where ordinary citizens give rides at half the price of a taxi. Or AirBnB, where ordinary citizens rent out spare bedrooms for a fraction of the price of hotels (and a more interesting stay). Or Dog Vacay, where a dog lover takes care of your pet when you otherwise would have put him in a kennel (the pet, not the dog lover).

Suddenly, we’re doing business directly with each other. At a time when the doomsayers predicted we’d lose our social skills because of technology, we’re meeting people, seeing places and interacting more than ever. That’s the best part of disruptive tech: When its lasting effect has nothing to do with technology, but in our everyday lives.

David Pogue is the founder of Yahoo Tech, an Emmy-Award winner and former columnist at The New York Times. He received compensation from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., for his time in writing this article.

CRISTINA SCHNIDER, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O., is director, global professional affairs for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. To comment on this article, visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment.