THE DANGER IS NOT IN RESISTING CHANGE, BUT IN NOT RECOGNIZING WHY IT HAPPENS

LET’S MAKE time go forwards.

The year is 2037. Your practice consists of you sitting by yourself in a small room surrounded by 12 computer monitors. Everything you need is a voice command away (clicking a mouse is so 2020). Want to know a patient’s compliance with a genetic-specific medication for his six-month treatment of AMD? Just ask monitor number three, which displays data from the patient’s medication sensors.

Your next patient “presents” for a change in his presbyopia eye drops. The refractive data needed is supplied online after the patient completes an assessment at home. Retinal scans, 3D OCTs and a biometric profile are also in front of you.

Patients try eyeglasses at home, using tools from your website, and complete the order, also through your website. All you do is ensure patients are disease free. The margin from any sale, meager as it is, just shows up in your account. But now, without breaking a sweat, in your nearly rent-free space, you can comfortably “examine and treat” 50 patients — before lunch.

A DISRUPTIVE LUNCH

Today, you have a lunch appointment (you still have to eat, and counting calories is still a thing — sorry) with a rep for a company that is selling a new way of fitting and fulfilling contact lenses — for the 20% of the population who still wears them.

“Doc, this will totally disrupt the industry,” he tells you. “I’m glad you’re sitting because this will blow you away: Starting in January, you’ll no longer have to just look at computer screens!”

“We’re starting a campaign, ‘Retro 2017,’ where patients actually drive to your office for a face-to-face eye exam! Then, after you examine them with the same technology they have in their homes, you order their contact lenses. We then ship them to you, so you can call the patient to have him pick them up. Cool, right?”

How’s that for disruption?

WHAT AM I GETTING AT?

My point: We are headed for 2037 at breakneck speed. Our current mode of practice — clinically, administratively and business wise — is challenged and “broken” nearly daily. We can certainly keep doing things the same way — I don’t think we’ll become extinct in the near term — but, it’s doubtful we’ll thrive.

So, what’s good about all the disruption we’re experiencing?

THE WAKE-UP CALL

It’s forcing us to wake up and accept that our practices and patients don’t exist in our perceived optometric bubble. Uber and Airbnb are no different than Hubble and SightBox. We need to be aware of why consumers think self-driving cars and smart refrigerators are cool — even if consumers might not yet own them. The immediate danger to our practices is not recognizing that it’s happening and, more importantly, why it’s happening. Once we do, we can make a conscious decision to get on the “change train,” and see where it takes us (still some risk), or stand on the sidelines (also risk). But, ignoring the core drivers of consumers to the constant disruption we’re seeing and hoping it just disappears, is the worst decision to make. OM

DR. GERBER is the president of the Power Practice, a company specializing in making optometrists more profitable. Learn more at www.powerpractice.com , or call Dr. Gerber at (888) 356-4447.