The Technology Suite that Took Our Patient Care & Profitability to a New Level

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By Minh Ta, OD,
and Nancy Truong, OD

June 1, 2022

We pride ourselves in our practice on providing a state-of-the-art, boutique experience as well as a high level of medical diagnostic eyecare. Just as we found premium products for our optical, we continue to invest in technology that provides superior eyecare.

Here are the details on the suite of advanced technology that we’ve implemented our practice, enabling us to ensure a high level of care and a high level of profitability.

Over the last few years, we invested in three key instruments from Visionix USA (formerly Luneau Technology USA and Optovue Inc.): Optovue Avanti OCTA system, Visionix VX130 multi-modal anterior segment analyzer and Visionix VX40 wavefront lens analyzer.

Excellent Patient Care, Great Profitability
We use these instruments on all our patients as part of our pretesting process. Each year this suite of instruments generates around $100,000 in additional exam fees. More importantly, it allows us to flag multiple potential medical problems before the doctor has even walked into the exam room. We have significant information by the time the patient is in the exam chair to make diagnoses that can save a patient’s eyesight or even save their life in the case of an eye condition like diabetic retinopathy, which is connected to a life-threatening disease.

With the Visionix VX130, we can see keratoconus, dry eye, the anterior chamber via tomography as well as pachymetry-adjusted IOPs. Additionally, with the Avanti’s iWellness and AngioWellness proprietary scans, we are empowered to diagnose a range of conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy with occlusions, in addition to providing us additional GCC scans of our potential and current glaucoma patients.

In most cases, the technology allows us to educate a patient about their eye health and the value of our services. For example, we recently showed a patient the solar retinopathy damage he incurred years earlier from staring at the sun. He didn’t realize the lasting damage this caused and expressed to us how happy he felt that we were still able to refract him to the 20/20-acuity line!

Maximize Chair Time, Elevate Patient Education
We want as much data as we can get before seeing the patient. First and foremost, that data gives us the ability to provide the highest level of care. Secondly, it allows us to create a much more effective treatment plan. The technology, which is easy for our technicians to adopt, enables our staff to partner more fully with us in providing care. This increased support results in the doctor’s time being maximized to focus less on data collection and more on the interpretation of data.

The additional consultation time we gain allows us to spend more time discussing with patients the condition in which we have diagnosed them, educating them on the implications to their eye health, and why we recommend their precise treatment plan. The added patient education time can often make the difference between a patient who follows through with the treatment plan and one who does not understand its importance and neglects to return for care.

Easy to Implement, Seamless to Optimize
Many ophthalmic technologies require adaptation, a learning curve and extensive time in practice. Complex implementation and adoption are not the case with the Visionix suite of technologies. We were up and running with our devices almost right from the start. The instruments integrated well with our electronic health record system and other medical devices such as our digital phoropter.

Clinical Application Specialists ensured new technology integration and adoption for our staff. The new Visionix Academy is a good reference for ways to maximize our Optovue and Visionix devices. Specific to Optovue products, the “Ask the Expert” feature is extremely useful. Our doctors and staff know that if a question regarding the use of the equipment comes up that we can’t answer ourselves, there is immediate help available. That trusted support gives you confidence when adding new technology to your practice.

Brand Your Practice as “State-of-the-Art”
The integrated VX130 and VX40 offer the latest innovation in wavefront technologies. Avanti’s widefield OCTA offers AngioAnalytics, Total Corneal Power (TCP) and Epithelial Thickness Mapping (ETM) features, providing the latest innovation in OCT technology.

When patients receive information about their eyes and diagnoses that make a profound difference in their lives, they will be grateful and remember to tell their friends and family about your practice. Additionally, there is an added benefit in how this high level of care changes how your practice is branded and the message you send to your community about the kind of care you provide.

The screenings we offer in our office with this advanced technology are included on our patient intake forms. Patients can quickly see and understand how we will screen their eyes and work to preserve their vision. Most offices say they are state-of-the-art. We live and breathe state-of-the-art every day in our practice, and a simple visit to our office shows patients we mean what we say. Every patient has the opportunity for, and deserves, a thorough eye wellness exam.

The experience patients receive in our office spurs many of them to spread the word that, in addition to our optical boutique, we have advanced technology that makes it possible for us to do a comprehensive medical eyecare exam.

Because our patients appreciate their experience with us, our online reviews reflect that “wow” factor and boost our reputation in the community for repeat visits, referrals and new patients.

Minh Ta, OD, and Nancy Truong, OD, are the owners of Specs Appeal Eyecare & Eyewear in Decatur, Ga. To contact Dr. Ta: drta@specsappealga.com. To contact Dr. Truong: drtruong@specsappealga.com