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Integration of technologies key to moving forward in cataract surgery
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 Stephen S. Lane |
MILAN, Italy — The integration of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies into multitask work stations will be a key step in future optimization of performance, time and results of cataract surgery, according to a lecturer here.
“Modern cataract surgery has shifted from the old Medicare model, where the focus was on high-volume, efficient, low-cost care, to the patient-oriented model, where we aim at providing high-quality, personalized results to patients who are prepared to pay or at least share the cost of the treatment,” Stephen S. Lane, MD, said at the annual joint meeting of OSN and the Italian Society of Ophthalmology during the Benedetto Strampelli Medal Lecture.
Dr. Lane said that current results are very good, but there are limitations with regard to visual outcomes and safety. In addition, complications in cataract surgery are 10 times higher than in LASIK.
“We need to go from very good to great,” he said, noting that physicians today have the tools to improve outcomes.
“We have the femtosecond laser that can greatly enhance predictability and reproducibility in cataract surgery. We have improved methods of IOL power calculation, biometry and keratometry. We have the ORA technology (WaveTec Vision) for real-time intraoperative aberrometry and new methods for registration-based determination of cylindrical axis. Finally, we have presbyopia-correcting IOLs,” he said.
The problem is that these technologies “don’t talk to each other,” Dr. Lane said, and integration of technologies is the key and a goal for the future.
- Disclosure: Dr. Lane is a consultant for Alcon, OptiMedica, SMI and WaveTec.