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Integrating SMILE into practice takes time, strategy
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NEW YORK — The integration of SMILE into clinical practice takes patience and the willingness to experience a learning curve, a speaker said here.
“SMILE has been a great addition to our practice, but integration does take a learning curve. It’s a great opportunity to bring something new to your practice,” William F. Wiley, MD, said at OSN New York 2019.
When integrating new technology into a practice, it is important to choose the best patients, the “home run” patients, to first undergo a procedure. Staff, referring optometrists and competitors will be paying close attention to the results, so achieving successful clinical outcomes from the start is important.
For SMILE, ideal patients are borderline candidates for PRK, have a higher prescription and may benefit from not having a flap, such as those in law enforcement, MMA fighters or athletes, Wiley said.
“Patients that might have a tendency to develop dry eye I think are going to do great with SMILE,” he said.
The mindset of patients is also key when determining SMILE candidates. Baby boomer patients tend to have a “no pain, no gain” mindset, while millennials have a “no pain, no pain” mindset. Millennials are pain adverse and could be good candidates for the low-pressure SMILE procedure, he said.
Outcomes with SMILE have also shown in some cases to be comparable with other procedures, he said.
“You can see the day 1 postops are as good as or better than LASIK,” Wiley said. – by Robert Linnehan
Reference:
Wiley WF. Smile: Integration into your practice. Presented at: OSN New York 2019; Nov. 15-17, 2019; New York.
Disclosure: Wiley reports he is a consultant with Zeiss.