Yari Has Questions ...
May 19, 2024
5 min watch
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Yari Mitchell has questions for Cathleen M. McCabe, MD: Simple tricks for a sustainable OR
Transcript
Editor’s note: This is an automatically generated transcript, which has been slightly edited for clarity. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.
Hi, I'm Yari, and I have questions. And this is Dr. Cathy McCabe, and she has answers. Let's see if they match. Cathy, thank you for joining me today. I'm just delighted to talk to you.
I am always so excited to talk to you, Yari, you're the best.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I'm glad that the check came in the mail early for that. But what I really want to talk to you about is innovation. You're involved in so many different cool technologies and I would love to know what you have recently integrated into your practice and how's it going.
So, I'm always the most excited about how I can help my patients who have cataracts. So, some of the things that we've had over the last couple years that have really helped me are the light-adjustable lens for complicated corneas and post-refractive patients. And then Apthera has been really great for especially my post-RK patients. But the nice things is, I can use those technologies even in healthy patients and really get a benefit. And so having new tools to fill a need that we didn't have anything that worked really great for has been fabulous. And then I'd say the other category that I'm excited about is dry eye treatments. So I'm a dry eye patient and having Miebo available is super. We have some other new things coming out as well. And dry eye is always going to be a challenge, and we have some rewarding things.
Yeah, that's exciting. Well, so speaking of that, we've got exciting things coming, what are you excited about in terms of future innovation? What do you have your eye on?
So, a couple things, one of them is ways of treating — I guess all of them are ways of treating presbyopia. So, lens-based surgeries, because cataract surgery is my most favorite thing I do, and so having modular lenses, true accommodative lenses, maybe more flexibility in light adjustment in the future. Those are things that I'm really looking forward to. And there's some things on the horizon that I think are really going to be able to speak to those different innovations. And then maybe even non-invasive presbyopia treatments, including drops, new drops that we're going to have with different durations of, and different amounts of effectiveness for patients, fit different patient populations, and even laser treatment for presbyopia, I think is going to be exciting. So, lots of things coming up.
Yeah, it's really exciting. It seems like we're just bursting with different mechanisms of action, different places to apply therapies, and just different approaches that hopefully will help address some of these unaddressed markets and help patients get back to life with good vision. It's very exciting.
Yeah, and I think the thing is each patient is an individual, so we really pride ourselves in trying to understand the patient and where their pathology and their needs fit together with what we have available. And the more tools we have, the better.
Yeah, that's great. One thing that I know about you is you are very passionate about, you know, OR waste, and being thoughtful and mindful. And how can we do better? I'm curious, what are things that you're doing in your practice? What are things that you would recommend that surgeons and other healthcare providers consider so that they can do a better job in that area?
Well, I am so excited that you asked me this, because I think it's so important. And so, of the things that we did that were so like, “duh, I can't believe we didn't even do them before. So, we used to give every single patient in the post-op area a bottle, a plastic bottle of water, and now we have a water cooler, so that's a good improvement. And we can do in-line water cooler too, which is even less waste. We got a cardboard waste receptacle that we just put all our cardboard in there. So simple, makes such an impact and we have so much cardboard waste that we were just kind of throwing out, so that's huge. And then looking at who in our practice was using long drapes vs. short drapes, because you know we have a variety of practices over a wide geographic area. And so just going to short drapes, there's no reason in ophthalmology to need a full-body drape. Huge savings and huge, as far as it goes in the amount of waste that we're producing. And then the last thing I would say, because you gave me this opportunity, is look at your packs and see: Are there things in your packs that you never use or rarely use? Take them out, that's just waste that we're creating for no good reason. So, and that's an easy thing as well.
I love that, it's all very approachable, simple, easy things you can do that have such a meaningful long-term impact. So that's great. All right, so I think my last question for you, this is the hard-hitting one, so be braced for impact. If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be and why?
Oh, I would be, I would be coffee with some dark chocolate inclusions, maybe even a little raspberry in there. So wide variety of things, but all like, buzz, buzz, buzz.
Yes, nice, high energy, but custom created. I love it, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I think you did a great job answering my questions. I feel like your answers matched.
Your questions were great too. I loved it, thanks.
Thank you, I appreciate it. What questions do you guys have? We'd love to hear because, you know, I have questions, I'm sure you do. People like Dr. McCabe have answers. Let's see if they match. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Yari, and I have questions. And this is Dr. Cathy McCabe, and she has answers. Let's see if they match. Cathy, thank you for joining me today. I'm just delighted to talk to you.
I am always so excited to talk to you, Yari, you're the best.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I'm glad that the check came in the mail early for that. But what I really want to talk to you about is innovation. You're involved in so many different cool technologies and I would love to know what you have recently integrated into your practice and how's it going.
So, I'm always the most excited about how I can help my patients who have cataracts. So, some of the things that we've had over the last couple years that have really helped me are the light-adjustable lens for complicated corneas and post-refractive patients. And then Apthera has been really great for especially my post-RK patients. But the nice things is, I can use those technologies even in healthy patients and really get a benefit. And so having new tools to fill a need that we didn't have anything that worked really great for has been fabulous. And then I'd say the other category that I'm excited about is dry eye treatments. So I'm a dry eye patient and having Miebo available is super. We have some other new things coming out as well. And dry eye is always going to be a challenge, and we have some rewarding things.
Yeah, that's exciting. Well, so speaking of that, we've got exciting things coming, what are you excited about in terms of future innovation? What do you have your eye on?
So, a couple things, one of them is ways of treating — I guess all of them are ways of treating presbyopia. So, lens-based surgeries, because cataract surgery is my most favorite thing I do, and so having modular lenses, true accommodative lenses, maybe more flexibility in light adjustment in the future. Those are things that I'm really looking forward to. And there's some things on the horizon that I think are really going to be able to speak to those different innovations. And then maybe even non-invasive presbyopia treatments, including drops, new drops that we're going to have with different durations of, and different amounts of effectiveness for patients, fit different patient populations, and even laser treatment for presbyopia, I think is going to be exciting. So, lots of things coming up.
Yeah, it's really exciting. It seems like we're just bursting with different mechanisms of action, different places to apply therapies, and just different approaches that hopefully will help address some of these unaddressed markets and help patients get back to life with good vision. It's very exciting.
Yeah, and I think the thing is each patient is an individual, so we really pride ourselves in trying to understand the patient and where their pathology and their needs fit together with what we have available. And the more tools we have, the better.
Yeah, that's great. One thing that I know about you is you are very passionate about, you know, OR waste, and being thoughtful and mindful. And how can we do better? I'm curious, what are things that you're doing in your practice? What are things that you would recommend that surgeons and other healthcare providers consider so that they can do a better job in that area?
Well, I am so excited that you asked me this, because I think it's so important. And so, of the things that we did that were so like, “duh, I can't believe we didn't even do them before. So, we used to give every single patient in the post-op area a bottle, a plastic bottle of water, and now we have a water cooler, so that's a good improvement. And we can do in-line water cooler too, which is even less waste. We got a cardboard waste receptacle that we just put all our cardboard in there. So simple, makes such an impact and we have so much cardboard waste that we were just kind of throwing out, so that's huge. And then looking at who in our practice was using long drapes vs. short drapes, because you know we have a variety of practices over a wide geographic area. And so just going to short drapes, there's no reason in ophthalmology to need a full-body drape. Huge savings and huge, as far as it goes in the amount of waste that we're producing. And then the last thing I would say, because you gave me this opportunity, is look at your packs and see: Are there things in your packs that you never use or rarely use? Take them out, that's just waste that we're creating for no good reason. So, and that's an easy thing as well.
I love that, it's all very approachable, simple, easy things you can do that have such a meaningful long-term impact. So that's great. All right, so I think my last question for you, this is the hard-hitting one, so be braced for impact. If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be and why?
Oh, I would be, I would be coffee with some dark chocolate inclusions, maybe even a little raspberry in there. So wide variety of things, but all like, buzz, buzz, buzz.
Yes, nice, high energy, but custom created. I love it, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I think you did a great job answering my questions. I feel like your answers matched.
Your questions were great too. I loved it, thanks.
Thank you, I appreciate it. What questions do you guys have? We'd love to hear because, you know, I have questions, I'm sure you do. People like Dr. McCabe have answers. Let's see if they match. Thank you.
