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Provide your patients with the best possible visual experience
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I was recently helping my wife design a school yearbook – a task for which, admittedly, I have no formal training. I was struck by just how challenging and engaging of a process it can be. It all begins with photography. Capturing, acquiring and editing a portfolio of pictures – the foundation of any yearbook – is just the beginning. Next came the selection process, an exercise in which photos are carefully chosen to accurately portray the school’s “culture” in a balanced fashion. Then there was the creative aspect of the project, whereby the photos are arranged in an aesthetically appealing format.
Though my involvement was peripheral, I could not help but think just how “visual” of a process it is. Every aspect of what we were doing, from selecting the proper camera settings to presenting each page in an “eye grabbing” way, was driven by a singular goal. That goal was to provide an optimal visual experience.
While designing a school yearbook might seem to have nothing in common with practicing optometry, I could not help but notice the similarities. Each and every day, as optometrists, we engage in a variety of processes.
We read professional publications and access the Internet to stay abreast of developments within eye care. We rely on office information systems and electronic health records to assure proper documentation of every patient encounter. We routinely employ
sophisticated technologies to more accurately diagnose and treat various ocular and visual conditions. And, much like designing a yearbook, each of these processes is driven by our desire to provide every patient with an optimal visual experience. It is, for sure, our singular goal.
One of our greatest challenges in achieving this goal today is remaining focused on optometry’s core expertise in optics. While it is the foundation upon which our profession was built, it is an expertise that has become a smaller part of who we are. As optometry has become more complex and broadened, we find ourselves spending more time wrestling with insurance issues, managing ocular pathologies and staying abreast of ever-changing technologies. Given these time constraints, it is easy to see why we spend less time thinking about refractions and optics – the essential building blocks of an optimal visual experience.
For sure, my yearbook designing experience has left a very definite impression on me. It has reminded me of just how important the optimal visual experience is … for each and every patient. That means being proactive in leveraging my understanding of optics. Whether I am recommending a specific IOL design, optimizing a contact lens correction or prescribing a customized spectacle lens package, I need to do so with a singular goal. That goal is to provide each patient with the best visual experience possible.