Sounds like sports vision therapists may be out of a job when people can just get a VT system from a catalog. Just kidding. I’m still not sure why a person would pay $200 for a “eye exercise machine” if they’re not sure they need it and if they’re not sure it’s doing any good.
In Montana, we went to North American Indian Days. When it was all over we went back to see the clean up, and apparently my employer had a trailer there. I didn’t even know we had one. Perhaps they sold it to someone who didn’t bother repainting it, but who ever brought it down there was giving away free stuff:oops:.
If I would use my optics training to develop something like this, I could retire.
I was thinking that almost no one is blogging about optometry practice. I may have mis-spoke. Here are some examples:
Hollander Consultants has a blog about professional practice management.
There’s another generic blog that goes out and probably automatically searches for news that has the word “optometry” in it. Then posts it to the blog. Still, it’s useful.
I encountered some others in my sporadic web searching for eye-related blogs, but I keep running into these auto-generated sites that appear to just be linking to some budget retailers.
The ones I’ve found so far that seem worth while are in my blog roll to the right. If you know of any I should add, leave it in the comments section or contact me.
Josh Young, MD’s podcast by health professionals, for health professionals is unique for now. Still, I wonder why it hasn’t caught on more with other docs. I’d especially like to know why the eye world magazines haven’t already jumped all over it. Certain publications offer free CE all the time. How come they don’t offer an audio version along with the text? Seriously, we need to hear more from the experts in the field. We need to hear more from the ophthalmic manufacterers. We need to hear more from practice consultants. Actually the Williams Group offers free CD’s on some topics, and you can also listen to them on their website. That’s a good start, but let’s put them in syndication so I can automatically grab them with a podcatcher!
Josh Young, MD is an ophthalmologist out on the bleeding edge. He has a podcast featuring interviews of experts in the ophthalmic community. (His podcast even includes cool segway music.) Visit his site, As Seen From Here, and subscribe to his podcasts. He even has a great tutorial for podcasting newbies on how to automatically receive his podcasts.
As a student extern, I used to listen to Audio Archives of Ophthalmology that the office owned. When I left that rotation, I no longer had access to this since the tapes are expensive to get. Now I can resume listening to the latest pertinent topics in eye care with Dr. Young’s free podcast. Very nice.
Sure, I don’t have a long commute to work anymore (the hospital boarders my back yard), but at least I can listen while doing laundry, cleaning, etc.
The best part is Dr. Young has a phone number you can call to ask questions, so you can be on his podcast!
Politicians are blogging. Everyone should be blogging, including optometrists. Your patients don’t have eye questions only once a year. They probably have several questions during the year and forget them when it comes time for their one-hour-per-year at your office. Instead of making them write it down, why not communicate with them over the internet in blogs and forums from your practice website?
Perhaps in our blogs we should answer the questions they don’t ask. This is a great new modality for patient-doctor interaction. Please blog.
Things I want included in an EMR
Things I want in PMS:
For many of these things to happen, there should probably be some sort of work group where everyone agrees on the format for data exportation from our ophthalmic equipment. Any manufacturer who doesn’t play well with data exportation should be boycotted. Currently, many EHR vendors only work with certain companies. I think that’s ridiculous. I don’t want to be limited to only a single brand of equipment in my office.
Over at apple.com they have a whole section on small businesses that use a mac. They profile a plastic surgeon MD who made his own EHR using Mac products. Very nice. Apple actively markets to health care professionals and shows us how we could use macs in our office.
I like the idea of using a mac. Less worry about viruses, spyware, etc. They say Macs “just work” while Windows PCs are more of a hobby (which implies they’re always breaking down, so you are always fixing them- like a classic car).
I’ve always used PCs, so I probably won’t convert to Mac. . yet; however, I would like to see the EHR companies develop platform independant solutions. That would make me very happy for if/when I do convert to Mac.
I’ve observed several practices with light communication systems (a.k.a. doctor nurse call systems) to help the doctor know where to to go next, and it allows the staff to know where the doctors is currently. The first ones had to use wires built into the walls to function. Then they came out with wireless ones that anyone can install easily.
In this age of electonic medical records, many practices have a computer in each room and at workstations across the office. Why isn’t there a program out there to install on each machine in your office that does the same thing as the light systems? Build into it a secure instant messenger application while you’re at it. Why don’t the EMR vendors just package this into their software?
I’m always thinkin’, yessiree.
