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EW MEETING REPORTER 130 March 2011 program. This amount of money probably isn't going to cover the cost (of the system) in the long run." Vonda Syler, C.O.E., administra- tor, McDonald Eye Associates, Fayet- teville, Ark., gave the audience pearls about implementing EHR into a practice. "It is costly, but it does have its benefits," Ms. Syler said. "ASOA has a number of resources available to help you prepare for the transition, including webinars, community fo- rums, seminars at ASOA meetings, and copies of presentations and arti- cles." Communicating with all staff members and setting aside time for training is critical, she said. Refractive Cornea & IOL Surgery The final day of Winter Update kicked off with a dynamic session on Refractive Cornea & IOL Surgery, moderated by Dr. Donnenfeld. "I think listening to the case management and discussion has been the highlight of the meeting for me," Dr. Donnenfeld said in his opening comments. "I want to con- gratulate Steve Lane and Ed Holland for putting together a really great program." Topics covered included achiev- ing rapid visual rehabilitation in cataract and refractive surgery, when and how to enhance refractive IOL patients, and femtosecond limbal re- laxing incisions, among others. J. Kevin Belville, M.D., assis- tant clinical professor of ophthal- mology, University of California, provided a number of pearls on how to conduct a thorough pre-op workup to ensure a successful opera- tion and an ultimately happy refrac- tive IOL patient. "Starting with the first meeting, we start educating patients, getting them familiar with the choice of lenses," he said. When determining lens style and power, Dr. Belville suggested un- derpromising and overdelivering, setting up reasonable patient expec- tations early and often. Giving pa- tients a lifestyle questionnaire and Reporting live from ASCRS Winter Update, Palm Beach, Fla. by Jena Passut and Faith A. Hayden Editors' note: This Meeting Reporter contains original reporting by the EyeWorld news team. continued from page 129 discussing insurance coverage versus out-of-pocket charges are also mandatory. Louis E. Probst, M.D., national medical director, TLC Laser Eye Cen- ters, gave a talk on the changing de- mographics of LASIK he's witnessed in TLC patients over the last decade. For example, in 2000 the aver- age patient age was 40. Over the last decade, however, patients have been getting younger, with an average age of 35 in 2009. Furthermore, women have con- sistently outnumbered men for LASIK by approximately 10%. Dr. Probst suggested tailoring your mar- keting efforts to target women, since they are clearly more interested in the procedure. "I find in refractive surgery we often talk about hyperopia, but hy- peropia has always been a very small segment of the patients we treat at TLC," he said. "It's never amounted to more than 5% of our patients. It's not what's going to drive the busi- ness." Dr. Donnenfeld chimed in, driv- ing home the point that LASIK has recently been attacked in the media even though it is an extremely safe procedure and safer than contact wear in the long term. "At the present time, LASIK is under attack by some unscrupulous trial lawyers and a few people who are with the FDA, and I think there's certainly secondary gain that's a part of this," he said. "I think it behooves all of us to realize that LASIK is an extraordinarily successful procedure, and we're being portrayed in the media as doing procedures that damage patients' eyes. Overwhelm- ingly, this procedure is safer than contact lenses. It changes people's lives, and we as physicians need to communicate that to our patients on a daily basis so they understand the safety." He suggested making an effort to talk to any politicians that you treat about the safety of the proce- dure, even if they aren't LASIK can- didates. "The grassroots effort on behalf of ASCRS is probably the only thing that's going to turn around this dis- turbing trend," Dr. Donnenfeld said. "It is ASCRS that's been responsible for preserving our ability to do LASIK." Editors' note: None of the doctors re- vealed any financial interests related to their comments. Final wrap-up ASCRS took a unique approach to wrapping up Winter Update by inviting attendees to sit in intimate roundtables with members of the meeting faculty. Program chairs Drs. Lane and Holland moderated the session. At a roundtable discussion led by Gary J. Foster, M.D., Eye Center of Northern Colorado, Fort Collins, and Nick Mamalis, M.D., professor of ophthalmology, John A. Moran Eye Center, Salt Lake City, attendees asked about keratometry prefer- ences, LASIK vs. PRK after cataract surgery, and patients who are sensi- tive to fluorescent lighting, among other questions. Wayne Barish, M.D., Boynton Beach, Fla., asked the experts what keratometry values they enter into online toric IOL calculators. "It's interesting because some people swear by manual Ks; some people say Ks with the IOLMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, Calif.) are fine; others say you have to cal- culate Ks from surface topography. We do all of the above," Dr. Mamalis said. He said a tech in his office will perform all three and then they will discuss the readings to determine which are the most accurate. Those numbers are the ones that they plug into the AcrySof Toric IOL Calcula- tor (www.acrysoftoriccalculator.com, Alcon). "The things that can go wrong are if you put (the lens) in the wrong place or if you put it where it is measured, and the measurement is in the wrong place. That's why those measurements are so critical." Dr. Mamalis urged his fellow practitioners at the table to consider the importance of patient counsel- ing, especially for those who have

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