EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/387844
85 EW FEATURE October 2014 cataract perceptions, "You can't get to evidence-based medicine without first being able to accumulate the evidence. We're still in the accumulation of evidence phase of this technology, but those of us who use it on a daily and regular basis feel it does have a true clinical benefit " – John Berdahl, MD Global Trends in Ophthalmology ™ Copyright © 2014 Global Trends in Ophthalmology and the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. All rights reserved. The question physicians need to address is whether the technology is financially viable for the practice, and whether the physician is pro- viding fair value to patients by using the technology, Dr. Berdahl said. "In this day and age, we need to understand if we truly are providing fair value to patients or not. Those that aren't convinced of the clini- cal benefit certainly aren t going to feel like an extra charge to patients is going to provide fair value," he said. "Conversely, the vast majority of surgeons who have adopted a femtosecond laser in their practice have found it to provide value to patients and be a financial benefi or at least a financial break-even to their practice." Dr. Henderson added that beyond the financial concerns of adding the technology, there are "logistical implications in adopting the technology." About 25% of surgeons outside the U.S. who are not currently performing laser-assisted cataract surgery do not believe there is enough evidence on the technolo- gy's benefits, compared to almost 45% in the U.S. (although the difference was not statistically significant). Dr. Henderson agreed that the majority of surgeons "believe that the femtosecond laser does increase safety and reproducibility in cataract surgery." ASCRS Clinical Survey results can be found at www.globaltrendsin- ophthalmology.com. EW Editors' note: Dr. Berdahl has financial interests with Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas) and Bausch + Lomb (B+L, Bridgewater, N.J.). Dr. Henderson has financial interests with Alcon, Abbott Medical Optics (Santa Ana, Calif.) and B+L. Contact information Berdahl: john.berdahl@vancethompsonvision.com Henderson: bahenderson@eyeboston.com