20 Ophthalmology Business • July 2018
by Liz Hillman, Ophthalmology Business Senior Staff Writer
Carving out a niche with services,
technologies new to your market
Some practices see
opportunities in providing
services not offered by
others in their area
W
hen Reena
N. Patel,
MD, Wichita
Vision Insti-
tute, Wichita,
Kansas, went into practice 13 years
ago, she started off solo because she
couldn't find another practice in the
area that offered what she wanted:
truly patient-centric care. Since then,
Dr. Patel hasn't stopped filling what
she sees as gaps in the market, bring-
ing on technologies and services that
might not be offered nearby, driven
first and foremost, however, by pa-
tient demand.
"When I first moved to Wichita,
I didn't necessarily plan to open my
own practice, but when I looked at
the options, I didn't like what I was
seeing in regard to patient care. It
wasn't patient-centric, which is my
focus, so I decided to open up my
own practice," Dr. Patel said, explain-
ing that she built it from the ground
up. "The two thoughts that I had
were if you provide excellent patient
care and you have the best technolo-
gy to offer, you will be successful."
Currently, Dr. Patel's practice
is the only one offering cataract
surgery with the LenSx Laser (Alcon,
Fort Worth, Texas) in Wichita. Her
practice was the first in the state
to offer refractive surgery with the
iDesign Advanced CustomVue LASIK
system (Johnson & Johnson Vision,
Santa Ana, California) and dry eye
treatment with the LipiFlow Thermal
Dr. Patel has brought on new technologies in response to patient needs that she
has seen in her practice.
Source: Reena Patel, MD
