Layout 1
instrumental strategies
Software Handles Patient Education
Multi media package offers animated lessons
and marketing tools.
By: JEROME
SHERMAN. O.D., F.A.A.O.
 |
The
3D-Eye Office can run on an
unlimited number of computer
workstations. |
As
a professor at the State University of New York in New York City for more
than three decades and now as a consultant to Eyemaginations (EM), I reason that
its 3D-Eye Office v4.0 could greatly benefit our students, our patients and our
bottom line. The multi-media package includes
a software program detailing educational,
marketing and training information on anatomy, pathology, clinical procedures and
dispensing related content; it's close- captioned and multilingual.
Our
faculty thinks it would help educate our patients so they can make informed decisions
about what services or products they might desire. I also think that this new package
will supplement as well as simplify the role of our students and faculty.
Because SUNY has a clinical
facility with more than 100 exam rooms and a 100+ clinical faculty, implementation
will be far more complicated than in a private office. But the faculty thinks the
benefits could prove enormous.
Meet a new kind of eye office
Eyemaginations' 3D-Eye Office is a three-dimensional
animated communication platform that provides a full library of eye-related animations
driven by a PC-based software system. The primary purpose of the 3D-Eye Office
system is to educate patients about services and products offered within an eye
care practice by grouping videos into "playlist(s)." The selected playlists help
patients make informed eye care decisions based on explanations of how and why procedures
and services are performed. At SUNY, the playlist will obviously be different in
our contact lens clinic than in our laser center or glaucoma institute.
Working it
Minimal training is required to run the 3D-Eye
Office, and the software features built-in training lessons. Doctors may be involved
in using the software, or they can delegate it to staff. You can set it up for patients
to use it in kiosk mode, or you can run it on a continuous loop. The kiosk system
is a free-standing unit that can service any busy practice in the waiting room by
allowing patients to interact without the involvement of the doctor or staff.
Educate and market too
The 3D-Eye Office includes about 170 full-feature
3-D animations on subjects such as ocular anatomy, refractive errors, ocular pathology,
clinical procedures, dispensing and contact lenses. The interactive HeyeLites, a
program that displays pictures of a patient's eye and shows results in a 3-D format,
is especially helpful. The program also has a sketch pad function for doctor interaction
with the image; it's very useful in demonstrating to patients precisely what problems
you uncovered during the exam. The Eye Office can run on an unlimited number of
your office's computer stations.
Additionally, the EM software allows
in-house marketing. A custom media feature enables the user to add talking heads,
pictures, music, or commercials to the playlists.
The list goes on
Although the original intent was to produce animations
for patients, the recent ones are so superb that I use them for teaching purposes.
In addition to the animations included in the multi media package, EM creates approximately
60-80 new ones yearly that may be purchased for a flat fee. OM
Optometric Management, Issue: November 2005