Wednesday, February 20th, should have been a good night of basketball for everyone.
The second-ranked Duke Blue Devils and eighth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels were set to square off in a marquee matchup of college basketball royalty at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN. There have been numerous top-10 matchups between these two schools over the years, but this one had a different feel to it. Why? Because Zion Williamson was suiting up for the Blue Devils. Williamson, a 6'7, 284-pound freshman forward, is an athletic specimen who entered Wednesday's game averaging 21.6 points per game and 8.8 rebounds, but his stats aren't what glue the masses to their TV's. The Duke phenom became famous for his dunks in high school and has continued performing amazing athletic feats in the college ranks. Simply put, he is must-see TV!
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by Paul Batson, O.D.
Center Director VisionAmerica of Birmingham I was reading a really interesting article last week that I've been thinking about. Some of you will find that funny. One, that I enjoy reading journal articles and two, that I was actually "thinking." Last September, the British Journal of Ophthalmology published an article titled, Distribution of preoperative and postoperative astigmatism in a large population of patients undergoing cataract surgery in the UK [1]. The study reports that out of the 110,468 eyes within the study, 42% had preoperative corneal astigmatism >1.0 Diopter while 78% had >0.5 Diopter. 2/18/2019 1 Comment Your Practice Isn't PerfectBruce Lee once said, "A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at."
While no one at VisionAmerica would have lined up to tell him to his face, we don't necessarily agree with Bruce here. But goals are often missed! Much like New Year's resolutions, (almost) everybody has them, but few people follow through and complete them. (Studies show that only 8% of people stick to their New Year's resolutions!) As January all but disappeared and we have rolled into February, the opportunity to set achievable annual goals is still available to all of us. Goal-setting is a skill that can be learned and improved upon, but the problem with most goals is that they are too grand. Thursday, February 28th will be the 12th Rare Disease Day coordinated by EURORDIS.
Rare Disease Day is recognized on the last day of February each year and has helped raise awareness of rare diseases and their impact on the lives of patients. According to the National Eye Institute (NEI), a rare disease is considered to have a prevalence of fewer than 200,000 affected individuals in the United States. In honor of Rare Disease Day, we thought we would highlight Usher Syndrome. The photo featured is of a patient who was referred to Dr. Rod Nowakowski and our genetic eye clinic. The patient was found to have autosomal recessive Usher Syndrome Type 1 with pathogenic variants in the CDH23 gene. The Medical Group Management Association's (MGMA) 2018 Patient Review Reportprovides an insightful window into the mind of the patient.
MGMA reviewed seven million (Million! That's not a typo!) patient review forms and came away with two key takeaways:
As we noted with our introduction of the IOL Master 700 in our Birmingham office, technology will play a huge role in our path toward excellence in cataract surgery refractive outcomes. In addition to the IOL Master 700, we are also excited to be able to offer intraoperative aberrometry with the ORA System. Historically, one of the primary challenges with cataract surgeries is that surgeons have not been able to determine the quality of the refractive outcome during the procedure. Often times, a patient would have to wait weeks after the surgery to determine the accuracy of the surgical results. We've been here before.
The day after what felt like the forecast of a major snow event in central and north Alabama, we were only left with angry parents and business owners and empty grocery shelves. What was missing? Snow. If you watched the "James Spann Reads Mean Tweets - 2019 Edition" on YouTube, you saw that many in the state didn't handle the lack of snowfall very well. What causes us to react this way when we feel mislead? Because, for better or for worse, we trust the weatherman. As eye doctors, it probably isn't hard to think back to a time when we felt we thoroughly explained the outcome of a procedure or product to a patient only for them to end up angry when their expectations didn't meet reality. |
AuthorThe staff and doctors at VisionAmerica are committed to providing relevant information for you, your patients and your practice. We hope you find the information in our blog post helpful. Archives
August 2019
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