ASCRS launches new patient education website

www.EyeSurgeryEducation.org
LASIK, Cataract, and Premium IOLs

ASCRS has launched a completely new and updated patient education website which offers members the option of linking to it as an in-practice patient education and orientation web venue.The site provides patients with generic, unbranded information to help them get a clear, high level understanding of refractive surgery options.
An important feature of the site is that ASCRS will offer it to members configured in such a manner that listings to other practices through the find-a-Surgeon function will be shuttered.One of the obstacles to our members using the site is the idea that it might lead them to a competing practice down the street, said John Ciccone, ASCRS Director of Communications. With a “cut-out” feature we have eliminated that problem.
Another important feature of the site is its patient quiz. In this interactive site utility, patients enter their age, information about their vision and activities. They are then presented with information that is appropriate to them. “How many time has a 55 year-old patient walked into a practice asking for LASIK when he or she is actually suffering from presbyopia or has an early state cataract?, Ciccone asked. One issue is that people simplistically think that “LASIK fixes your vision,” but they don’t understand what is going on with their vision and don’t know their management options.“One of the benefits of the site, when used in doctor’s offices, is that it can be used to give patients an overview of their options and help reduce chair time correcting misapprehensions, Ciccone added.
The site, was designed by AKQA (www.AKQA.com) use the latest interactive technologies to provide a customized, animation- and graphic-rich learning experience for prospective LASIK, presbyopic IOL, and cataract patients.
“We selected AKQA because of our insistence that the ASCRS LASIK patient education website becomes the clear leader in patient information sites,” said Kerry Solomon, M.D., of Carolina Eyecare Physicians and co-director of the ASCRS LASIK Website Update Project.
“Patients are used to a sophisticated media environment on the Internet. That means your site has to be rich in animations and graphics and have the best in terms of design, ease of navigation, and easily understood content,” says Helen Wu, M.D., co-director of the web project and former chair of the ASCRS Refractive Clinical Committee and Director, Refractive Surgery Service at the New England Eye Center. AKQA, produces the most striking, hip, and visually provocative sites we found in our search for a web design firm. They are what we’re looking for to help us break out of the box, says Dr. Solomon.
To enable us to achieve a rich graphical environment, ASCRS has teamed up with Eyemaginations whose animations and graphics enable patients to visualize and understand the quality of life impact that refractive surgery can have for them. “It’s one thing to read text, it is quite another to see an animation of what you can realistically expect to see post-op. said Dr. Wu.
The selection of Eyemaginations was an important decision, because they are the source of the site’s educational visual content. We wanted animations that are anatomically correct, have accurate narrations, and are esthetically attractive.Moreover, we need a partner that had a wide variety of educational material and is easy to work with, says Dr. Wu.

For information on how to use the new www.EyeSurgeryEducation.org website as an adjunct to your practice, contact John Ciccone, at JCiccone@ascrs.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Ciccone is director of communications for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Contact him at 703-591-2220.