Ditching the Flash Drive Shuffle: A Surgeon’s Journey to Digital Efficiency with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner

My journey to a fully integrated surgical workflow with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner was born out of necessity. In a large, multi-specialty practice with nine locations spread across hours of Southern California traffic, we faced a logistical nightmare. Every week, we physically transported patient data on flash drives from our various offices to the surgery center. This manual process was not only inefficient but also fraught with potential for error. If a flash drive was forgotten, or if the data were entered incorrectly, it created a cascade of problems for my surgical schedule and for the entire team. This antiquated system was a major source of stress and was simply not sustainable for a high-volume practice like ours.

My experience as a fellow at UC Irvine with the markerless toric surgery and premium lens placement capabilities of the ZEISS CALLISTO eye system had shown me what was possible when embracing the ZEISS suite of technology.

When I joined my current practice, I wanted to improve my premium lens conversion rates and advocated for upgrading our equipment. We brought in ZEISS IOLMaster 700 and ZEISS OPMI LUMERA 700 microscope with ZEISS CALLISTO eye. This also gave me my first look at ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner, a cloud-based platform for cataract surgical planning and data management. ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner connects our diagnostic devices, such as ZEISS IOLMaster 700, with the surgical suite and our EMR, creating a single, accessible hub for all patient information

This technology, if properly implemented, could address the challenges we faced with our hybrid analog-digital system (eg, getting stuck in traffic while transporting a flash drive to a surgical center, requiring manual data entry) by creating a purely digital framework for our logistics.

The immediate benefit of adopting ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner was the elimination of the flash drive shuffle. The system created a digital bridge between our disparate locations and the surgery center, allowing the smooth transfer of all my patient data.

Not only has the technology had a profound effect on our back-of-house operations, but it also directly contributes to improving the patient experience through data-driven decision making designed to improve outcomes and reduce wait times.

• Empowering the Team: I’ve trained my surgery center and materials manager to be my delegate within ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner. She reviews the charts and makes the initial lens selections for my approval. I then review her work and make any necessary adjustments. This has dramatically reduced her stress and the time she spends on manual data entry, freeing her to focus on managing the surgery center.
• Greater Accuracy and Efficiency: With all the data from ZEISS IOLMaster 700 and other diagnostic equipment flowing directly into ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner, the risk of transcription errors is reduced due to less manual entry. This has improved the accuracy of our surgical planning and has made the entire process more efficient.
• Better Patient Experience: During the days of the flash drive shuffle, patients who presented for surgery at one location but were awaiting data arrival from a different location were subject to delays in surgery while we awaited a driver with their surgical plan or needed last-minute repeat testing. With a cloud-based surgical plan, our patients receive prompt care and our surgical patient flow continues uninterrupted.

The transformation in our practice has been so successful that it's become our standard. A new surgeon who recently joined our group from a competing practice was amazed by ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner and immediately saw its potential. He emailed me, unprompted, to say how incredible he thought the system was.

Moving to a fully integrated digital workflow with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner has been a game-changer for my practice. It has allowed us to overcome the significant logistical hurdles of a multi-location practice, empowering my team to improve our efficiency and accuracy. This has freed me to focus on what matters most: providing the best possible surgical care to a high volume of patients. For any surgeon facing logistical hurdles due to the hybrid analog-digital framework connecting their various clinics, I can say that the investment in this type of integrated technology pays dividends in both operational smoothness and peace of mind.

^{The statements of the author reflect only his personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any institution with whom he is affiliated.
The author has a contractual or other financial relationship with Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and has received financial support.}