Did you know that Skyvision Centers has had an Electronic Medical Records system since we opened our Westlake office? That's right, from the very beginning all of your records are securely stored electronically as soon as you leave our office. Even your pictures and test results!
Medicare and the government have declared that medical practices of all kinds must now begin to send your prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy or to your "mail-away" pharmacy. Skyvision Centers has been doing this for 2 weeks now, and it's working very well!
In order for us to send your prescriptions, new or renewed, we have to have your permission. When you come to see us our reception staff will ask you to sign a form that allows us to send your prescriptions electronically. If you don't sign we cannot send them. Most pharmacies, both big chains and local, and most send-away pharmacies are participating in this plan.
Why do it? Why have us send your prescriptions by e-Rx? Well, they get there right away. They are more accurate. There is no confusion at the pharmacy about what we ordered. No one has to read the doctors' handwriting. You don't have to carry a piece of paper!
Welcome to e-Rx, the next step in our EMR at Skyvision Centers, added to our services to better care for you and your eyes.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
M3D Glasses: 3D Glasses That Double As Sunglasses!
Here's one of the newest, latest, greatest things in eyewear, and of course your friendly Cleveland neighborhood Skyvision Centers is right on top of it! Marchon has introduced 3D Photochromic glasses called "M3D" that you can use in a theatre, playing 3D video games, or when you are outside and you need a high quality pair of sunglasses.
M3D lenses are custom fit to a fully functional opthalmic frame that YOU pick out. The lenses are curved to provide excellent High-Def 3D optics and eliniate light contamination, distortion, and haze. They have advanced coatings to make them especially scratch-resistant.
Here's the cool part: you can use your M3D glasses as a super pair of polarized sunglasses! M3D lenses react extrememly fast to light conditions, darkening to a sunglass in 30 secons or less, and then returning to their original tint in just minutes when you go indoors. And they protect yoru eyes from UVA and UVB light!
When you visit our Skyvision Optical ask Lisa about the new M3D lenses for HD 3D!!
M3D lenses are custom fit to a fully functional opthalmic frame that YOU pick out. The lenses are curved to provide excellent High-Def 3D optics and eliniate light contamination, distortion, and haze. They have advanced coatings to make them especially scratch-resistant.
Here's the cool part: you can use your M3D glasses as a super pair of polarized sunglasses! M3D lenses react extrememly fast to light conditions, darkening to a sunglass in 30 secons or less, and then returning to their original tint in just minutes when you go indoors. And they protect yoru eyes from UVA and UVB light!
When you visit our Skyvision Optical ask Lisa about the new M3D lenses for HD 3D!!
Friday, June 17, 2011
A New Tear Drop For Dry Eye
There are two general types of Dry Eye: decreased tear volume (quantity) and decreased tear function (quality). Sometimes decreased tear quality is called "evaporative dry eye" because the tears that cover the front of the eye evaporate more quickly, and this causes the dry eye symptoms.
What your eye doctor sees when he or she looks at the front of your eye and you have poor quality tears is an early break-up of your tear film. Your tears should be smooth across the front of your eye for at least 8-10 seconds. When they break up sooner you often have symptoms like blurring, aching, or a feeling like there's something in your eye. Your Tear Osmolarity will often be normal.
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A new type of artificial tear, Systane Balance, is specifically designed to stabilize your tear film. One of the early studies of this drop showed that it increases the amount of time your tears remain smooth 2.5X!! That means that you will have longer coverage from your own tears after using Systane Balance.
If you have a tear quality problem and this causes you to have Dry Eye symptoms, Systane Balance may be a part of the treatment that you get from your Skyvision Centers doctors.
What your eye doctor sees when he or she looks at the front of your eye and you have poor quality tears is an early break-up of your tear film. Your tears should be smooth across the front of your eye for at least 8-10 seconds. When they break up sooner you often have symptoms like blurring, aching, or a feeling like there's something in your eye. Your Tear Osmolarity will often be normal.
If you have a tear quality problem and this causes you to have Dry Eye symptoms, Systane Balance may be a part of the treatment that you get from your Skyvision Centers doctors.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Generic Drugs Might NOT Be The Same As Your Brand!
At Skyvision Centers we are very aware of how expensive medicines can be. There are some instances where we can safely (and happily!) prescribe generics to replace your brand-name medicine and be confident that you will get the same effect and benefit. However, this is unfortunately not always the case.
The most common place where we run into this issue is around the time of cataract surgery. There's no other way to put it: the generic eyedrops that insurance companies want you to substitute are just NOT the same and NOT AS GOOD as the brand-name eyedrops they would replace.
We use the best, most modern, safest antibiotic drops around the time of cataract surgery. The older, generic antibiotic drops are simply not as strong. There is a special drop that we use to decrease swelling around the surgery, and there are three different brand-name eyedrops that work equally well. Unfortunately, ALL of the generic options cause stinging when you put them in, and they can even CAUSE swelling that decreases vision. They are NOT EQUAL to the brands they replace.
At Skyvision Centers we want what is best for you, our patient. We know that medicines can be expensive, but there is a real, medical reason why our doctors choose each medicine for you. Please talk to us before you let your pharmacy or your insurance company change you to a generic medicine.
The most common place where we run into this issue is around the time of cataract surgery. There's no other way to put it: the generic eyedrops that insurance companies want you to substitute are just NOT the same and NOT AS GOOD as the brand-name eyedrops they would replace.
We use the best, most modern, safest antibiotic drops around the time of cataract surgery. The older, generic antibiotic drops are simply not as strong. There is a special drop that we use to decrease swelling around the surgery, and there are three different brand-name eyedrops that work equally well. Unfortunately, ALL of the generic options cause stinging when you put them in, and they can even CAUSE swelling that decreases vision. They are NOT EQUAL to the brands they replace.
At Skyvision Centers we want what is best for you, our patient. We know that medicines can be expensive, but there is a real, medical reason why our doctors choose each medicine for you. Please talk to us before you let your pharmacy or your insurance company change you to a generic medicine.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Cataract Safety Improved Over 10 Years Studied
Cataract surgery performed in the United States is one of the safest, most effective surgeries there could be, and it has been like this for a very long time. A recent study looked at the safety of cataract surgery and compared surgeries performed in 1994-1995 with those done in 2005-2006 and here are the highlights!
Really bad complications like infection and bleeding following cataract surgery were very rare in 1994-95, but they were 21% more common back then in comparison with 2005-06. One of the most significant risk factor for complications in 1994-95 was a history of severe diabetic retinopathy, but even with this risk the frequency of complications was dramatically lower in 2005-06.
As cataract surgery has evolved in the U.S. other studies have also shown a decreased risk of complications. For example, serious infections have been rare since at least the 1980's, but the risk of having a serious eye infection following cataract surgery is now about 10 times LESS in 2011 than it was in 1990!
Cataract surgery is one of the biggest success stories in all of medicine and Dr. White is one of the best cataract surgeons in the country! We can improve your vision using one of the safest and most effective surgical procedures known to man. If you have been told that you, or a family member, has a cataract give us a call at Skyvision Centers!
(Note: cataract surgery, like all surgical procedures, does have the possibility of complications which may affect the outcome of the surgery. Bleeding and infection are only two of the complications possible. For more information about this ask your surgeon.)
Really bad complications like infection and bleeding following cataract surgery were very rare in 1994-95, but they were 21% more common back then in comparison with 2005-06. One of the most significant risk factor for complications in 1994-95 was a history of severe diabetic retinopathy, but even with this risk the frequency of complications was dramatically lower in 2005-06.
As cataract surgery has evolved in the U.S. other studies have also shown a decreased risk of complications. For example, serious infections have been rare since at least the 1980's, but the risk of having a serious eye infection following cataract surgery is now about 10 times LESS in 2011 than it was in 1990!
Cataract surgery is one of the biggest success stories in all of medicine and Dr. White is one of the best cataract surgeons in the country! We can improve your vision using one of the safest and most effective surgical procedures known to man. If you have been told that you, or a family member, has a cataract give us a call at Skyvision Centers!
(Note: cataract surgery, like all surgical procedures, does have the possibility of complications which may affect the outcome of the surgery. Bleeding and infection are only two of the complications possible. For more information about this ask your surgeon.)
Friday, June 10, 2011
Updated FREE Smartphone App!
We want to make it as easy and convenient as possible to be in contact with our Skyvision Centers staff. You can make an appointment, talk to our billing office, or ask on of our staff members a technical question. So if you remember to make an appointment at 11:00 at night...no problem! Just use your App.
All you have to do is go to the iStore of the Android Market and search for "Skyvision" or "Skyvision Centers". Download the app, and away you go!
We are constantly trying to improve your experience at Skyvision. Let us know what you think about the App.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
25 Years As A Doctor!
Dr. White is off to his 25th Reunion at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Wow...25 years! He looks pretty good for an old guy, huh?! Here's what he once wrote about why he became an ophthalmologist:
“What made you want to be an ophthalmologist, Dr. White?”
Not a day goes by that at least one of my patients doesn’t ask me this question. Today it was a new patient, 75 years old or so, and a young man in for his first glasses at age 12. Sometimes it’s “why did you want to become an eye doctor?” I have a quick answer for the office of course, but I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to go back in time and “watch” myself make the decision all over again. It was a good decision then, and it’s been a good decision ever since.
I originally thought I would be an orthopedic surgeon. After all, I’m a washed up, blockhead, brain-damaged ex-football player. Orthopedic surgery just seemed to be a really good fit. I loved my Ortho rotation during my 3rd year rotations at UVM. Loved everything about it. The work, the patients, the clinical problems we encountered. I loved the surgeons–heck, they were all basically ME 10 or 15 years older. Loved it all.
Then I met Peter Linton, Chairman of the Division of Plastic Surgery at UVM, and Peter very quickly became my mentor. He and his wife Pam “adopted” my wife-to-be and me, feeding us and giving us a safe place to bring the problems that arise in a young physician and in a young marriage. And what cool surgery! Putting broken pieces/parts back together. Rebuilding a self-image through a combination of technical skill, vision, and artistry. I was smitten, and Peter lobbied day and night, enthusiastically pushing me to follow his career path.
There were a couple of problems, though, with each of these specialties. In the first place people die, and the broken patients in these two surgical specialties are no exceptions. I struggle with death; always have. How would I handle this? Also, I was deeply in love with my bride-to-be and committed to doing whatever it might take to be the very best husband and eventually father I could be. We talked for hours about the impact of residency on our new family, about the killer hours in Ortho and about the 7-9 YEARS of training that most Plastic Surgeons undergo. I can still remember, as if it was last night: “I love you dearly, but I’m not sure if I can love you 9 years of residency.”
My Dad spent his entire working career in ophthalmic manufacturing, running companies that made all kinds of things associated with eye care and vision. At about this time I took a “flier” on an elective in Ophthalmology to see what the medical part of Dad’s world was like. Two weeks of cataract surgery, glaucoma checks and new glasses for nearsighted kids. I followed this up with rotations visiting the academic programs at Georgetown, Wills in Philadephia, and Pacific in San Francisco. A local surgeon in Burlington took me in for a month and showed me what the real life of an Ophthalmologist felt like. What a cool world! What cool gadgets! High frequency ultrasound to dissolve cataracts. Lasers–all kinds of lasers that did all kinds of cool stuff. This was it!
To top it off the residency programs were a total of 4 years long, and most of the Ophthalmologists I met were home for dinner with their families. Score! Although my choice DID come as somewhat of a surprise to the rest of the faculty. When the residency Match results were published the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine cornered me, a concerned and sympathetic look on her face. “What happened, Darrell? You matched in Ophthalmology?” To which I replied “I know, Marga, isn’t it great?” “Hmm…we were all sure that you would be an Orthopedic Surgeon; you were just the right amount of malignant!”
Well, Marga, this Ophthalmology thing has turned out pretty well for me so far. I married that girl, My Beautiful Bride and Better 95%, and we are married to this day. I’ve been home for dinner most nights with her and the kids since then. For the most part my patients don’t die, at least not from anything that I’M treating. Ophthalmology patients get better, and because vision is such an integral part of the human experience, both physically and emotionally, the gratification that one gets from returning someone to the sighted world is simply immeasurable. Oh yeah, we still have the coolest gadgets in all of medicine, and we get new ones to play with every year! And for whatever it’s worth, most of my best friends in medicine are also washed up blockhead ex-jocks, most of whom are slightly less brain-damaged than I.
Except, that is, my Orthopedic Surgery buddies…"
Congratulations from all of us at Skyvision Centers to Dr. White and all of his UVM classmates on 25 years of being doctors!
“What made you want to be an ophthalmologist, Dr. White?”
Not a day goes by that at least one of my patients doesn’t ask me this question. Today it was a new patient, 75 years old or so, and a young man in for his first glasses at age 12. Sometimes it’s “why did you want to become an eye doctor?” I have a quick answer for the office of course, but I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to go back in time and “watch” myself make the decision all over again. It was a good decision then, and it’s been a good decision ever since.
I originally thought I would be an orthopedic surgeon. After all, I’m a washed up, blockhead, brain-damaged ex-football player. Orthopedic surgery just seemed to be a really good fit. I loved my Ortho rotation during my 3rd year rotations at UVM. Loved everything about it. The work, the patients, the clinical problems we encountered. I loved the surgeons–heck, they were all basically ME 10 or 15 years older. Loved it all.
Then I met Peter Linton, Chairman of the Division of Plastic Surgery at UVM, and Peter very quickly became my mentor. He and his wife Pam “adopted” my wife-to-be and me, feeding us and giving us a safe place to bring the problems that arise in a young physician and in a young marriage. And what cool surgery! Putting broken pieces/parts back together. Rebuilding a self-image through a combination of technical skill, vision, and artistry. I was smitten, and Peter lobbied day and night, enthusiastically pushing me to follow his career path.
There were a couple of problems, though, with each of these specialties. In the first place people die, and the broken patients in these two surgical specialties are no exceptions. I struggle with death; always have. How would I handle this? Also, I was deeply in love with my bride-to-be and committed to doing whatever it might take to be the very best husband and eventually father I could be. We talked for hours about the impact of residency on our new family, about the killer hours in Ortho and about the 7-9 YEARS of training that most Plastic Surgeons undergo. I can still remember, as if it was last night: “I love you dearly, but I’m not sure if I can love you 9 years of residency.”
My Dad spent his entire working career in ophthalmic manufacturing, running companies that made all kinds of things associated with eye care and vision. At about this time I took a “flier” on an elective in Ophthalmology to see what the medical part of Dad’s world was like. Two weeks of cataract surgery, glaucoma checks and new glasses for nearsighted kids. I followed this up with rotations visiting the academic programs at Georgetown, Wills in Philadephia, and Pacific in San Francisco. A local surgeon in Burlington took me in for a month and showed me what the real life of an Ophthalmologist felt like. What a cool world! What cool gadgets! High frequency ultrasound to dissolve cataracts. Lasers–all kinds of lasers that did all kinds of cool stuff. This was it!
To top it off the residency programs were a total of 4 years long, and most of the Ophthalmologists I met were home for dinner with their families. Score! Although my choice DID come as somewhat of a surprise to the rest of the faculty. When the residency Match results were published the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine cornered me, a concerned and sympathetic look on her face. “What happened, Darrell? You matched in Ophthalmology?” To which I replied “I know, Marga, isn’t it great?” “Hmm…we were all sure that you would be an Orthopedic Surgeon; you were just the right amount of malignant!”
Well, Marga, this Ophthalmology thing has turned out pretty well for me so far. I married that girl, My Beautiful Bride and Better 95%, and we are married to this day. I’ve been home for dinner most nights with her and the kids since then. For the most part my patients don’t die, at least not from anything that I’M treating. Ophthalmology patients get better, and because vision is such an integral part of the human experience, both physically and emotionally, the gratification that one gets from returning someone to the sighted world is simply immeasurable. Oh yeah, we still have the coolest gadgets in all of medicine, and we get new ones to play with every year! And for whatever it’s worth, most of my best friends in medicine are also washed up blockhead ex-jocks, most of whom are slightly less brain-damaged than I.
Except, that is, my Orthopedic Surgery buddies…"
Congratulations from all of us at Skyvision Centers to Dr. White and all of his UVM classmates on 25 years of being doctors!
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