Spotlight ON TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUE

LVC Counselor: Provides the ‘Wow’ Before LASIK Surgery

By Leslie Goldberg, Associate Editor

The LVC Counselor, produced by Patient Education Concepts, Inc. (Houston, Texas) and Eyeland Design Network GmbH (Germany), is an interactive patient education software program that provides practices with a systematic approach to educating laser vision correction candidates.

"The LVC Counselor has consistently proved to increase the number of patients who say ‘yes’ to laser vision correction by allowing them to visualize the benefits of surgery before having it," says Bob Watson, president of Patient Education Concepts, Inc.

Uses of the LVC Counselor

"We use the Counselor as a tool to demonstrate the ‘wow’ factor to a patient prior to undergoing LASIK surgery," says Dawn Cavanaugh, COO at Pepose Vision Institute, Chesterfield, Mo.

"The LVC Counselor allows us to address the two biggest obstacles that prevent patients from having surgery: cost and fear. We use the LVC to show the patient what their vision could possibly be after surgery," says Cavanaugh.

She says the cost issue is overcome by using the CareCredit Payment Calculator, which shows how affordable laser vision correction can be with low monthly payment plans. Cavanaugh says that fear is overcome by showing patients a graphic with a practice's surgical outcome statistics, building confidence that they have come to a practice which can deliver their desired results.

Figure 1A. This image simulates what a patient may see with their current astigmatism. Figure 1B. This image simulates what a patient may see post-LASIK.

"Each counseling session can also be tracked and reported to your practice, taking the guesswork out of knowing your true patient conversion rate," she says.

Using any one of over a dozen high-resolution, real-life scenes that target a wide range of patient demographics, each patient gets a good understanding of what their life would be like after laser vision correction. Presbyopic-aged patients can learn about blended vision. Additionally, patients who want to know how a practice's laser and surgical techniques differ from a competitor's have the ability to see animations specific to the practice's technology and preferred surgical technique.

"Before purchasing any luxury item, people have to visualize themselves owning and enjoying the product, which is difficult to do. That's why people test-drive a vehicle before they purchase it. The LVC Counselor is a powerful and convincing tool that allows patients, along with their family members, to virtually ‘test drive’ laser vision correction before making their decision," says Watson.

"We have found the Counselor to be particularly convincing when a patient has brought a family member to their consult," says Cavanaugh. "We use it on the front end of the operation when we have patients in for a complimentary consultation. They are shown this tool and love it."

Cavanaugh says her practice also uses the simulation at seminars. Everyone attending is autorefracted before the seminar and given their paperwork. Attendees are assigned a number and a counselor chooses patients from the seminar who have brought someone with them.

"We have the counselor at the seminar plug in the patient's prescription and show the audience what the patient's astigmatism numbers are. Then we show what could possibly happen to their vision after LASIK," says Cavanaugh. "It blows family members and the crowd away." The practice has surgeons in attendance at the seminars so that patients may ask questions about LASIK.

"We don't up sell from conventional to custom in our clinic," says Cavanaugh. "That is the surgeon's decision. We use the Counselor as an educational tool and to remove the fear factor. It has been a great tool for both the practice and our patients." OM

To learn more about the LVC Counselor visit www.LVCCounselor.com or contact Robert Watson at robertw@patientedconcepts.com.