Industry Insider is a timely chat with an ophthalmic industry thought leader.

Michael Crocetta

Michael Crocetta, vice president of marketing with Marco since 2006, has spent almost 35 years in sales and marketing roles for various medical companies. A quote of his, “Time is the hinge pin within each practice,” appears on Marco’s website and emphasizes the value he and his company place on making the most efficient products they can for physicians.

Ophthalmology Management: Why is efficiency so important to Marco’s design philosophy?

Michael Crocetta: Time is dictated by efficiency and it ends up driving everything in a practice; this means a product needs to maximize its value proposition to owners.

As an example of how we address this issue at Marco, we have a refractive process called “Xfraction,” which digitally integrates data from wavefront aberrometry into Marco’s automated refractors.

Xfraction can run more than 20 diagnostic measures in 10 seconds per eye and save more than four minutes in the overall refractive process. Harvesting more data about the optical path in far less time reduces costs, adds time for patient education and results in superior outcomes.

We’re looking to incorporate more of these process integration options between technologies in our development pipeline. That kind of efficiency integration is so important in justifying initial cost investments to practices, establishing lasting relationships and in helping practices to thrive.

OM: Recently, Marco released its Ultra M series slit lamps. What do these models add to the original Ultra series?

MC: It’s not easy to update technology like the original Ultra series that had already established a standard for light-gathering optics and value for 20 years. It took time to launch these new slit lamps, in part because we were transitioning to a single-element LED; that ended up changing nearly everything in the design.

One of the tremendous benefits about a single-element LED is the consistent and uniform light it delivers, compared to multiple-element LED systems. Also, our patented background illumination system allows improved fundus visibility while still maintaining superior visibility of the anterior segment.

The new Ultra M series also features expanded viewing range from 10 mm to 14 mm, improved system ergonomics with intelligent control-cluster placements and elegantly integrated photo/video capture and storage through our ION imaging system.

OM: You have spent nearly 35 years in the medical device industry. What are some of the big changes you have seen in that time?

MC: A big change we’re seeing is a convergence of technology, and we’re reaching some of its functional limits; for instance, we may be able to measure down to hundredths of a diopter, but that’s outstripping what a patient can practically discern.

Today, it’s less about products alone and far more about providing practices with customized process solutions, access to experienced practice planners, programs and tools for patient and staff education as well as world-class customer care programs.

More than ever, every purchasing decision represents an expression of a doctor’s trust; companies need to reward that investment every day. At Marco Ophthalmic, that’s simply our mission. OM