Get Ahead: Prepare Your Practice for AI

In the coming months, Eyefinity^® will help transform the way artificial intelligence (AI) shows up in eye care. Those willing to embrace the new AI frontier will find themselves leading a practice that is poised to run even more efficiently. By automating tedious tasks, AI lets you focus on patients, not paperwork, and helps your whole practice dedicate more time to what matters most.

What can practices do to prepare for AI in eye care? Check out these tips to help set you up for success as the future of optometry grows:

1. Study up. This seems obvious, but reading up on AI in healthcare, and in eye care specifically, will help you and your staff become familiar with its use cases. Our blog on AI in eye care is a fantastic place to start.

2. Assess your hardware. Advanced capability demands advanced equipment, so make sure your tools are up to the task. Ensure any iPads doctors in your practice use have an M2 chip or later. Not using iPads in your practice? It's never too late to start! 

3. Become a reliable narrator. One way AI is making its way to eye care is through ambient listening and transcription. If you’re not used to speaking aloud during exams, this may feel silly at first, but it’s best practice for AI. Tools that assist with exam documentation require you to speak at a certain volume and with a certain clarity. Enunciate, and repeat back to patients how you’re interpreting their concerns. Don’t worry—it’ll feel natural in no time.

4. Prepare your patients. Per HIPAA regulations, you will need to gather patient consent before using any sort of ambient listening technology. It’s never too early to hash out a process for obtaining this crucial element of AI-enhanced exams, and to prepare your staff for how to speak to patients about AI, especially if they have concerns about its use.

5. Review (and refresh!) your own cybersecurity. Regular security assessments are always a good practice but revisiting your cybersecurity and any contingency plans before incorporating an AI tool is a smart move. Bonus: it can also help your staff and patients feel more at ease with this new technology.

6. Implement a human-centered review process. A properly designed AI tool gives you the final say in your records—make sure you have a process in place to review what AI captures so you stay in the loop.

Want more resources around AI in eye care? Fill out our form to access our webinar with even more tips for preparing your practice.