If you ask most practicing surgeons today, they’ll easily recall a time when our world was disconnected. A time in which our everyday tech didn’t speak to one another; Phones didn’t sync with our computers or tablets; Our data remained in siloes and our information was stored locally, not in the cloud. While the broader healthcare ecosystem has made progress in digital connectivity and a world without connectivity may be hard for some younger surgeons to imagine, this disconnection is still a reality for eye care. With heightened expectations around device interoperability, efficiency and user experience, tech manufacturers now consider connectivity a consumer expectation, not a luxury.

Eye care practitioners (ECPs) and the tech teams that support their practices have come to expect simplicity, security, and value from their technology. For example, the ability to leverage insights from machine data to drive operational efficiencies is becoming table stakes in medical device procurement conversations. So what, then, becomes the true differentiator for practice decision-makers? In our view: services—and the ability to use those services to tap into a robust network of experts who can solve issues, manage distributed fleets, and optimize tech ecosystems, all in real time.

Enter: Alcon Intelligent Services, a global team with the strategic vision to establish a “connectivity highway” that enables Alcon to increase customer value by enhancing patient care with simple, harmonized solutions.

One such solution is Intelligent Services Solutions (ISS), a secure network and cloud architecture that harmonizes Alcon’s technology platforms and allows customers to derive more value from their data and devices. The end result? Efficient practices that are designed to improve the patient experience. And the confidence to keep pace with the ever-changing eye care landscape.

Solutions and Support: The Best of Both Worlds

Eye care professionals are busy—to put it lightly. Fewer and fewer professionals are entering the field annually.¹ On top of this, each day, they contend with escalating patient expectations, greater workloads, an accelerating litany of eye conditions, and the demands of daily business operations.

Digitizing practices can help ease some of these woes, but tackling tough eye care challenges doesn’t just require more tech—it requires an ecosystem of tools and services that are intelligent, predictive, proactive and create a streamlined and synchronized experience. It also calls for closer access to the experts who can help manage and triage their issues in real-time.

“We hear time and again from our customers that our services offering sets us apart from other eye care companies,” says Aldo Motta, Global Director of Intelligent Services at Alcon. “By evolving into Intelligent Services Solutions, we are joining our best people, products and technologies together to help drive efficiencies for our customers and provide key data insights.”

A Connectivity Highway Fueled by Data

ISS was developed with value at the forefront. Our team recognized that customers are increasingly seeking ecosystems that are connected (interoperable and congruent from a user experience perspective), secure (proactively safeguarding information and protecting against threats), and simple (increasing the efficiency of patient care by streamlining cumbersome processes). But if this comprehensive “connectivity highway” is built on the bedrock of these solutions, then the fuel that powers the proverbial vehicles upon that highway is machine data.

“Intelligent Services Solutions are built on the cornerstone of machine data,” says Ross Bergin, Global Director, AVS Commercial Solutions at Alcon. “We don’t gather patient identifiable information, which can sometimes be a concern for customers. Instead, we securely collect machine data that customers choose to share and use it to optimize the entirety of their Alcon equipment ecosystem.”

As more customers opt-in to Alcon Intelligent Services and it’s growing capabilities, they can expect even more personalized and predictive features that will allow them to communicate and integrate a wider infrastructure in the future, including: Remote desktop quick access to service and clinical support and the ability to update software and gain access to new features remotely; Predictive preventative maintenance and Predictive Analytics that leverage machine data to reduce unplanned downtime and lay the foundation for proactive parts replacement; Distributed fleet management alongside optimized device configuration to help you personalize and augment your surgical experience; and surgical workflow optimization.

Alcon Intelligent Services puts customers in the driver’s seat of their technology and empowers them to make administrative decisions supported by data insights. Another goal of this team is to harmonize future solutions from Alcon, ensure interoperability and consistent user experiences/user interfaces for smooth customer integration.

“We are building the car. Soon, we will be focused on preparing the track, by ensuring our product team is using those tools in an efficient way that enables future product design,” says Moises Cora, Global Associated Director of Digital Integrations and Solutions at Alcon. “Finally, we will be welcoming the fans, our customers, to race day—getting them to up to speed with all the value ISS provides.”

References

1. https://www.reviewofophthalmology.com/article/managing-the-upcoming-provider-shortage

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