How the Firefly Digital Slit Lamp
Helps Dr. Michelle Levin Communicate,
Educate, and Establish Trust with her Patients
Dr. Michelle Levin is a practicing optometrist at Vision Care & Surgery Associates in the Fort Lauderdale area and has a wealth of experience treating and managing a full spectrum of patients. As an eye doctor leading a busy practice, she is always on the lookout for technology to provide excellent outcomes for her patients.
This is why she purchased a Firefly Digital Slit Lamp Imaging System to replace her traditional slit lamp. She took some time to speak with us about her experience with this exciting new tool.
Firefly Makes it Easy to Educate a Patient About their Eyes
Dr. Levin found that a drawback of using a conventional slit lamp was the need to take the patient to another machine (in a different room) to capture images of their eyes. With the Firefly’s real-time image and video capture functionality, Dr. Levin can do both tasks at once: “Now you can capture things right where the patient is instead of moving them around.”
She told us that the added imaging capabilities on the Firefly makes it much easier to show them exactly what’s happening in their eyes and provide critical education during the exam: “Patient education is huge. They get to see what’s actually going on because we have the imaging and the video.”
Improved Patient Education Means Improved Patient Compliance
The ability to show her patients exactly what she is seeing in both real time and during treatment planning discussions has been fundamental in building a relationship of trust and motivating patients to move forward with her treatment plans.
When we asked what one of the most valuable aspects of the Firefly was, she didn’t hesitate: “Patient compliance. When they see what I see and I explain to them what’s going on, they’re more likely to be compliant with the treatment plan that we put them on.”
The Firefly Has Become a Crucial Tool in Her Dry Eye Business
One of the areas where Dr. Levin specializes is in diagnosing and treating dry eye disease (DED), a condition that requires the ability to identify the root cause and get patients on-board with appropriate treatments. The Firefly has the ability to perform Meibography (infrared imaging of the glands), which Dr. Levin uses often: “Meibography shows the defects of the glands you can’t just see. Patients just can’t see that their glands are dying so when you show them how severe their case is, they just understand their condition better.”
Once they see this, Dr. Levin told us, the patient is more likely to follow her recommendations: “The patient will pick up artificial tears or scrubs if you’re offering them in the office or you recommend something and they’ll go to the store and buy it.”
The Firefly Has Transformed the Patient Experience in Dr. Levin’s Practice
By utilizing the advanced technology and real time imaging capabilities of the Firefly Digital Slit Lamp, Dr. Levin is able to take patient experience to the next level! Real time high-definition video capture allows her to share what she is seeing with her patients’ parents or caregivers live during the exam or in more detailed discussion once the exam has been completed.