EuroTimes Entrepreneurial Masterclass with Prof Keith Willey of London Business School

“The main reason why people cannot get funded is that
they don’t deserve it."

That is the view of Prof Keith Willey BSc, MBA associate professor of strategic and international management and entrepreneurship at London Business School.

Prof Willey will deliver the inaugural EuroTimes Entrepreneurial Masterclass for Ophthalmologists on Saturday September 12 at the CCIB Convention Centre in Barcelona, Spain.

In this full day masterclass Prof Willey will discuss the steps to be mastered to manage a successful private practice. Prof Willey will present a case study based on a real ophthalmic surgery practice that is easily recognisable to the audience.
He will discuss at length the interface between the professional and commercial facets of the practice.

The masterclass will discuss a number of key issues including:

* How to react to growing demands for technology
and innovation

* How to provide value for money

* Who should lead and manage

In advance of the masterclass a short questionnaire will be circulated to all participants. The questions will include:

* Are you growing revenues?
* What are your most pressing problems?
* How do you find solutions to these problems?

The programme runs from 9am to 5pm and is limited to 50 registered delegates of the ESCRS Congress. The course fee is €200.

Dr Jorge Alio is keynote speaker at Barcelona Practice Development Workshop

By 1995, Jorge L Alió MD, PhD had already attained broader influence than most in ophthalmology. As professor and chairman of ophthalmology at Alicante University in Spain, his clinical and research activities were internationally known, and his teaching was shaping a generation of ophthalmologists.

Yet Dr Alió’s vision for his practice and for ophthalmology was even broader. He constantly saw opportunities to improve patient care and expand services with new procedures, technologies, research partnerships and innovative staffing. “We wanted to create new devices and treatments for our patients; to bring innovations directly into practice,” Dr Alió remembers.

But making such changes at a public university was cumbersome. Partnerships with device manufacturers and other outside partners were difficult to negotiate and it could take years to secure funding for new programmes. “The academic structure is too rigid,” he notes. “You have to convince everyone to go along and it takes too long, so you lose the opportunity. There is no way you can make decisions quickly and independently within the university.”

So Dr Alió set out to build a completely new, private practice model that would give him the flexibility to innovate. The result was VISSUM Instituto Oftalmológico de Alicante, a practice that has revolutionised not only the clinical practice of ophthalmology in Spain, but its financing and organisation as well. Dr Alió, who is also VISSUM medical director, and others will present on how they developed their practices at the second annual Practice Development programme at the XXVII Congress of the ESCRS, in Barcelona.

The biggest challenge in putting VISSUM together was assembling a team with a common vision, Dr Alió said. He is always looking for doctors inside and outside Spain to join the team. “It is more than a business project, it is a shared vision of practice that combines medical assistance and research, and making it work together with support from a financial structure. Some team members come by themselves, some you change and others you look for. Every person has a different approach, but they all have the same vision.”

VISSUM integrates clinical services in all ophthalmic subspecialties, medical research, university teaching activities and humanitarian services under one umbrella organisation. Services are delivered by an integrated team including ophthalmologists, optometrists, medical technicians and researchers. All are trained to work together render personal service and the highest quality of evidence-driven care. “This is a co-management model that did not exist before in Spain,” Dr Alió says.

VISSUM also supports the Fundacion Jorge Alió for the prevention of blindness, which provides services for those in need in Spain and abroad. “As doctors we need to devote time to humanitarian services,” he adds.

VISSUM is supported by business operations, including billing for private insurance and self-pay, and financing for developing new procedures and devices. The structure allows practice leaders to quickly fund new services and open new locations as needed. It also provides flexibility to form research and business partnerships with outside companies that would be difficult for a public institution, Dr Alió explains.

The concept of integrating research and business management to provide better clinical quality and improved service has been highly successful. VISSUM now operates 43 clinics across Spain run by more than 500 employees including about 60 ophthalmologists. Nine clinics include refractive laser and operating rooms to which patients are referred for surgery. Preoperative care and postoperative care are mostly done in local clinics, closer to patients’ homes. Dr Alió notes that excellent service is essential to success with private paying patients. About 30 per cent of the clinic’s business is refractive, another 50 per cent is cataract, including premium IOLs, and the rest other ophthalmic specialties, including glaucoma, ocular surface and vitreo-retinal. The practice serves about 200,000 patients annually and is growing despite the severe economic downturn.

Dr Alió and his VISSUM colleagues have also conducted research on dozens of new procedures, devices and device applications including multifocal lenses and microincision cataract surgery. The hundreds of papers, books and presentations they have published have advanced and shaped the field of ophthalmology and benefited patients far beyond their own practice – just as Dr Alió envisioned.

Exciting line-up for Practice Development Workshops

The final programme for the EuroTimes Practice Development Workshops was confirmed today. The three day programme opens on Saturday September 12 with the inaugural EuroTimes Entrepreneurial Masterclass for Ophthalmologists which will be hosted by Prof Keith Willey of London Business School. Admission to this masterclass is by registration only for a fee of €200.

As this course is expected to be heavily subscribed and there are only 50 places available, early registration is advised. Delegates should register on the ESCRS website at www.escrs.org.

On Sunday September 13 there will be a special module dedicated to marketing a practice which will feature talks from experts in communications, website development and marketing. This module is free but delegates are advised to come early as the workshop will be limited to 90 delegates.

The programme concludes on Monday September 14 with a practice development module which will include presentations from ophthalmologists including Prof Jorge Alio, Dr Eckhard Weingaertner and Dr Erik Mertens.

"This is a very exciting programme which has been established with the support of the ESCRS Practice Development committee chaired by Dr Paul Rosen," said EuroTimes executive editor Colin Kerr.

"We hope that the programme will appeal to all ophthalmologists, and their practice managers, attending the XXVII ESCRS Congress in Barcelona as the first step in building a new community of doctors who want to bring added value to their patients."

The full programme is available on the EuroTimes website at www.eurotimes.org. For further information contact Colin Kerr at colin.kerr@escrs.org

Does your practice need a refractive coordinator?

This is one of the key topics that will be discussed at the EuroTimes Practice Management Resource Centre Workshop which takes place at the 13th ESCRS Winter Meeting in Rome on Saturday 7 February, 2009.

Dr Eckhard Weingaertner, MD, EuroEyes, Stuttgart, Germany will discuss the reasons why ophthalmologists should have refractive coordinators in their practices.

Dr Weingaertner will also address the need for adding new staff or training old and experienced staff and he will examine how doctors should involve refractive coordinators in the running of their practices.

"The primary task of every ophthalmological practice is to analyse your current practice situation," said Dr Weingaertner. "Where are you standing? Are you happy with the current situation or do you feel the need to make a change? Especially in the evolving economic practice it might seem difficult to move forward into the refractive market area, but maybe it's just about deciding whether it is right to move on now," he said.

Dr Weingaertner said when considering the recruitment of a refractive coordinator, doctors should consider how many cases they are doing, including the number of LASIK and cataract procedures.

Communications consultant Kris Morrill will also look at effective presentations through the use of PowerPoint and presentation skills and simple steps to marketing a refractive practice on a budget.

Mr Paul McGinn, BL, will also discuss the importance of using the consent process to satisfy your lawyer and refractive patients.

Further information on the EuroTimes Practice Management Resource Centre is also available on the EuroTimes website at www.eurotimes.org.

Accidents Can Happen - But not at the EuroTimes Practice Management Workshops

As the poet Robert Burns wrote, "the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." That applies to surgery as much as any other pursuit. It’s also the subject of the inaugural London Business School Master Class at the EuroTimes Practice Management Workshop, writes EuroTimes reporter Howard Larkin.

“Why Should Accidents Happen – Overcoming Rational Failure” will be presented by Jean-Pierre Benoit, professor of economics and joint chair of the Economics Faculty, London Business School, Sunday, Sept. 14, at 9.00 in Room 42 at the International Conference Centre.

“Some surgical errors are a result of mistakes, poorly designed systems and practice management,” Prof Benoit says. “However, a seemingly rational, structured approach has its own weaknesses. Safety features can be self-limiting in unintended, yet rational ways. In this session, we will explore ‘rational failure’ and look at ways to overcome it.”

The Master Class will examine concepts including adequate care, rational reasoning, strategic behaviour and project management, and how practice safety can be enhanced by better understanding their nature. The course will be one of the highlights of the XXVI ESCRS Congress in Berlin. Admission is on a first-come first-served basis, so delegates are advised to arrive at least 15 minutes early to ensure admission.

Get ready for refractive cataract surgery

Also on the EuroTimes Practice Management Workshop agenda is a class on building a successful refractive practice within a cataract surgery practice, scheduled for 11.15 in Room 42 at the ICC. Presented by Eckhard Weingäertner, MD, medical director of the EuroEyes Clinic, Stuttgart, Germany, the session will focus on practical questions that more and more cataract surgeons find themselves facing as patients become more informed and sophisticated about cataract surgery outcomes.

“The difference between cataract and refractive surgery is disappearing. Almost everyone knows about multifocal lenses and they expect excellent refractive outcomes,” Dr Weingäertner says. To meet those rising outcome expectations, surgeons will have to both master the technical skills of refractive surgery and invest in equipment such as advanced biometry devices and excimer lasers needed to produce them.

Also rising are service expectations, Dr Weingäertner notes. When patients are paying hundreds or even thousands of Euro extra for multifocal lenses and other advanced refractive technologies, they won’t tolerate long waits for appointments or indifferent attitudes from practice employees. Issues such as patient scheduling and employee selection and training will be examined. Also featured will be tips on training staff to present refractive technologies in a positive and consistent way to reinforce that they are worth what the patient will pay out-of-pocket.

Enhancing the patient experience

With economic conditions tightening almost everywhere, keeping a cataract and refractive practice healthy increasingly means focusing on making the experience of learning about and undergoing procedures more pleasant and meaningful for patients. At 16.30, practice management experts including Karl Brasse, MD, of Eyeland Design Network, The Netherlands, Walter Pfeifer of Colana Consulting, Berlin, and Mike Malley of the Centre for Refractive Marketing, Houston, US, will present a range of strategies for enhancing the patient experience.

These will include internal steps practices can take to involve patients earlier in decisions about multifocal lenses and other refractive options. Strategies such as using animations and other advanced patient education technologies to explain the benefits of refractive surgery as well as developing staff skills to consistently identify and meet unique patient needs will be presented. The course will include 25 pearls for enhancing the patient experience.

Managing risk

On Monday the Practice Management Workshop will conclude with a presentation on risk management by Emanuel Rosen, MD, London, and attorneys and risk management specialists Wolfgang Radner, Vienna, and Paul McGinn, Dublin. Topics covered include the importance of informed consent, keeping adequate records, health and safety in the practice, and working with hospitals and state agencies. The session takes place at 14.00 on Monday, Sept. 15, also in Room 42 at the ICC.

EuroTimes Practice Management Workshop Is Launched at XXV1 ESCRS Congress in Berlin

One of the highlights of this year's congress will be the EuroTimes workshops on Practice Management where business and management experts will advise doctors on how they can run their practices successfully

The first workshops will be held at the XXVI ESCRS Congress in Berlin from Saturday 13 September to Monday 15 September and the full programme is now available on our website at www.escrs.org


This weblog will give you the latest news from the workshops and will also allow us to preview some of the exciting content from the workshops.

For further information you can also e-mail Colin Kerr, Executive Editor, EuroTimes at colin.kerr@escrs.org

EuroTimes Practice Management Master Class With Prof Jean-Pierre Benoit, London Business School.

On Sunday September 14 at 9am, Jean-Pierre Benoit, Professor of Economics and Joint Chair of the Economics Faculty, London Business School, will deliver the inaugural London Business School Master Class at the EuroTimes Practice Management Workshop in Room 42 at the International Conference Centre.

The topic of Prof Benoit’s speech is: “Why Should Accidents Happen – Overcoming Rational Failure”

“Some surgical errors are a result of mistakes, poorly designed systems and practice management. However, a seemingly rational, structured approach has its own weaknesses. Safety features can be self-limiting in unintended, yet rational ways. In this session, we will explore “rational failure” and look at ways to overcome it,” says Prof Benoit.

This will be one of the highlights of the ESCRS Congress in Berlin and as admission is on a first come first served basis, delegates are advised to arrive at least fifteen minutes early to ensure that they gain admission.

The Practice Management Workshops will be held on Saturday September 13th, Sunday September 14th and Monday September 15th.

For the full programme, visit our website at www.escrs.org and also our weblog at http://eurotimespracticemanagement.blogspot.com.