How the iTrace Transformed Results for Dr. Garg and His Patients

The iTrace Is “Confidence-Boosting Technology”

Dr. Garg told us that the biggest reasons that some surgeons aren’t upgrading as many patients to premium IOLs isn’t that the patients can’t afford them — it’s the surgeon isn’t confident choosing the right lens. Drawing from personal experience, he told us, “Once you get an unhappy patient, you get gun shy because you don’t know how to select the right patient and match them to the right refractive lens.”

The solution? Dr. Garg believes it’s investing in the best technology on the market. For a cataract surgeon like him, this means adopting the iTrace, because he gets all the data he needs to make the best decision instead of making assumptions and risking an unhappy patient.

The iTrace Can Make an Immediate Impact

Dr. Garg shared with us that when he was looking for a device that helped him decide on the optimal IOL to use in a given case, the iTrace was far and away the best option. After he started using it, though, he began to understand that the true value of the technology starts when deciding whether cataract surgery is the right option in the first place.

A benefit I didn’t anticipate is that the iTrace tells me when it’s right to do the cataract surgery and if it’s a minefield, when I should sidestep it.

He told us about a case that occurred the very first day he used the iTrace, in which a patient came into his office “miserable with her vision”. Without a tool that could precisely separate vision loss between the cornea and the internal optics, Dr. Garg said he probably would’ve identified that there was a cataract and replaced it.

At the time, however, the patient had forgotten that she had PRK in the 90s, so her iTrace scan showed a severely irregular cornea that was the primary cause of her poor vision — cataract surgery would’ve had a negligible effect on her vision and her quality of life. He was able to make a difference in her case, and to say she was thankful for it would be an understatement.

“I said, why don’t we get a rigid contact lens fit? I sent her to a colleague in the area, and she came back with rigid contact lenses in both eyes and boxes of cookies and candies for my staff,” Dr. Garg told us, laughing.

The iTrace Makes a Direct Impact on Patient Care, Experience, and Outcomes

Dr. Garg talked to us about how the confidence lent to him by way of the iTrace translates to confidence from his patients, saying, “When I honestly tell them that a lens they’re asking for is not a good option and they see that it is actually pricier than the one I’m directing them to, the confidence level goes through the roof because they realize that I’m focused on getting the best outcome for them.

He issued a statement to his colleagues about why the iTrace is the right tool for their practice — not just for the sake of the increased incomes from premium surgeries, but also, because their reputations are on the line with an increased number of highly specialized IOLs on the market today.

He closed our conversation with this warning: “You couldn’t give me extra money to put in a lens that doesn’t fit. I know it’s going to come back and bite me in places I don’t want to be bitten. There are doctors who make that mistake of thinking that they can just sell whatever they want to the patient. And they are doing that at their own peril.”