Ditching the Flash Drive: Fully Realize Your Surgical Center’s Digital Potential with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner

My colleagues have written elsewhere in this editorial series about the value of connecting various biometric modalities to ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner, pointing to how collating presurgical data in a centralized digital hub enables efficiencies unknown to surgeons in the pre-VERACITY era.

In the interest of further examining the specific upshots of inter-device communication unlocked by this technology, I will offer a few examples of how ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner has allowed my surgical center to fully embrace its digital potential, moving it from a surgical center that relied on cumbersome hardware to a cloud-based digital epicenter built on next-generation software.

If you’re a surgeon who feels that your digital OR needs to take the next step forward, then consider how my personal experience could inform your decision to up your game.

In the earliest stages of my surgical center embracing digital technology, my staff and I moved images captured in the presurgical period on various devices (e.g., the ZEISS IOLMaster 700) to the ZEISS CALLISTO eye system via a flash drive. Although this means of moving images was reliable and impressive for its time, it nevertheless required human actors to ensure its completion—and was subject to the shortcomings of any non-automated data migration.

Continuing to use flash drives to transfer biometric images flew in the face of the digital reality we all live in, which is one where consumer hardware-software products automatically initiate intuitive data transfer. I can, for example, snap a photo on my smartphone and then see it instantly on my desktop, transfer it wirelessly to devices nearby, and back it up so I can restore it if I accidentally delete it—in most cases, without taking any action at all.

Now that I have introduced ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner into my surgical center, images captured on the ZEISS IOLMaster 700 are instantly available on the ZEISS CALLISTO eye on the day of surgery, allowing me to reference presurgical images and calculations in the OR.

No transferring of files. No fumbling with flash drives. Just seamless image capture and on-demand recall.

One feature of ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner I find particularly useful when implanting astigmatism-correcting technology is the live application of toric axis marking templates to surgical interfaces while in the OR. This not only boosts my confidence when making cuts, but also frees me from the burden of tedious tasks so that I can more closely focus on surgical steps.

When patients are supine in the OR, the photo I capture using the ZEISS CALLISTO eye is immediately reconciled with the presurgical biometric image. Automatic image registration removes the need for manual alignment (although I should note that manual override is always an option). Next, ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner pulls my presurgical toric measurements to generate a digital overlay of the toric axis alignment template I customized for that patient.

No more markers. No more inaccurate dots subject to the inevitable inaccuracies of human estimation. Just a fully digitized interface generated from presurgical and live surgical data.

ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner’s ability to capture and store images that include presurgical and live surgical data proves useful in the postsurgical period as well. I use this feature as a means of documenting that accurate surgery was performed, allowing me to work with an objective image-based dataset during the follow-up period.

Let’s again turn to a hypothetical astigmatic patient I referenced above. When a toric IOL is placed, I toggle the visualization to overlay the digital toric markings over the patient’s eye. With both the actual IOL and the suggested alignment in the same field, I capture an image to show that precise placement occurred in the OR. I wirelessly export this image directly to the patient’s electronic medical record via ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner, and reference it when I see the patient for any follow-up visits.

No more relying on my memory of a days-old surgery during patient conversations. No more fumbling to place images into an electronic medical record system that doesn’t speak to my surgical software. Just effortless, objective documentation of my surgeries.

If you’re ready to fully realize the digital potential of your surgical practice, it’s time to adopt the intuitive and deeply integrated matrix that is ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner. Doing so will elevate all three aspects of surgery—presurgical workup, day-of surgical execution, and postsurgical consultation—without you ever lifting a finger during your important work.

^{The statements of the author reflect only his personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any institution with whom he is affiliated.
The author has a contractual or other financial relationship with Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and has received financial support.}