AWP: Capture Rate Reflection: Preparing the Team Before the Patient Arrives

Process Before Outcome: Why IPL and Photobiomodulation Need a Better Clinical Pathway Christopher Wolfe, OD, FAAO, explores a common implementation mistake in eye care: pursuing an outcome before building the process that can produce it consistently. Using IPL and photobiomodulation as examples, he explains why the goal should be better identification, evaluation, and management of ocular surface disease and macular degeneration—not simply performing more procedures. He also discusses how clinical evidence, professional judgment, and patient preferences work together to support appropriate, sustainable care. Key topics

Christopher Wolfe, OD, FAAO, examines how clinicians should evaluate photobiomodulation for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The key question: should treatment be judged only by visual acuity gains, or also by whether it may affect disease progression in patients whose vision is still good?He reviews evidence related to drusen volume, geographic atrophy (GA), conversion to wet AMD, and other measures of visual function. He also considers treatment frequency, patient burden, and what further research is needed before clinicians can confidently reduce the current treatment schedule.Key topicsWhy visual acuity improvement may not be the only meaningful measure of benefit in dry AMDHow photobiomodulation compares with the preventive goals of AREDS 1 and AREDS 2Findings on drusen volume from the Iovino and LightSite studiesWhat the available evidence does—and doesn’t—show about conversion to wet AMD and development of GAFunctional outcomes beyond standard high-contrast visual acuity, including contrast sensitivity and low-luminance visual acuityWhat may happen when treatment stops, and why ongoing management may be neededThe current treatment schedule discussed in the episode: nine treatments over three weeks, repeated every four monthsWhy evidence is still needed to determine whether fewer treatments or longer intervals can maintain benefitHow clinicians can discuss potential benefits, uncertainty, treatment burden, and patient preferencesTimestamps00:13 — The central question: is visual acuity the only measure of benefit?01:39 — The question for category 3 patients with good visual acuity03:02 — The comparison with AREDS 1 and AREDS 205:00 — Evidence on drusen volume06:25 — What the studies suggest about conversion to wet AMD07:50 — Geographic atrophy findings09:19 — Looking at photobiomodulation through a disease-progression lens10:16 — Functional measures beyond the eye chart11:14 — What happens to measured benefits after treatment stops12:10 — Retreatment intervals and sustaining benefit14:07 — The treatment burden of the current protocol15:02 — The limits of anecdotal evidence when considering fewer treatments15:57 — Wearable and at-home approaches: promising, but not yet a replacement16:50 — The current best-supported schedule discussed in the episode17:20 — The research question that could change clinical practice18:17 — Explaining the evidence and options to patients20:10 — Why visual acuity should not be the only definition of success AMD Implementation Workshop — October 29, 2026 Want to take these concepts beyond the podcast and actually build an AMD system for your practice? Join Dr. Chris Wolfe for the AMD Implementation Workshop in Grapevine, Texas, on October 29, 2026. This all-day workshop will take a deeper dive into creating an AMD management protocol for your individual practice—from identifying the right patients and establishing KPIs to integrating testing, supplementation conversations, patient education, treatment options, and staff workflows. Learn more and register:https://www.practiceperformancepartners.com/amd-implementation-workshop/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email FREE Complete Clinical AMD Management Course for Podcast Listeners Want to dive deeper into the clinical side before the workshop? Podcast listeners can access the Complete Clinical AMD Management Course Bundle FREE through October 31, 2026. The course includes six educational modules designed to take a deeper dive into the clinical concepts discussed in this episode. Access the course:https://www.eyecodeeducation.com/bundles/the-complete-clinical-amd-management-course-bundle Podcast Listener Coupon Code: ece2026amdpromo Offer expires October 31, 2026.

Did AI Just Give My Continuing Education Lecture? What happens when artificial intelligence stops helping the educator and starts becoming the educator? In this episode, Dr. Chris Wolfe shares an experience from a recent COPE approved continuing education lecture that left him asking a bigger question: Who actually created the education he was receiving? The lecture was delivered by a highly trained retinal surgeon, but much of the presentation sounded heavily AI scripted and appeared to be read nearly verbatim. At the same time, portions of the course focused specifically on one manufacturer's OCT technology and terminology. That combination raised questions that go far beyond whether someone used ChatGPT to make a PowerPoint. Chris discusses the difference between using AI to improve your expertise and using AI to substitute for the intellectual work of creating education. AI can help organize ideas, research evidence, improve explanations, refine slides, and make educators better. But if AI builds the presentation, writes the script, and the expert simply reads it, what exactly is the expert contributing? The conversation then turns to the relationship between key opinion leaders, industry, and continuing education. Chris shares a real example of a vendor proactively offering KOLs ready made slides, studies, references, sample reports, and other resources for upcoming conference presentations. None of those things are inherently inappropriate, but AI makes it incredibly easy to turn vendor supplied material into a polished educational presentation with very little additional work from the lecturer. That raises a much larger question about the effectiveness of our current continuing education safeguards. COPE has developed standards intended to preserve educational independence and address commercial influence, yet financial disclosures often amount to little more than a list of company names. They may tell an audience that a relationship exists without providing much context about the nature or magnitude of that relationship. Chris explains why he believes clinicians should become familiar with the CMS Open Payments database and why receiving industry compensation should not automatically be viewed as evidence of bias. He works with industry himself. The issue is not simply whether money changed hands. The issue is transparency and giving the audience enough information to evaluate potential influences for themselves. Ultimately, this episode isn't an argument against AI, industry relationships, KOLs, or even vendor supplied educational resources. It is a challenge to educators and the organizations responsible for continuing education. AI should allow us to get more from an expert, not less. If you have spent twenty years looking at retinas, tell us what those twenty years taught you. Show us your cases. Tell us where you were wrong. Tell us where experience changed your mind. Challenge the literature. Give us the judgment and pattern recognition that cannot be reproduced simply by asking an AI model to explain the topic. Because if a vendor supplies the material, AI builds the presentation, AI writes the script, and the expert's primary contribution is reading it from the stage, another disclosure form probably isn't going to solve the problem. The question educators may increasingly need to answer is much simpler: What did the expert actually add? In This Episode Chris discusses AI generated presentations and scripts, the difference between AI assistance and AI substitution, KOL relationships with industry, vendor influence on educational content, the limitations of traditional financial disclosures, CMS Open Payments, COPE and commercial independence, and what audiences should expect from experts in the age of artificial intelligence. Resources Mentioned CMS Open PaymentsSearch financial relationships reported between applicable manufacturers and physicians and other covered recipients:https://openpaymentsda

https://www.practiceperformancepartners.com/amd-implementation-workshop/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email

Aaron sits down with Sarah McCormick of HR for Health to make HR feel less intimidating. They discuss why every practice needs a current handbook, how to handle difficult employee conversations, the importance of clear expectations and documentation, and why addressing problems early can prevent much bigger issues later.To learn more about the common mistakes Sarah and her team sees in optometry practices, download this free guide: 8 Common Optometry HR Mistakes & How to Respond to Them (https://hrfh.hrforhealth.com/preventative-hr-care-dwld-optometry-optometry?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=common-mistakes-guide&partner_source=Vision%20Source)Connect with HR for Health: hrforhealth.com