VIEWPOINT

Introducing Your Resource for What Happens Next

SVETLANA PILYUGINA, MD
Chief Editor

14 YEARS – A LOT CAN HAPPEN! Four years of college, 4 years of medical school, internship, 3 years of residency and 2 years of fellowship — the path we all know very well. Finally, you’re at the end — with the coveted words “Retina Specialist” proudly printed under your name.

What happens next? You’re strong and confident you won’t miss a single microaneurism, you’re full of energy to tackle any surprise that the fascinating world of retina may gift you with. But how do you actually do it?

As many of us find, the first years of practice become yet another “residency” but this time it’s training in the “business of retina,” a topic rarely, if ever, explored in the previous 14-year path. Besides the need to continue constant educational advancement, you’re now the captain of the ship that is your growing retina practice. But what does it entail and how well prepared are you to guide it? And even after you’re well on your way, how do you stay afloat in the unpredictable currents of ongoing healthcare reform?

No matter academic or private, we face the same practice management challenges: operational complexity, investment decisions, regulatory oversights, patient satisfaction, staff management, competition, marketing, career advancement choices, negotiation of contracts, efficiency improvement, coding, billing and collections … the list is endless.

The sentiment so often expressed among doctors, perhaps, in any field – “I wish I had more time to be a doctor, instead of running a business.” Yet today more than ever, practicing medicine is running a business. To succeed, we must excel at both.

This is how this publication was born. We have access to tremendous resources, allowing us to stay at the cutting edge of science and advances in patient care — meetings, scientific journals, forums and community discussions. It’s much harder to find the practical advice on the very infrastructure of our daily work — “the business of retina.”

We hope this publication will become your trusted resource on every aspect of running your retina practice. Welcome to New Retinal Physician.

New Retinal Physician is sponsored through unrestricted educational grants from Alcon and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals