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Biotech / Medical : VISX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carmine Cammarosano who wrote (1292)	8/27/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: Jim Mac	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1754

I understand, but I firmly believe that there is a very large segment of the candidate pool which will simply refuse to do LASIK due to the flap cutting. And if they are convinced by the medical professionals that PRK is inferior to LASIK (which is simply not true), than this large segment is likely to do nothing. I believe this industry will top out far below its potential if LASIK continues to be pushed for this very reason. I've heard dozens of people who are good candidates express severe reservations about letting a doctor cut a flap...it makes them very uneasy, especially when they know it's unnecessary. The consumer demand for LASIK of which you speak is misleading. These are the easy sells, the early adopters. The larger group, the hard sells who don't want a cut of any kind on their eyes but will consider a simple zap, will be the ones who push this market over the top, and the push for LASIK may backfire for this reason. Consumer "demand" for LASIK is created by MD's who push it. People don't wake up one day and say, "Gee, I want a flap cut on my cornea!" The level of consumer ignorance is amazing, and most people defer to their doctor instead of digging for all the nitty gritty info, which their doctor will not give them. This is true in all areas of healthcare: the consumer needs to take charge of their health issues and get info on their own because docs don't want to bend over backward to educate their patients: docs want patients to trust them. I'm sorry, but the fact is that surgeons love to cut, and I've read and heard many docs say how they love to do LASIK, how fun it is. It certainly beats being a simple pedal-pusher, which an optometrist could do, and can currently do in Oklahoma as I understand it. LASIK is more of a surgical procedure than a no-touch PRK, which is no more than a controlled abrasion...and no one is doing no-touch PRK in U.S. to my knowledge except in Honolulu, where a Canadian doctor who has a U.S. patent on the method also has a clinic. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see the industry take off, with or without LASIK, now that the microkeratomes are so much safer. But I want to see this industry hit millions of procedures per year, and that won't happen with LASIK, only with a no-touch PRK.