By Sean Charles Henahan

Prospective Patients Consult Internet About Refractive Surgery

Every time a celebrity such as Tiger Woods or Richard Branson joins the ranks of those who have undergone LASIK, it is likely that the general public becomes a little more comfortable with the idea of laser eye surgery. Now, imagine for a moment that you are a patient with myopia and are tired of wearing glasses. Where would you look for more information on the procedure, and for guidance in choosing a surgeon in your area?

Many patients would go right to the Internet. Once there, they may be troubled to find how hard it is to find a good European directory of refractive surgeons online. The major search engines will generally point the seeker to: large ophthalmology organisations; large commercial medical groups; or an assortment of individual and small group practices.

As with much else on the net, the majority of sites emanate from the USA. A patient could do worse than end up at the home page of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons. In spite of its American base, the 'find a surgeon' option on that site does allow visitors to search by country. A search will return a list of ASCRS members in various European countries, usually with sufficient contact information to schedule a visit.

You might also find yourself at the site of ISRS the International Society of Refractive Surgery The site has improved a lot in past 12 months. One new element is 'LocateAnEyeDoc.com'

The visitor is seduced by the promise of free and simple search of a global directory of eye surgeons. Reality soon sets in. A search in one entire region of England returns the message "there were no records found for your search". Visitors fare better looking for refractive surgeons in France and Italy, receiving a fairly good list of choices for each country. A search for German doctors yields a handful of leads. Interestingly, a search for someone who can perform LASIK in 'Holland' returns no leads, while a search in 'Netherlands' reveals four possibilities.

Patients searching for a LASIK surgeon are also likely to find themselves at the sites of various commercial enterprises involved in the LASIK business. A site known as lasik.md offers the promise of a worldwide guide to LASIK surgeons, searchable by country. Again, prepare to be disappointed. After enticing visitors with a list of 19 European countries to choose from, each and every search turns up nothing, not a single listing.

A Laser in Every High Street ?
In general the LASIK business appears to be consolidating in the US, with large national players like 'Laser Eye Centers' spending a lot on marketing and promotion. There are some signs that this is also occurring in Europe.

For example, the large British pharmacy chain, Boots, recently announced that LASIK is now available at a purpose-built £1.7 million laser eye clinic within its Boots Opticians Regent Street, London store. At press time, Boots did not have a website promoting this new service, although such a site is apparently in development.

But Boots will not be the first on the block to create consumer friendly LASIK centers in the UK. That claim goes to Optimax. Overall, this is one of the best sites a prospective British patient might encounter. The site offers comprehensive information on LASIK, about Optimax, and allows online booking of consultation and treatment. The primary limitation is that it is limited to seven locations in England and Scotland.

British web seekers might also find themselves at the home page of 'Laser Eye Surgery UK' , billing itself as 'one of the largest providers of excimer laser treatment' While mentioning an association with 700 consultants and 70 lasers throughout USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and Greece, the site lists only addresses of the Harley Street main office and mobile units throughout the UK and Ireland. The lack of a European directory of refractive surgeons could reflect the ongoing differences from one country to the next as far as what constitutes appropriate marketing and promotion, the sorts of medical information that can be provided; and variations in health care delivery. as the EC struggles towards true integration.

This is clearly the case at one site that takes a pan-European approach is EuroLASIK. While the site has a nice graphic design, it is likely to frustrate potential patients because it does not provide the location of its centers, nor the names of its physicians, citing "European law."

"While the site aims to develop a European refractive surgery concept to bring ophthalmologists together in a network to increase their impact on the future of refractive surgery, in compliance with the European legislation" ,it is not clear how this project is organised.

While a global or pan-European directory of LASIK surgeons has yet to materialize, some national guides do exist.

Francophone patients will find a lot of truly useful patient information at the site of "L'Association Française du LASIK, although the non-profit site does not offer a directory as such.Ophthalmologiste.com, in contrast, offers both patient information and a map-driven index of 'ophtalmos' by name, specialty and region. Another French site, SNOF, describes an acute shortage of ophthalmologists in France and invites visitors to sign a petition encouraging the government to take action.

German speakers are well served by a couple of commercial sites including Visumed. This commercial site offers plenty of patient information and clear directions to its regional centers across Germany. Another competing site, Lasik Zentrum offers similar features.

So, while the Internet scores fairly high in the delivery of reliable information on LASIK and related procedures to patients of many lands, it has a ways to go in as far as helping patients to find a suitable surgeon. As with Europe in general, the pieces are all there, it just remains to be determined how they will all fit together.

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http://www.ascrs.org
'LocateAnEyeDoc.com'
http://lasik.md/default.htm
http://www.lzr.com/hp2.htm
http://www.optimaxuk.co.uk/
http://www.lasikfrance.com/
http://www.lasik.asso.fr/
http://www.ophtalmologiste.com/
http://www.snof.org/preservez_nos_yeux/
http://www.lasik.de/
http://www.lasik-zentrum.de/