To continue education and share information during the COVID-19 pandemic, webinars and virtual meetings have stepped in to fill the void of postponed and cancelled conferences.
Eyecelerator — which was designed to advance ophthalmic innovation — is one such weekly webinar. The inaugural meeting focused on “Rebooting Ophthalmology” in the time of COVID-19 and featured an expert panel including Jim Mazzo, global president at Carl Zeiss Meditec; David Endicott, CEO at Alcon Inc.; Warren Foust, worldwide president at Johnson & Johnson Vision; and Jag Dosanjh, SVP at Allergan. Below are highlights from this informative session, including discussion on COVID-19’s impact on both large companies and SMEs.
Comparing Apples and COVID-19
For most of us, this isn’t the first economic downturn we’ve witnessed . . . but it’s likely to be one of the worst. “This will be a steeper and sharper downturn, believe it or not. It’s going to be a deep hole, and a difficult one to climb out from,” said Mr. Endicott.
Coming out from this downturn will be different — and there’s one big reason for that: Confidence is shaken; people don’t feel safe. For that reason, Mr. Mazzo says that this pandemic is more like a natural disaster, than a typical market crash. “This is going to transform how physicians treat patients,” he said.
How so? The first — and biggest — thing to consider is patient confidence: Are the patients going to feel confident in the environment? Will they feel safe? And do they have the disposable income to afford surgery?
“We have to make patients feel safe — but much more important than just making them feel safe, is to make them safe — and there’s a difference,” pointed out Mr. Foust. He says it’s important for clinicians to take measures to demonstrate that safety: “We’ve talked about droplet shields in front of diagnostic equipment; rudimentary things like text message waiting rooms . . . these are things that will become common until we reformat our practices.”
“What’s going to be helpful here, is the digital transformation that’s going to occur,” said Mr. Mazzo, adding that access to patient data will be critical. “Interestingly, I think people can look at this as a way to accelerate things that are better for healthcare.”
Companies Look Inward
Financial implications aside, we’re also experiencing a forced push into the digital era: We’re working from home, hosting remote meetings, sharing information and staying connected virtually.
Mr. Endicott believes that this is one change that will be here to stay. “It’s a real opportunity . . . the economics of this. And it’s considerably more efficient than flying people around the country,” he shared, adding that at Alcon, they plan to take some of these efficiency savings and turn them toward product development.
Mr. Dosanjh agreed: “There is no doubt that the situation is providing us with the opportunity to rethink things, and I think that some things are definitely here to stay . . . and maybe evolve. This is a catalyst to think about how we do things, how to be more efficient, but also, how to be better.” One area he noted for improvement was in telehealth: “[It] can serve certain purposes, but it can’t really solve all the things in ophthalmology that are required, in terms of diagnosing and treating patients.”
Mr. Foust agreed that the digital age is fully upon us. “Technology, and the platforms to deliver that, there’s going to be a Roaring 20s of sorts for those technologies,” he explained. “If you think about the brick-and-mortar ways we’ve met in the past, the adjacent technologies for webinar and delivery of digital content have not been as robust as I think they will be in the future, because they weren’t as necessary.
“Now, we have only those technologies and are making the very best of them . . . now, imagine the proliferation of that for when brick-and-mortar comes back,” said Mr. Foust.
Show Me the Money
Undoubtedly, the pandemic has affected business. From small to large ophthalmic companies, and in every industry in between, most are feeling a pinch (or a punch, in some cases) from COVID-19. The big question on many minds is: When can we expect revenue to bounce back?
“It’s been referenced that 90% of the caseload has essentially stopped and we’ve seen that in every market where we’ve had impact, and I think we’ll continue to see that as COVID-19 moves into new areas,” said Mr. Foust. “Markets will come out at different rates, and our willingness and our capabilities in different markets, states, countries, etc., will come back at different rates. So that’s the first thing we have to understand.”
In China, which is slowly beginning its recovery, Mr. Mazzo noted that ZEISS’s refractive business is making a slightly faster comeback than anticipated. “The reason for that is the younger consumer is much more oriented to that confidence factor than the older consumer,” he explained. “So, when we talk about patient confidence, we also need to look at that demographic of patient confidence.”
For cataract surgeries, Mr. Mazzo said that it’s not the flow of patients that is problematic, it’s the limited time in the OR between procedures. The disinfection between surgeries takes longer, and thus, more premium procedures are going to gravitate.
On the retina side, there is more interaction with patients — not only do they require surgical follow-up, they also need to maintain injections.
At Allergan, there has been an impact to its injectables, but it’s more muted than in the rest of the market. “In-office injections are taking place about 50% as much as in March,” shared Mr. Dosanjh.
“[At Alcon] we have a lot of retina business,” said. Mr. Endicott. “We see it impacted like everyone else, but not as much as cataract, because these are emergency procedures.
Moving Forward
It’s safe to say that the world following COVID-19 will not be the same. For some businesses, survival will lie in the company’s ability to be resilient. Mr. Mazzo says SME’s should first resolve immediate challenges, then identify where they’re going. “They need to plan their cash management: for what will happen and for what they will look like when they come out [of this].
“If they think they’re going to look the same way that they look today . . . it’s not going to be the same, he continued. But there is a ray of hope: “There might actually be bigger opportunities . . . some companies could turn around and utilize this.”
“I think the world has fundamentally changed and it’s going to be a while until we get back to a semblance of normal,” added Mr. Foust. “Even when we get out of COVID-19, and have a vaccine, and have treatment for active patients, we’re still going to feel the consequences of this as we go forward.”
Editor’s Note: The Eyecelerator webinar on “Rethinking Ophthalmology Post-COVID-19: Business Opportunities, Challenges and Impact on Innovation” took place on April 15. Reporting for this story took place during the webinar.
