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S P E C I A L E D I T I O N 2 0 1 5 • O P T O M E T R I C M A N A G E M E N T . C O M 7 PUTTING INNOVATION TO GOOD USE And a fnal hint about putting all that free time innovation has brought us to good use: Engage your entire staf in the quest to uncover the unmet needs of your patients. Chances are good that your staf members spend more time in casual contact and conversation with your patients than you do. Ask them to report any problems or symp- tomatic behaviors they notice and what their best guess is as to what a solution might be. Te chart below contains just a few patient needs and Disruptive Technology There's nothing so exciting as watching a new technology disrupt — and improve — our lives. There was Sony's Walkman, the dawn of portable music. Then, Apple's iPhone debuted, connecting us, for better or worse, to the Internet at all times. There was the original Google.com, a card cata- log for the Web that anybody could use. And there's more happy disruption to come, as I outlined in my recent talk at the American Optometric Association Optometry's Meeting. (I was there on be- half of the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., team, whom insisted I try on their new 1-DAY ACUVUE MOIST Brand MULTIFOCAL Contact Lenses for reader- wearing baby boomers like me. Presto: They gave me back my 30-year-old eye- sight. Talk about disruption!) People buzz a lot about smartwatches lately. But guess what: Wearable tech will have a bigger impact coming in the side door, in the form of health trackers. We'll buy 70 million of them this year, strapping them to our wrists and clipping them to our clothes. What started out as simple step counters, like the original FitBit, can now measure your blood oxygen and glucose, monitor your heart rate, and track your sun exposure. Imagine: 24-hour insight into your own body. The health implications are staggering. The age of robotics is fnally upon us, too. Self-driving cars are almost ready for prime time. In fact, Google's cars have driv- en 1.8 million test miles without causing a single accident. Drones are revolutionizing photography, engineering, law enforce- ment and movie making. And robots are fnally looking like humanoid — with two feet and all. They'll be taking care of us at home when we're old, no question about it. But maybe the most meaningful disrup- tive tech is what they're calling "the shar- ing economy": Services like Uber X, where ordinary citizens give rides at half the price of a taxi. Or AirBnB, where ordinary citi- zens rent out spare bedrooms for a fraction of the price of hotels (and a more interest- ing stay). Or Dog Vacay, where a dog lover takes care of your pet when you otherwise would have put him in a kennel (the pet, not the dog lover). Suddenly, we're doing business directly with each other. At a time when the doom- sayers predicted we'd lose our social skills because of technology, we're meeting people, seeing places and interacting more than ever. That's the best part of disruptive tech: When its lasting effect has nothing to do with technology, but in our everyday lives. David Pogue is the founder of Yahoo Tech, an Emmy-Award win- ner and former columnist at The New York Times. He received compensation from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., for his time in writing this article. Patient Need ACUVUE Brand Solution She has a pair of "cheaters" she uses when no one is looking to help at the grocery store 1-DAY ACUVUE MOIST Brand MULTIFOCAL Contact Lenses He just joined Toastmasters … he's hoping it will help him get the District Manager job 1-DAY ACUVUE DEFINE She closes her eyes every time she looks up from using her tablet in the waiting room, but says everything is fine with her contacts … ACUVUE OASYS 1-Day with HydraLuxe Technology He said he got called to a fire last night and couldn't get his contacts in quickly enough ACUVUE OASYS for overnight wear She has a crazy schedule, LOVES the convenience of wearing her contacts for everything, but asked about how healthy her eyes looked when I took photos 1-DAY ACUVUE TruEye He said he doesn't recognize players on the soccer field as quickly as his teammates ACUVUE OASYS for ASTIGMATISM solutions related to ACUVUE Brand product oferings to help get you started. OM CRISTINA SCHNIDER, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O., is director, global professional affairs for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. To comment on this article, visit tinyurl.com/ OMcomment. Common Patient Needs Please see page 4 for more important prescribing information. FE ATURE INNOVATION CHANGES E VERY THING