Beyond Vision: How Emerging Tech Is Transforming the Future of Eye Care

Summary

Power Hour Optometry: Beyond Vision - How Emerging Tech Is Transforming the Future of Eye Care

Episode Release Date: February 19, 2025
Host: Eugene Shotsman
Guest: Ruth Yamchoubian, Leader of the Innovation Team at VSP (Vision Service Plan)

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1. Introduction

In this season 13 episode of Power Hour Optometry, host Eugene Shotsman delves deep into the realm of innovation within the optometric industry. Responding to audience buzz around technological advancements, Eugene welcomes Ruth Yamchoubian, the head of VSP’s Innovation Team. Ruth brings a wealth of experience from both the telecom and tech sectors, positioning her uniquely to discuss the intersection of emerging technologies and eye care.

2. Insights from CES: AI and Smart Eyewear

Ruth opens the conversation by sharing her firsthand experiences from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the premier global technology event. She highlights the significant presence of smart eyewear brands like Ray-Ban, Meta, Rokid, Xreal, and Halliday, emphasizing their integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into eyewear.

“Smart eyewear brands like Eyewear was at the front of the health tech space, it was at the front of the AI space.” [04:51]

These brands showcased innovations such as heads-up displays, color-changing lenses, automatic captions, and AI-driven navigation, repurposing eyewear from mere vision correction tools to multifunctional smart devices. Additionally, Ruth mentions AI-driven vision kiosks (Ibot) that demonstrate autonomous eye care, signaling a transformative shift in how eyewear can facilitate health monitoring and patient interaction.

3. Longevity and Preventative Health Trends

A major theme at CES was longevity—a shift from merely extending lifespan to enhancing healthspan. Ruth discusses technologies focused on early detection and long-term health optimization, such as smart mirrors capable of monitoring heart health, blood pressure, and sleep quality.

“Longevity speaks to that many consumers want health span that is not just a lifespan.” [08:33]

She contrasts this with the traditional preventative health approach, which often centers around disease prevention from a clinical standpoint. The new focus on longevity empowers consumers to take a more proactive role in their long-term health, utilizing data-driven experiences to enhance their quality of life.

4. Oculomics: Expanding the Eye Exam's Role

Ruth introduces the concept of oculomics, an emerging field that leverages eye imaging to assess overall health and diagnose systemic diseases. This innovation transforms the standard eye exam into a comprehensive health evaluation tool.

“Oculomics is an emerging field encompassing next gen technologies and innovations that utilize eye imaging to evaluate overall health...” [15:51]

Startups like Toku Eyes and Topcon Health are pioneering solutions that integrate AI-enabled retinal scans for early detection of conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer’s. This development not only enhances the value of eye exams but also positions optometrists as crucial players in holistic health care.

5. Strengthening Referral Networks with PCPs

The integration of oculomics technology within primary care physician (PCP) offices presents both challenges and opportunities for optometrists. Ruth emphasizes the necessity of establishing robust referral networks to ensure that optometrists remain integral to patient care.

“If you are an optometrist in an area where a PCP has bought this type of equipment, you should be the first to know about it...” [19:14]

By building strong relationships with PCPs, optometrists can position themselves as primary referrals for any systemic health issues detected through eye exams, thereby safeguarding their role in the evolving healthcare landscape.

6. VSP's Innovation Team: Driving Industry Change

Ruth elaborates on the multifaceted role of VSP’s Innovation Team, which serves as a catalyst for industry-wide advancements. The team produces futurist reports, acts as a resource for various stakeholders, and bridges gaps across different segments of the optometric field.

“We put out a series of futurist reports that are essentially like a lens into the future...” [23:07]

Their initiatives include addressing changes in vision benefits, adapting to hybrid workforces, and embracing sustainability in eyewear production. By fostering a collaborative environment, VSP ensures that innovation is accessible and actionable for practices of all sizes.

7. Embracing Multisensory Technologies

Beyond vision, the conversation shifts to multisensory technologies that enhance human experiences. Ruth discusses innovations in olfactory technologies, which manipulate scents to improve environments, such as Delta Airlines' multisensory in-flight experiences and the Kirin salt spoon that enhances the taste perception of food through electrical stimulation.

“AI applying AI to senses ensures safety through sensory technologies.” [33:01]

These advancements highlight the potential for optometric practices to incorporate sensory enhancements, creating more engaging and comfortable patient experiences. For example, optimizing the scent in a practice’s waiting area could significantly impact patient satisfaction and perception.

8. AI Adoption in Optometry Practices

AI’s democratization has made it more accessible for small and solo optometry practices to integrate sophisticated tools without the need for extensive IT infrastructure. Ruth points out that no-code AI solutions enable practices to implement AI-driven applications swiftly and efficiently.

“You don't need a whole technology or IT team to implement AI in your practice.” [42:57]

With investments in AI healthcare solutions reaching up to $50 billion, practices are encouraged to adopt AI for various functions, from administrative tasks to enhancing patient interactions. Examples include AI scribes that assist in documentation and chatbots that engage with patients, providing personalized care and support.

9. Innovation Principles and Strategic Investment

Ruth outlines the foundational principles guiding VSP’s innovation initiatives. Emphasizing insights-based innovation over mere disruption, the Innovation Team focuses on strategic investments that align with both industry needs and VSP’s core values.

“It's not about disruption, it's about really insights based innovation.” [25:17]

They prioritize understanding company DNA, analyzing startup ecosystems, and synthesizing data to foster meaningful advancements. This structured approach ensures that innovations are not only groundbreaking but also practical and scalable within the industry.

10. Practical Steps for Integrating Innovation

To effectively incorporate new technologies, Ruth advises optometrists to adopt a disciplined, data-driven approach. This involves:

• Active Participation: Engaging with innovation rather than passively observing.

• Iterative Testing: Implementing technologies in phases, measuring specific outcomes, and refining based on feedback.

• Purpose-Driven Implementation: Setting clear objectives for what each technology aims to achieve, whether it's enhancing patient experience or improving operational efficiency.

“You have to be active participants and we have to let the iterative process take place...” [56:40]

Eugene echoes this sentiment, encouraging practices to experiment with AI tools purposefully and measure their impact meticulously.

11. Conclusion and Resources

As the episode concludes, Ruth shares resources for staying abreast of industry innovations. She encourages listeners to follow VSP’s Innovation Center on LinkedIn, subscribe to their “Lens into the Future” newsletter, and participate in initiatives like the Vision Innovation Challenge.

“If you want to attend, it's open to everyone in the industry. It'll be later this summer, but check out our innovation [e-mail].” [60:22]

Eugene wraps up by highlighting the importance of embracing technological advancements to remain competitive and enhance patient care. He underscores the collective responsibility of the optometric community to actively engage with and shape the future of eye care.

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Key Takeaways:

• Integration of AI and Smart Technologies: AI is revolutionizing eyewear, making it multifaceted beyond vision correction.

• Focus on Longevity: Technologies aimed at extending healthspan are becoming integral to eye care practices.

• Oculomics: Eye exams are evolving into comprehensive health assessments, positioning optometrists as key players in overall health care.

• Strengthening Referral Networks: Building robust relationships with PCPs is crucial for maintaining a central role in patient health management.

• Accessibility of AI: No-code AI solutions are making advanced technologies accessible to small and solo practices, fostering widespread adoption.

• Strategic Innovation: Emphasizing insights-based and strategic investments ensures that innovations are both impactful and sustainable.

• Practical Implementation: A disciplined, purpose-driven approach to integrating new technologies can significantly enhance practice operations and patient experiences.

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for optometrists seeking to navigate and leverage emerging technologies, ensuring that they remain at the forefront of innovation in eye care.

Transcript

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Foreign.

[Eugene Shotsman]

Welcome to the Power Hour, Optometry's biggest and longest running show. This is season 13 and I am your host, Eugene Shotsman. Please remember to subscribe on whatever platform you're using and that way you'll know every single time that we have a.

[Unknown]

New show for you.

[Eugene Shotsman]

So I've been listening to audience requests and there's a lot of buzz about innovation right now. But to really understand innovation, we, we have to talk to someone who eats, lives and breathes it. So I am super excited to bring on Ruth Yamchoubian. And she is someone who has a very interesting job. She leads a whole team of innovators at vsp. And the innovation team is basically a service that vsp, one of the largest companies in the industry, offers to eye care to help us navigate what's new inside our industry and outside of it. So Ruth actually just got back from ces, which is the biggest technology show on the planet. So naturally we had to start the conversation there. What are all the big tech names working on right now and how is it going to apply to us and to our industry? Then we got into the whole concept of innovation principles.

[Unknown]

Then we talk about the role that.

[Eugene Shotsman]

Vision has to play in evolving the innovation landscape. And personally, I was actually just surprised to learn how much the eye or vision is at the forefront of a lot of tech that's coming out of outside of our industry. People are looking at eye care and saying, aha, that's one area that we want to innovate and those are people outside of our industry that are doing that. So Ruth and I talked about the focus of tech on things like longevity, tech, collecting data from us and from the eye, helping fine tune our health and really what's here and also what's coming. We also covered innovations around the senses, hearing and smell, for example, and also what that means for our practices. And of course we touched on of.

[Unknown]

My favorite topics, AI.

[Eugene Shotsman]

So most importantly, I think in this episode we talked about this concept in the mindset of innovation. How can each of us take action and do something in our practices today? Because there really is so much here. Overall, this is a super fascinating conversation with a super fascinating individual. She's a speaker, she's a trainer, she's an executive. And hopefully you get some bang for VSPs buck here and some really interesting insights.

[Unknown]

As always, I really do love your feedback. I'd love to hear what you think.

[Eugene Shotsman]

About the show today, or if you need help or if you want to ask a question, or if I can.

[Unknown]

Be a resource for you.

[Eugene Shotsman]

Please go to Eugene Shotsman.com. drop me a note there. That's Eugene Shotsman.com or at the Power Hour website. And now let's enjoy the show.

[Unknown]

All right, Ruth Yom Tubian, welcome to the Power Hour. Happy to have you here.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Unknown]

And I think this has been a little bit of a project in the works. We've now talked about doing a show several times and I love the innovation component of everything that you're talking about. But we've both been speakers at similar events and I think there's just such a wealth of information behind what you do, which may be a really well kept secret in the industry.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, well, I think we're coming out now very clearly and saying that we are innovating not just for bsp, but for the industry. And you're right, we have crossed paths in the industry in the little pocket. Maybe that part's a secret. There is a pocket of our industry of innovators, of those who are willing to get out of their comfort zone. And that's where we've connected. So I love what you're doing in supporting private practices on the business side. I think you're making analytics and marketing more approachable. Sometimes we see on our side that there's what we call solution fatigue. And so some of these practice leaders or leaders in the industry, they just don't realize sometimes they can access the same tools as large enterprises. And so I'm really excited what you've brought forward and that you're bringing forward a conversation that it's okay to be a business. It's okay to be both helping patients with their help, but also being able to provide them with an excellent consumer experience and using data to do that.

[Unknown]

No, thank you, Ruth. And you know, I think there's so much that we can cover today. And I was trying to think about how we structure the conversation, but I'm naturally curious. And so you mentioned in the pre show that you went to CES Consumer Electronics show, which is by the way, for anyone who hasn't seen the YouTube videos, this is like Gadget Haven, right? Like, this is like where, where the all the big innovators go to showcase all the coolest things that are on there on the horizon. I've never go, but. And I don't know that many people in icare get to go, but you got to go. So, like, tell me what you saw.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, absolutely. It's so interesting out of all the innovation events that we attend, because again, we have one foot in the Vision Care space, but another in the wider view of health care, the wider view of innovation. This has spawned the most interest. And I know I can touch on my background a little bit later, but I had worked in telecom and tech, so I had been many, many times. The last time I went was 2019 and it was all about developer summits. And it's 150,000 people from around the world. So these are technologies from China, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Southern hemisphere. And it's all these technologists come together. It's in the entire convention center in Las Vegas, it's in the entire Venetian. The entire strip essentially has taken over. So if you think about one of the vision expos times 100, that's what it is. And so, you know, we said we've been going every year. And this year I decided to go myself to really lean into the different trends that we can pick up on. The Consumer Electronics show, which is put on by the cta, the Consumer Technology association is pretty much the largest tech event of the year. Many of the topics were focused obviously on artificial intelligence, but really there was a big focus on advancement in health. And one interesting tidbit here, because we also live in the world of many associations, is that 10 years ago the CTA was the CEA and they decided to switch their name and rebrand. So they were really futuristic in knowing that it would be good to be the Consumer Technology association and not just electronics. So one big change we saw this year was that this is a conference that's traditionally dominated by TVs, EVs, cars, home equipment. But smart eyewear brands like Eyewear was at the front. It was at the front of the health tech space, it was at the front of the AI space. Brands obviously, like Ray Ban, Meta, Rokid, xreal, Halliday. So it really displayed the variance of the category and where it's headed and that there's just not one form factor or purpose. So many of them lead with AI capabilities. Heads up, display, color, changing lenses, automatic captions. So what does this do to vision when you put eyewear on to watch a movie and to be immersed, or when you are looking at translation in the top right or left corner, or when you're using AI to help you navigate directions. So it just repurposes eyewear. Another way in which vision and eyewear showed up was with ibot, so AI driven vision kiosks and they were demoing that autonomous eye care and how that's a new channel for purchasing Eyewear. So this really underscores how tech is both ramping up in the eyewear space and being a vehicle for delivery and just really took center stage there. I'll just hit three more of these, but that was the big one related to the Vision Care community. And again, it just says that we are no longer in a niche. We are on the main stage of tech.

[Unknown]

That's really, really cool. We have to realize that that is the kind of attention that's coming to our industry. And if we're on the main stage at something that attracts 150,000 of the world's top technologists, so to speak, this kind of. I don't know if you think so, but to me it means that the attention is on us, which means that innovation is going to accelerate.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yes. And you know, this is an amplifier type event, so people go to this event to then synthesize and bring back the insights to their organization. But as well, this is saturated with journalists. And so I shared a few Ubers with different journalists throughout the conference who were trying to capture what was being seen at ces. I'll also just share that unlike some of the other events that we go to, like south by Southwest, which is very tip of the spear, meaning that it hasn't quite come mainstream. CTA is what's here. It's. It's CES is what's here. It's not about hypotheticals. It's a lot of product releases or soon to be product releases. So it's not some futuristic type place where this hasn't come yet. It's where products are announced. So I think that's just something to know, is that it's not like conferences. So one other trend, I think, and this is something that our team is looking at as well, is longevity. And this was a major theme at ces. Even the AARP had a longevity health compound. Essentially, they had a conference within the conference and they had pickleball courts and all the displays were talking about supporting people's health with data driven experiences. For example, L'Oreal has a cell bioprint which analyzes skin protein to calculate how fast your skin is aging. I think we know we definitely have a lot of parallels right now. Within vision care, there is also a smart mirror that can detect heart health, blood pressure sweep, sleep quality. I know. I've also seen that Gatorade has a hydration mirror using AI as well. So again, this interest in longevity, it really highlights a societal shift towards what we used to call preventative health. But I think in My opinion, preventative health is from a doctor's perspective of how do I prevent a disease. What longevity speaks to is that many consumers now want health span that is not just a lifespan. So they want to more clearly get a defined role from companies about how are you supporting my, my early detection but also creating a better life for me long term.

[Unknown]

Yeah, you know, the longevity piece, I mean it's shocking to me that humans want to live longer. I'm kidding. But the other. But the technology that's now available to help us do that is insane. And I have also, I was at a conference where one of the best attended sessions which this was a true business like hardcore business conference, but one of the most attended sessions was a session by a guy who is up for a, for a scientific recognition. I don't remember which prize, but he specifically talked about, he spent a lot of time talking, talking about technology and data driven medicine for longevity purposes. So basically customizing, you know, one size fits all approach does not necessarily work because all of us are so different. And now with AI and technology, we now can use a much more, a much more personalized approach when caring for our health, but then also caring for our longevity and making sure that again, I think, you know, some silly example that he gave is that, you know, you and I might buy the same supplements or I might buy the same supplements as my neighbor and we're both middle aged guys, but how those supplements, how those supplements impact my body versus how those supplements impact his body are very, very different. And we shouldn't necessarily overlook that and say, hey, this is just a men's multivitamin. We should actually use data to make some of those decisions. And my body might need something completely different than his. So this one size fits all approach isn't working. But as you're talking about the smart technology, I'm like, can I get that mirror for my bathroom? Just tell me how terrible my habits are every morning to motivate me.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

I don't think you want to look at that every day. I think I'm going to take this to the, we're going to get back to this list from ces, but I think it's a good moment to talk about two things around some of the buzzwords that we hear a lot, right? We've heard personalization and convenience over the years and to my team, we almost ban those words because they don't mean anything. What is personalization? Saying hello to someone using their name like it's not directional, it's not clear, it's not defined. What does personalization really, really mean? The other is convenience. It's fluff. It's. It doesn't mean anything to anybody anymore. Right. It doesn't talk to you about like, is it time saved? Is it efficien? Convenience is sometimes a throwaway word for I actually don't want to do this. It's a dread experience. I don't want to do this so badly that I need it to just be convenient so that I can do it, whether that's an exam or a purchase. Right. It's a dread experience. And so one word that we're really trying to use more, and I think this came up actually the Vision Council summit we were at was optimized experiences. And that's what you're speaking to with the supplements is how do you optimize the experience? And people in the workplace, now that there's AI right in the workplace, have less and less tolerance for unoptimized workplaces, which affects some of the benefits in the changing landscape there, which we can get to, but it also affects the health experience. And how are you optimizing or not optimizing this for me? And when you're making a recommendation, is it to optimize me and my body? So one of the spaces that has emerged is a new term and it relates to longevity is oculomics. It's not very often that a new term is coined in the clinical field, but it was coined in 2020 and refers to this emerging field encompassing next gen technologies and innovations that utilize eye imaging to evaluate overall health and diagnostic and diagnose systematic diseases. So we've come across some of those startups, including Toku Eyes, looking at cardiovascular ready Spec looking at early detection of Alzheimer. We know that Topcon Health is a big driver and are sewing together a lot of these solutions to make it more accessible for providers to provide to their customers. So we at the Innovation center are, are leaning into this and trying to see how in the long term this will impact a comprehensive eye exam or other ways to increase the value of that eye exam and increase the value of whole body health information to a patient, which can tell people a lot about their longevity and about their health overall.

[Unknown]

And the term is oculomics, right?

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yes.

[Unknown]

Okay. So the interesting thing I'm thinking about, and you know, if I'm, I'm taking a devil's advocate from just purely an optometrist business standpoint is that. Okay, Ruth, so that's great, except all a PCP now has to do is just get one of those machines for their office and they're basically performing an eye exam and doing, and using this whole oculomics thing to tell, to help do predictive analysis of, you know, disease states that are not necessarily eye related conditions. Right. Like as you mentioned, Alzheimer's, for example. And the reality is that, you know, how does that. I'm sitting there as a, as an optometrist and thinking, okay, well, but like three, four years from now, how does that impact the industry if those technologies accelerate, which we know they're accelerating. We know this. You and I have both seen it firsthand and have talked to those innovators.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah. I think it's our choice. Do we want to lean in and do we want to participate or do we want to become circumvented? Because it's already happening. It's already, the equipment's already in PCP offices. Do we want to create a network of referral channels for those PCPs who don't want to see those who have early detection of diseases and need to come back for those retinal scans? They likely want to take that first scan and refer them back to the lane of optometry, knowing. Right. That we have a provider shortage all up and down the stack. And so how do we lean into that? How do we not lose out? We have to create the infrastructure. And creating the infrastructure might require us to change the way we do things today and not just throw it on top and then we become overburdened. But how do we create new channels of sharing information about the patient? One thing our team is working on is an exam companion, essentially something that a patient can walk away with to look at that retinal scan and to look at all the information that happened during the, the, the visit. Because what sometimes happens is that a patient walks away from the, from their experience with the receipt and then they don't understand where their benefits were applied or how much the eyewear actually, or contact lenses actually costed or what happened. And they're opening their notes. Okay, what was that word that the doctor used? I don't remember and now I can't find it on Google. And so it's really, we call it a force in function or a force in change that sometimes when new things come in, it actually gives us an opportunity to look at the full picture. So this idea of oculomics potentially going into the PCP office actually makes us, and gives us an opportunity to pull back and say, how can we make sure that we retain that patient when they're referred to the provider. And when we do utilize this oculomics experience or the AI enabled retinal scan for early detection, how do we then deliver that message to the patient in a way that's meaningful and also underscores the value of vision care.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

More than if they just had to pull out the notes on their phone.

[Unknown]

Yeah. And I think you're absolutely right. Is that the solution that's in my head to that same devil's advocate problem is that you. Absolutely. If you are an optometrist in an area where a PCP has bought this type of equipment, you should be the first to know about it and you should be sitting in that PCP's office and building a relationship to make sure that you are the referral path, the natural referral path. It'll be the cheapest marketing you get because obviously that equipment isn't just going to try to detect one thing, it's trying to probably give you a bunch of risk factors. And, and that PCP is going to refer to somebody and you being a natural referral path creates that opportunity. And I don't know that you need to actually sit in their waiting room, but I do think that you need to connect and you need to have, or you need to hire people, whether it's marketing companies or individuals inside of your office to help you connect with other providers in the area so that you have a strong referral networks. Because at the end of the day, I do think that patients are going to get care from Dr. Google or Dr. GPT in the context of they're getting the information, but they're really going to get the true care from a human. And who that human chooses to refer to or who that human chooses to chooses to include on their care team is also. It's up to you, right? Like it's up to you, the optometrist listening to the show. But it's also up to us as an industry to put, to plug ourselves in to the, and to explain the role of primary eye care in the context of this whole concept of overall care for health. Because I do think consumers are becoming more and more health conscious. And as your observations from CES indicate. Absolutely. It's at the forefront and there's going to be more innovation in this. So why wouldn't we just embrace it and take the layup?

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, well, this speaks to two things. One, you're talking about the receptivity of the practice leaders or of the optometrists. And I will just Say from a year ago, I cannot believe how we've changed in terms of our tone. I think a year ago there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of pushback. How will this work? How do we answer all these questions? And one thing in our industry sometimes we have to remember is that there is a process around innovation. You don't just get some post its and start to brainstorm solutions or you don't just say no to something because you don't have the solution. Today we need to kind of be in the ambiguity. And so I think this year we've spent a lot of time looking at what are those referral paths, what's missing, how do we get to this North Star of AI enabled retinal scans. That's how we came to this idea of the exam companion. And how do we build that bsp? Being in this fragmented industry, you need a vsp, you need an aggregator to help close these gaps and answer these questions so that we can all take advantage here. Right. One practice cannot do it on their own in this fragmented industry. So I think it really underscores the role of having an innovation team and having a big player like VSP paying attention. Well, right.

[Unknown]

And I think this may be a good point to pause and say, what the heck is it that you do, Ruth, in leading that innovation team? Because VSP is investing the money, I think on behalf of the industry into innovation. But innovation is a big word, It's a weird word. It has a lot of strange connotations and some are really good and some of them are a little floofy. So maybe just give Everybody like a 30 second overview of what the heck it is that the innovation team does at VSP and why it even exists.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah. I think many of you who know or have worked with our team before, you see that we work in undefined potential future spaces for our organization and the industry. We put out a series of futurist reports that are essentially like a lens into the future, again, not only for vsp, but we act as a resource for providers for our clients who are big employers. If you think about why do employers have benefits for vision? Well, they care about the wellness and performance and health of their employees. So we have many different stakeholders that we operate on behalf of. And in a way we're a starting engine for VSP to understand alternate futures. So we really take a lot of projects from 0 to 10 to 100 and we really lean into translating changes happening in the industry. If you look at we have the whole benefit side of the business changing right now very rapidly. Over the last four years, 95% of companies have looked at reconstituting their benefits. Vision is always in the top three. But now that there's a menu of 25 different benefits, whether that's life of stage benefits or ones that lean into the kind of hybrid, remote, bifurcated workforce that has an impact on VSP and our practices. There's changes in the network, the way that practices operate, going into more virtual kind of spaces, whether that's the exam or the pre shopping experience. And then obviously on the eyewear side, there's a lot of changes happening with sustainability, which is something else that our team oversees and the way that people want it delivered and the types of technologies used to create eyewear. So we touch a lot of different spaces on behalf of esp.

[Unknown]

So I guess and you talked a little bit about this whole concept of innovation principles as you were describing these undefined spaces. Talk more about that and just kind of how do you guys define innovation in general?

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

So I think part of going back to your question, also about the need, you need a team to look at the long arc. There are a lot of chaotic ups and downs in evolving spaces like virtual health or AI, where if you just looked at the Nvidia stock price every day, you'd kind of go crazy and miss the big stories. So there's a team in place for that. I myself always think that it's more than just the innovation of translating, it's also about successful innovation and that comes from having an appreciation for the past and the heritage of the company and understanding the current state. State. So I learned this from my time in corporate innovation. I've been in corporate innovation since the 2010s where I learned that you can't change a large legacy organization without first understanding the company DNA and the dashboards that drive that business. So legacy organizations realized that you have to lean into what we call startup proxy innovation and that is to understand the and where it's going. You have to look at the startups because they are gathering new information about user behavior, they are at the tip of the spear and they are also more willing to trial and test in a way that large organizations can't. So we look at that ecosystem around startups and also venture capital as a proxy for where an industry is going. So some of the sort of myths that I was speaking to is that it's just not about disruption, it's about really insights based innovation. So not just about brainstorming or Looking into a crystal ball, but really or jumping straight into the solution. It's not about making predictions to be right. It's about making predictions and synthesizing insights and patterns so that we can learn, so that we can catalyze. And that really requires rigor, structure, strategic thinking, creativity. So we practice this on the innovation team and strengthen those muscles all the time. We definitely don't rest on our laurels. And I'll just end with, you can see this with our futurist reports. We don't put them out publicly to be right. We put them out publicly to catalyze innovation across many pieces of the industry.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I kind of think about this and maybe this is a simplistic way to look at it, but you're like the public park in a city of like a bunch of eye care practices around you. And I'm specifically speaking to the innovation team. Like we all get to go out and enjoy it, but it's our choice whether we actually use it or leverage it. But we all can actually leverage this resource that this big company is investing in for us.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Right? Right. In a sense, we have a flywheel of activities. We have a heartbeat to how we are pulling in and pushing out innovation. And so we are making that flywheel of activity that's pulling in and pushing out available to everyone. And so, yeah, it is kind of like the public park in that way.

[Unknown]

So, you know, I think we talked a little bit about this when we talked about ces, but the two things I've heard you talk about a little bit was the role of eye care in longevity, but also like this whole concept of senses and innovation going around, going on around senses overall. Talk a little bit about that and then we're going to get into some more concrete thoughts around innovation inside the practice or even how we care for our patients.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah. So this actually is one of our insights as well from ces and it's good timing because last year we published a report on the future of senses. But I'll tell you, at CES, Delta Airlines had their 100 year anniversary in the sphere. I did not go, but a lot of their announcements of how were about how they were presenting a multi sensory experience to improve the in flight journey. Right. Many times you think about getting on a plane and dulling your senses, but they are. One of the CES winners was the Kirin salt spoon, which sends an electric current to your tongue to make your food taste saltier or better.

[Unknown]

So. So they're not going to invest in better food. They're just going to invest in this magic spoon that the bland garbage they give us taste really good.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, well, you know, that's one way about it.

[Unknown]

But I mean that could be the restaurateur's next next business model is super, I don't know, super cheap. Something that doesn't kill you, but. But with a really good spoon that makes it taste amazing.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, I mean I, I will say in our research on the future of senses and this was a topic that since I got to vsp, I was like, this has to be one of our futures reports. We just have to wait for the right time. And we all know that if you ask consumers what is the most important incense to you, 80% will say vision. Right. But our other senses have, there's more awareness for them now for a number of reasons. But Covid still many people lost their taste and sense of smell. And before even Covid there are a number of people who have cancer who can no longer taste their food. And it has a high impact on their life. And so this was an area we really, really dove into and realized that our senses are subjective and not really the same. So a few insights here is that there's a lot of tech enabled senses now that heighten our human experiences from an individual level, but also from an enterprise level or corporate level or brand level. Digitized senses are unlocking different parts of the value chain. MasterCard for example, is looking at just even the design of their card, how they tap into different senses with their card. The brain to sense relationship aids in disease detection so we were just talking about oculomics. Well, we are not the only ones involved in that space. So the dental community and the dermatology community community amongst others are also making the brain sense relationship around early detection, supporting those with disabilities. As I shared, this is a big area of growth right now. And so anything we've learned that supports those with disabilities then becomes an accessibility device, then becomes an assistive device for the masses. So what we're seeing in the future of senses will soon be part of the masses in our everyday life. And then the last one, which is kind of my favorite, is that AI applying AI to senses ensures safety through sensory technologies. And what that means is that if you put an AI nose in a room and it smells mold that cannot be detected by the human nose, then you could save the health of the people in your building. And so we talk about big bad AI and we talked about big bad AI in our generative AI report as actually being good for positive Behavior, for example, in a medical environment where you're controlling for some of the more subjective things people say or do or forget. And likewise, when it comes to the senses, you can use big bad AI to control for safety.

[Unknown]

How crazy would it be? So first of all, I doubt the AI nose is available on Amazon, but I am resisting every ounce of my being to just look it up and buy an AI nose to put it in our building and see what it smells. But how crazy would it be, Ruth, if there was an AI nose inside of our optical that helped us correlate the types of smells? Because we know, I mean retail, retail theory, one on one, is that it's a sensory experience, right? So that's why you walk into certain stores in the mall and it smells different than a different store in a mall. And that's like not by accident, that is very much by design using data driven studies. So how interesting would it be to run a study using an AI nose and look at overall shopping behavior in an optical or really overall patient satisfaction in the practice or something like that, or their, or someone's experience with a doctor or feedback about their experience with a doctor based off of the smell inside of the room.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Oh, okay, well, so here's a number for you. This is, this is a secret maybe that I definitely didn't know until we looked into this space. So the technologies, like the global market, another new word of Olafactory technologies. And olfactory technology just means the smells, right? So in 2022 it was 3. The market was valued at 324 million. It is expected by the end of like in five years to be $4 billion. In the next five years.

[Unknown]

Four billion.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, in the next five years.

[Unknown]

So, so it's like a 10x plus growth in the expansion of that technology. But you know, it just, it, it's, it makes sense to me that if AI can process the data and you have data that's happening in your business on, on a regular basis, just overlay one more piece of input to see what kind of impact does this have. And I also, you know, as a, as a consumer who has gone to the doctor, I oftentimes prejudge my experience based off of my experience in the waiting room. And sometimes it's musty and you know, it smells like the old couch that I'm sitting or that, the old whatever waiting room chair that I'm sitting on that is, you know, like decaying under me. And you know, you, you kind of, you're there and you're thinking like what is my overall like, how does that impact my total satisfaction? And also how does that impact the number of dollars I'm going to spend or even my confidence in the provider's recommendations? And I bet that is a sense that's like frequently overlooked. Like why don't we jump on being on the cutting edge of that? And you guys kind of were with your report that you guys released last year.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

I mean it could just be literally lighting a candle can make a difference in an experience is what I'd also took from this, that it doesn't need to be anything fancy. And we always look at how can you prototype or how can you sort of create an MVP or write like growth hack so you don't even have to invest in anything right away but a candle to see. I would also say that in this same vein, we see this in multisensory specialty care. So there are new entrants into the vision care space, you could call it with companies like Amplify, Maryland Hearing Facial esthetics that are trying to kind of cross pollinate the solutions we give our consumers. So the auditory and visual in particular. But also there's some aesthetics that are now getting into the vision space. And so that's just another way that we can kind of tap into that in this industry.

[Unknown]

Well, and it hits your point on longevity a little bit in the sense unintended, I guess, but in the sense that we have a. If we can reposition ourselves to be a multi. So the eye exam isn't just about the eyes. It is. Maybe we're caring for more of you as a whole person and also maybe also multiple senses. Right. Your vision is the most important sense, but you probably might rate your hearing as a second one. And I've had some hearing innovators on the show in the past and I do think that there's a lot of chatter in the industry about why aren't we doing this in the United States if other parts of the world are really, really zooming in on being a multi solving multiple problems and serving multiple senses at the optometrist's office.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean our senses connect us all as people. I'll just share one fun little piece here. But when we're a distributed remote team around the whole country, and when we went remote, I actually decided, hey, we need an official candle of the Global Innovation Center. So everyone on our team has the same candle that connects us over space and time. And can you there. This is kind of a popular concept where like different offices or spas or hotels have like official candles now, so. Or scents. Not candles, official scents of their space. So think about the official site scent, color. Like this is the way that like the mastercards of the world are trying to digitize, but also use just the, like, whatever tools available just to become more multisensory to their customers, but also to their own employees to feel more connected.

[Unknown]

Yeah. And the neat part is that again, I think a little bit of this was like voodoo science and conjecture in the past because how can you really measure the impact? But now with AI and the ability to quickly analyze data without even a human present, you just write the algorithm and you say, give me the answer in a week or give me the answer in two weeks after. Based off of this input, I'm trying a new scent in my office for the next two weeks. What's the difference between what happens now and what happens in, you know, the previous two weeks? And you could get that information relatively quickly from an AI input.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, exactly. And same with the multisensory specialty care. You know, people like holistic health and that holistic view. So if you can give a view to their skin, their hearing and sight and combine those together, like consumers eat that up, they're dying for these kind that's integrated or holistic view. And then in the practice, you have more levers to play with, not only with discounts, but in the information and the stickiness of the information that you're giving to your patients and their willingness to come back.

[Unknown]

Speaking of the practice, right after the break, we're going to talk a little bit about AI and other innovations that you're observing that are actually happening inside of practices today. Be right back.

[Allie]

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[Unknown]

Hi, welcome back to the Power Hour. I've got with me Ruth Yamtoubian from who heads the innovation team at vsp. And I, I know we only have a few minutes left, so I really want to talk about what you're seeing inside of practices and really how that's connecting to. I, I don't think this would be an innovation episode without some mention of AI. And I know I've done full episodes on AI, so we don't necessarily need to cover too much. Except for I do think at this exact time that we're recording the episode, there is more and more of a shift of consumers truly embracing and like being more comfortable. Like, it's no longer creepy to have AI interactions with businesses and it's no longer creepy to have AI help us with things that we, you know, realize that maybe humans might have not been as good or as efficient at. So what are you seeing? And you know, besides AI, what are some of the, or maybe what are some of the applications that are helping us run better practices?

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, so I think again, within the, the, the practice setting we're talking about, let's, let's back up maybe connected to some of the CES insights as well. A lot of what was talked about at CES is the AI lifestyle. And so how is AI being integrated into biometrics, sensors, maybe guiding with sleep, helping you with lifestyle chores so that you can be more well and healthy and focused on you as a person and not you as a task doer. So I think it's also important to keep in mind, like what our patients and what our consumers are looking for.

[Unknown]

When can I order the robot that's going to do like wash my dishes and mow my lawn and do all that stuff, like the biped robot that I like, the Tesla robots. Like how, how were those walking around serving drinks at ces?

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

I mean, they were, they were close to, I think, but yeah, it really is about how also can my health be kind of on autopilot? So, you know, consumers are looking to put their health on autopilot or again, back to that optimization. How can they, you know, look for ways to integrate that using AI solutions in tech. And so I think it's, it's great from a practice perspective to also, I think maybe surprise Your patients and consumers with your own knowledge of this space. What's really interesting about what is being called the AI class right now is that a majority of the AI class are entrepreneurs and small businesses. So this is one of the first times where actually Vision Care is ahead in this space because we are small businesses right in Vision Care. And really giving these many times solo or multi practice entrepreneurs the opportunity to operate again like a big business by using AI tools because really the AI has been around. And not to rehash what AI is, but just to give you a little bit of my perspective, having been at a big corporate 10 years ago when the whole big data shift happened and companies were opening up big centers and investing in big teams. It's the difference now is really the democratization of the tech. In the past you had to hire data scientists to mine through different data lakes, sort the information, create a product. And so that's really the dynamic we're in, is the democratization of the tech. So now small businesses can actually more easily implement AI tools than large businesses. And I think we're going to see that most of our practices in the VSP network will be using AI in the next few years, maybe even more than VSP employees. Because when that ChatGPT was released, it wasn't as powerful as when it was released with an optimal user interface. So that's really what changed everything. And now there's just, to use a buzzword, there's a lot of no code AI. So you don't need a whole, whole technology or IT team to implement AI in your practice. But it's really, I think about individuals and small companies that can move more quickly. Another kind of piece of this is that talent is limited. So again that brings it back to the democratization of the tech and the no code and the noise is really high. Right. It's a complex landscape. I also just wanted to share that in that companies like large companies like VSP, we are most of the funding in large companies, 60% is coming from innovation budgets, which really tells us that we're still early into this space. And so I would say from a practice perspective, it's a really good time to just jump in, invest and start testing in, in the space. So I can get, now that I kind of shared a preamble, I also want to share that this, this number is just increasing. I think we're up to $50 billion now of investment going into AI solutions just in healthcare.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah. So what that's telling us is that the startups that were once deterred by getting into the healthcare space because of regulations, are no longer deterred. This is again shining a light on a technology that's been around before. And there's more momentum and investment going into solving our solutions. I'd also say that we are a value add industry. We don't want the AI dollars to go to advertising and to entertainment. We want it to come into health care. So we really have to lean in. I know that the clinical culture is everything has to be 1000% approved before you put it in market. And we should recognize that the AI or innovation culture is iterative. And so sometimes you have to put solutions into place when it's 80 or 90% of the way there. And that presents a culture clash that I think we all have to bring to the surface and above the line in this conversation so that we don't lose out on taking advantage of these solutions. So I just wanted to.

[Unknown]

That's a really good point, by the way. I think that it's true that the nature of decision making for most doctors is, you know, it's typically evidence based stuff. Right. And it's also approval and risk management and that kind of thing. But I challenge everybody to think about AI solutions that can make their practice better off, even if it's not perfect, like you said. But it's not going to necessarily impact your clinical care. It may allow you to have more clinical care opportunities and may allow you to focus more on clinical care rather than administrative or patient acquisition or even, you know, the barriers normally available with clinical care.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, exactly. And so that's why I just want to give that macro view. I know that I've been impressed by the industry. I think a year ago that was my biggest fear was that this culture clash would happen between the clinical mindset around 1000% and the innovation mindset around iteration. And AI, by nature it's a model so you have to test it with information to refine it. And you just can't do that with a thousand percent mindset. So how do you do that in a way that doesn't put a patient's risk at life? Obviously. But there are ways to do that with, for example, the AI scribe where you can refine and refine over time and that the consequences are you can make a U turn if something potentially goes wrong. So I think we all know a lot of the applications and that's why I just wanted to flag that, that perspective. If I could just share just a few kind of high level. This isn't from Our futurist report that is about a year old now, but we talked about the system cohesion and how it's important to have shared care, to have a future that includes oculomics. And so how do we use AI so that there's not double payments in the system and that we can translate unstructured data so that there's instant system wide sharing across healthcare. And we see that with solutions like Glean AI and we see that with Nuance, which I think many, not the Nuance glasses, but Microsoft bought Nuance. I think there were about almost 70 million before acquisition. So it really will help break down the silos from a larger perspective. Giving patients the power to kind of give you prompts or give them prompts to get their questions answered rather than leaning out of the my patient's going to go do their research. Are there ways that you can allow them to lean into asking you those questions, whether you create a bot for your practice? I know Eugene, you're very into that. Like how can we use bots and create different functions and jobs to be done and Personas in the practice? But now you have the opportunity to create an agent that can answer questions about your locations. What's going to happen? Who are the doctors? They can even ask like, oh, what's my doctor's favorite hobby? I mean, you can put that all in there. One of the things we forget is that actually some companies are using AI to extend their brand and to show the personality of their brand and the way that they answer questions. So for example, Weight Watchers is a company I've talked to about how they've put their agent in place and they use a lot of empathy and really carry their brand through their agents. So it's a marketing opportunity, not just an efficiency opportunity.

[Unknown]

Totally true.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

So I think we all know about the staffing, right? In practice, kind of alleviating burnout, helping with things like job descriptions, but also jobs to be done. And there is a ton of momentum there from a marketing perspective, creating new websites. When we've gone out and talked to providers, they really see that this is a no brainer in terms of using AI for marketing. But then also copilots, right? How do we automate not just the tedious task, but what's being captured and recorded so that providers can leverage the notes and synthesize them. And again, we talked about the how do you make sure that your patient doesn't leave with just a receipt but the full value? 11 just insight from my former employer at and t is that in the Innovation center we always wanted to figure out how can we be more than a bill to the customer? Because that's a touch point. And that's why you see companies that usually send you a monthly bill also sponsoring your football and basketball game because they want you to feel good about their brand and not just see their brand when you get that bill. One last one here is that we're going to be seeing AI transform medical devices and be embedded inside the medical devices devices. We already know this is happening in dental. I know this is actually happening now within our vision care space that a lot of the startups we talk to are embedding AI, whether that's guiding a patient through an experience or translating the outcome for the, for the doctor. And then like I said, big bad AI supports good behavior. Some people are scared about being recorded, right? I think it's great. What if you use a terminology that someone doesn't know? What if you're communicating mostly with gestures and you're not speaking the piece that needs to be said out loud to a patient just because you are talking about this every day to multiple patients, to them, if you're saying something with your hands and gestures, but not verbally, it's going to change some behavior in office. And again, I know some are scared about being recorded or having a scribe, but I think it's again, back to that big bad AI has the potential for good and reinforcing good behavior.

[Unknown]

Well, and there's a lot in what you just said. I do think that as we talk about the various solutions available to a practice, my advice is always just try something, but try something with a purpose. Think about. Because there are many of these things are market ready, many of these things are in beta. You contact any company and you say what do you have going on with AI? They'll have something that has some sort of beta, like call our company, we'll give you some stuff that we want to put people in beta on just so that we can get the tests and the data done. But the reality is that, and hopefully we're opening the audience's mindset to this is that this kind of innovation principles that you mentioned earlier in the conversation, we can't let it happen to us. We have to be active participants and we have to let the iterative process take place, which means that you have to try it, but you don't just try it and then say it doesn't work and give up. Right? You have to really think about you're trying it and what Are you specifically trying to measure when you're doing it right, take a data driven approach, then evaluate. Did that particular measurement, the thing that you're measuring, did that actually move the needle? If yes, great. Run another experiment, see how you can move the needle even more. If no, evaluate why. Right. See, was it a staff adoption issue? Was it a, did this thing do something? Did it have some sort of unanticipated consequences? Was there some sort of thing that, that took place that created a, you know, created a, a barrier that we didn't, that we didn't really expect? But you know, whether it's an AI scribe? Well, if you're using an AI scribe, like, think about what you could measure as a result. Now, of course you could measure number of patients per hour, but the reality is you're probably not going to change your schedule. So that's not really the best measurement. So maybe you could just report after every examination what your personal sentiment as a doctor is after every single exam. And like, how did it go? Did I feel more connected? Did I feel whatever? Maybe you could report on patient outcomes, maybe you could report on capture rate to see does an AI scribe help me with that? And looking at that data, that's the part where I think that we really have to take a disciplined approach to integrating these new technologies into our office. We can't just say I want to do it and not really know exactly what consequences we're trying to measure. We have to do it and then leverage the fact that whatever we're doing is going to move some needle somewhere. So let's just look at those needles for a small period of time and see if it's actually happening.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah, you know, that's a great point. I've been extremely steeped in AI in the last year. And by steeped I mean I'm not just in operating in a vacuum, I'm talking to other large organizations and to our providers about how they're using it. And so it's just my team as a whole and you know, organizations are not approaching AI as a technology. It is not about the technology. It is a strategic investment. And when you look at a strategic investment, you have to establish a process to select, to build, to measure the impacts. You need to centralize that work. So yes, you can have cross discipline, whatever that means in your practice, but you have to have a central place to look at it. And you have to create space within the company to function like a startup or to test and to learn. And so that's sometimes, you know, Something that we forget to do is to make the space, not just to arm wrestle this change into place, but to understand the different variables. And I'll just throw in one more kind of innovation principle here. We don't always know what's coming, but we can hedge with the skills, the strategies, the scaffolding, the how, because the future is very uncertain. And one thing we forget as leaders is that we are a variable as well. And so understand the variables and the areas of consistency within your practice. So that when you do run tests, whether it's AI or the putting in the new smell in or the senses or virtual health or anything else, like if you have a bias in place, your team will reinforce the bias that you have in place. If you're like, I don't want AI to work or we'll try this, it will be reinforced. And likewise, if you really want it to work, no matter what, probably as well. So I think that's kind of important thing to keep in mind. And it's similar to. You had an episode around the cost of an action. Very similar to the cost of an action is the velvet, the concept of a velvet coffin, which is that there's a false choice between trust and speed. And I think in a lot of the phrases I've been saying about, you know, big bad AI is actually good. It talks to the false choice that I think we've moved on from is this good or is this bad? And so there's another false choice around trust and speed. And if you have too much responsible stewardship, like, well, I'm just going to wait and I care too much about the human touch, which people think again is opposed to technology, when technology can actually create more human touch. This responsible stewardship is in fact just slow moving, inevitable decline. And we want to be in an accelerating excellence and in that zone where we look at both trust and speed. So how can we work with our practices, for example, in the VSP network, to build trust, but also help us speed up the translation of AI and help deliver that to our patients so that we can be a source of strengthening the relationships between the patients and providers?

[Unknown]

Sure, this is phenomenal. And Ruth, what a fascinating conversation. I'm sure there are topics that we could talk about for and in some of the topics you mentioned, they probably would be an hour lecture on their own, but I'm sure we'll get a chance to have conversations like this again in the future. In the meantime, what can people do to keep up with innovation that's going on in the Industry.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Yeah. So first of all, like as we've shared a few times, you can follow us on and find our work. We're innovating for the industry. So you can follow us on LinkedIn at the VS Global Innovation Center Group page. You can subscribe to our Lens into the Future newsletter on LinkedIn, which comes out once a month and actually summarizes the insights from ces. We're going to south by Southwest actually next month and that's really the tip of the spear and we'll have more to share there. Last year we brought 10 vision care insights to the innovation community there. And so that was, I think, probably new. As an industry that typically flies under the radar, Vision Care is so important. And so we're looking at more ways to bring that into the mainstream innovation healthcare discussion. And one last thing I'll share is that last year we held our very first Vision Innovation Challenge. So we had a call for startups and innovators in the space and seeing how we at VSP and the industry as a whole can lift up innovators. Because again, we all benefit from innovation. We don't want to shy away from it, we don't want to push it out of the way. Sometimes we're scared. But if we lean in, then we can take advantage and not lose out on that innovation. So if you have, if you want to attend, it's open to everyone in the industry. It'll be later this summer, but check out our innovation [e-mail] innovation feel free to reach out and participate in all the different opportunities we have to lean into innovation.

[Unknown]

That's fantastic. And you'll give me those links and I'll put them in the show notes as well. So thank you so much, Ruth, for joining us on the Power Hour today. This was an incredible conversation, helping us all realize that we really do have a role in innovation and we have an opportunity like never before to really not just take part in the conversation, but actually do something super innovative and participate in industry that is magnifying glass over the top of it right now. So I do expect so much technology and so much funding to be poured into our industry and we just have to be there to adapt and to measure and to make sure that we have the impact. So thank you, Ruth for being a guest on the show and also thank you for your wealth of knowledge, fantastic.

[Ruth Yamchoubian]

Conversation and thank you for the way that you are bringing us all together.

[Unknown]

Thanks for listening to today's Power Hour episode. The Power Hour is actually a owned by the Power Practice Power Practice is a premier consulting group who helps practices achieve freedom of time, confidently solve practice issues, and grow their practices. They do this by having coaches and OD consultants, people who have actually done it, been there, and they're ready to help. You want to learn more? Go to powerpractice.com there's a bunch of free tools there. You can also get a whole bunch of information and decide whether it's right for your practice. Again, if you're looking looking for more time, you're looking to solve complex practice issues or grow the Power Practice might be right for you. Go to powerpractice.com to find out more.