Richard Lindstrom on the future of laser-assisted refractive cataract surgery

In an editorial in the August issue of the Journal of Refractive Surgery, the official peer-reviewed publication of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS), Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, offers his personal vision of how laser-assisted refractive cataract surgery will impact cataract surgery and the cataract surgeon.

While admitting that there are more questions than answers at this early stage, his core prediction is that this technology will become mainstream in advanced countries by the year 2020. "It will be a disruptive technology, which means it will by definition topple market leaders. If so, those companies and surgeons who embrace it will be richly rewarded and those who ignore it do so at significant risk."

"Although not for every surgeon or patient, I believe laser-assisted refractive cataract surgery will attain commercial success everywhere phacoemulsifi cation, advanced technology including intraocular lenses, and LASIK are practiced," Lindstrom writes.