Technology Practice of the Year

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The days of the award going to the practice with the longest list of new technologies are long gone. One of the judges' key considerations is to recognise a practice where technology has been applied for the benefit of the patient and the promotion of the practice at large.

Patel has spent the last 20 years building the Radlett practice, investing in the latest consulting room and dispensing equipment, but also ensuring established equipment of proven worth is also available. For example, alongside the computerised testing charts, automated phoropter unit, RTVue OCT, GDx, pachymeter, keratometer and imaging instruments, one can find a Hess chart, an array of imaging lenses and a gonioscopy lens. The Hess chart was used recently to investigate a seven-year-old boy with a suspected orbital fracture and double vision. Twenty years ago, the practice boasted simply a boxed test chart, a slit lamp and a keratometer.