Industry Initiatives
Ophthalmic manufacturers can significantly reduce environmental impact by adopting more sustainable practices, such as minimizing packaging, enhancing instrument reusability, and optimizing manufacturing and distribution processes. These innovative strategies are showcased below, offering ophthalmologists solutions for delivering environmentally responsible eye care.
What's Important - Industry Initiatives
How the Industry Can Make an Environmental Impact
Large manufacturers who produce the drugs and devices that we use in surgery are uniquely positioned to make an environmental impact by reducing packaging, making instruments reusable, and streamlining their manufacturing and distribution process. Many companies share the priority of preserving our world for the future. Several have already implemented significant environmentally friendly changes and continue to prioritize internal efforts to lower their carbon footprint.
Because we believe that companies are not competitors but collaborators when it comes to the environment, we invite them to share their challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned.
Reusable Blades: The Future is Sharp
One of the most used instruments in ophthalmic surgery is the scalpel. Diamatrix offers
a multi-use safety knife, the ProTekt, in all sizes that is reusable up to 15 times. It is the
only guarded reusable knife of the market, protecting the surgeon and staff from needle-
stick injuries, while consistently maintaining its sharpness. The ProTekt comes in a
variety of configurations and sizes to help achieve precise and accurate primary and
secondary inciscions. Over the previous decade, Diamatrix ProTekt has been able to
eliminate over 235,000 pounds of OR waste, roughly the equivalent of the weight of a
blue whale! This is an incredible feat for a relatively small company. With further
emphasis on sustainability in the industry, the potential for further waste reduction and a
greener future is limitless.
A Summarized Approach to Sustainability Measures for Health Systems and Industry
This document represents a summary of two roundtables held between health systems, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and MedTech companies to identify areas of collaborative action that can be taken to reduce healthcare value chain emissions. Key approaches to decarbonization are mapped on a 24-month roadmap as actionable steps that can be taken by individual companies for greater collective progress. As climate-related health crises continue to act as a force multiplier disproportionately affecting populations already experiencing health inequity, collective action steps described in this article can serve as a compounding solution both for the health of individuals and for the business of healthcare. Options for collective action are provided in categories of product innovation, product utilization and clinical engagement, and transportation and logistics with emphases on packaging, composition, takeback programs, durability, reprocessing and reformulation, and efficiency. These best practice recommendations for management and cooperation can serve as valuable guidance as health systems and suppliers continue to face changes to disease prevalence and supply demand among other climate-related vulnerabilities.
Industry Advisory Board
John Hovanesian
Principal at Harvard Eye Associates, Chair Industry Initiatives Advisory Board
Andrew Ihan Chang
Head of Global Sales Ophthalmology
President of Carl Zeiss Meditec USA, Inc.
Chuck Hess
Global VP Development & Operations, Bausch + Lomb
Erik Bonn
Chief Commercial Officer
Microsurgical Technologies
Erin Powers
Vice President, Johnson & Johnson Vision
Jeannette Bankes
Group President, Global Franchises Surgical & Vision Care
Jessica Raab
Director of Medical Education, Corza Medical
Mikhail Boukhny
Mikhail Boukhny
VP Global R&D, BVI
Thomas Bosshard
Co-CEO and Board Member of Oertli Instrumente AG
Resources for Industry Initiatives
Industry Editorial Board
John Hovanesian, MD
Chair Industry Editorial Board
Ashraf Ahmad, MD
Stephanie P Chen, MD
David Crandall, MD
Brenda Nuyen, MD
Emily Schehlein, MD
This information and any links to company websites are provided solely for informational purposes as they relate to sustainability. EyeSustain, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, ASCRS, and ESCRS disclaim any endorsement of any individual manufacturer or product. EyeSustain has not received financial support from any ophthalmic manufacturer.