This is January of 2026. This is Scott Morris and my opinion piece this month is called no patient left behind. AI's promise of universal eye care access. So the history of progress is marked by various inflection points moments when a single technological shift renders the previous era unrecognizable.
In 2007 the iPhone didn't just upgrade the mobile phone, it condensed computing, entertainment, music and the entire communications market into a single handheld device, permanently altering how humanity interacts with information. Now as we enter 2026 I've been pondering where are the biggest changes that will occur in this industry. Not just in the coming year, but also in the next decade and I believe that we're at such an inflection point, eye care is currently standing at its own 2007 moment. For decades the delivery of vision care has been a linear brick and mortar affair defined by in quotes the exam.
But as we move towards the 2030s, a convergence of artificial intelligence, decentralized diagnostic hardware and open infrastructure knowledge bases may just fulfill a promise of something previously thought impossible, universal eye care access. To reach this goal within the next decade, we as individuals and as the industry, much challenge the traditional boundaries of the clinic and embrace the coming evolutionary shift. A shift that will be faster and more disrupted than most providers are prepared for. Now I foresee five big shifts coming that will lead to this convergence and alter eye care as we know it.
First is what might be the most radical change in the patient is a patient centric model. And that's going to require the death of the episodic visit that we're used to right now as the primary unit of eye care delivery. As we move from this clinic centric model to a patient centric model. In the next decade, I believe the eye care delivery system will split into a dual track model.
Now we've been talking about this for years, but I actually think the technology might be there. In option one, there will be a virtual triage and autonomous screening process. AI powered, let's call the micro clinics in pharmacies and primary care offices and even community centers will utilize autonomous fundus cameras and OCTs as aculomics hits mainstream medicine. These systems will assist or potentially even diagnose on their own diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, macular degeneration, other forms neurodegenerative disease with very high sensitivity without an eye care provider present.
This in turn will likely to shift of eye care providers from being primary screeners to interventionist. This is part two of this dual track model. The clinic of the next decade will be reserved for complex decision-making, surgical procedures and personalized treatment, otherwise known as precision medicine. Now second part, second major change is the evolving vision insurance model.
The second major shift will be this evolution of this model. The traditional vision insurance model was built on a one exam per year reimbursement structure and is fundamental incompatible with universal access. To support an AI-driven future insurance and insurance industry, must be willing to embrace three of the following trends. One, an outcome-based reimbursement.
I know imagine that. Where we actually get paid for making somebody healthy? I mean imagine a system where providers are truly paid for prevention of vision loss rather than just the number of refractions or exams performed. Second part of this trend is diagnostic technologies.
There's likely going to be a new reimbursement model developed for many of these new diagnostic technologies since they will largely be performed outside the specialist office. As AI learns to predict disease progression 18 to 24 months before the ever-manifest clinically, insurances will likely have to find a way to cover these early interventions that are currently considered elective as a form of predictive coverage, new concept predictive coverage. And then the third major trend will be data transparency and really let's call it a liquidity mandate. Currently electronic health records are the bottleneck of innovation.
To hit the goal of universal access, EHRs must evolve from passive digital filing cabinets into active clinical decision support engines. And let me tell you guys, that is coming. I have seen them there on their way. Data will be how practices are valued and how service are paid for.
So data must be accessible to all and not guarded by each entity as property. Only by sharing data will the eye care industry progress. Third major change. Embracing, I'm sorry fourth major change, embracing a new identity.
Now, you know, providers and their staff will have to face the fact that what they do is changing and embrace this new identity. Currently many providers fear that AI will replace us, but in reality AI and augmented medical intelligence will liberate us from the mundane and, you know, be instrumental in helping many, many more people. However, this shift requires a painful professional revolution. Provides a shift from the role of data collector to data interpreter.
Provides will spend less time on manual fraction and more time on complex medical and visual management. We've already started seeing the rise of what we call super staff, you know, technicians empowered with AI diagnostic tools that will oversee a larger share of the patient volume, allowing the doctors to operate in the absolute top of their license. One word of caution though, providers who wait for the perfect peer reviewed evidence before adopting AI will find them in the positions in the position of the Blackberry and the world of iPhones obsolete before they realize the market is moved. Please don't be that person.
Now, I think number five, the single biggest change is going to be the consumer. The biggest reason for this change is already begun, and if you look around, you understand the consumer world is now dictating change. Today's consumers are digitally native and increasingly demanding. They don't want to take off a half a day off work for a routine checkup.
They want frictionless access to care where they are when they want it. And on top of that, they also want instant results. I mean, don't we all, but instead of waiting two weeks for specialist review a scan, they want information now. Care will be near real time.
It will have to be, or consumers will look for other options and telemedicine, most likely, will give those people those other options. We've already begun the smart device revolution, where we as consumers are being monitored by smartwatches and phones and heads up displays and soon, intravascular sub-epidural and even intracular diagnostic devices that continually feed data directly into their AI health coach, Siri for health care. The most critical takeaway, let me put this in summary for the industry, is that these technologies will not develop in a vacuum. As AI improves, it will integrate with telemedicine, 3D printing, and CRISPR-based gene technologies, among many others.
When these technologies integrate, change will no longer be linear. It will be exponential. Think about how that works. Think about BlackBerry and that shift to iPhone and the exponential change in all of our lives.
The shift from a fragmented and expensive I care system to a universal AI-enabled network will happen in half the time the industry expects. I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what day. I don't know what year.
I don't know what decade. But I'm going to guess it's within this one. The promise of no patient left behind is within reach. Not because we have more doctors, but because we've finally scaled the doctor's expertise through the power of a machine.
Something to think about.