How an Oklahoma-based Optometrist Uses Gemini to Strengthen her Communication and Connection with Patients

From a young age, I knew the path I wanted to pursue. After my first eye doctor's appointment when I was 12, I went home and said, “I want to do that when I grow up.” I went to optometry school right after three years of undergraduate studies and moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, which is where I’m located now. I call Family Vision Care a general practice. We're checking the whole eye, checking for general eye health issues, and prescribing glasses.

Our goal is to make sure people see clearly and have healthy eyes for as long as they need them. I see patients from newborn to 100. I get to see them grow up, have kids, go to college, and get married. I do all those things you get to do when you follow a patient throughout life.

I’ve been practicing now for 13 years, and my philosophy has changed and adapted over that time because of all the human interactions. I saw 15 patients today, and each of them brought something different to how I'm going to talk about eyes with the next patient. So much comes down to communication.

For example, consider a concept like astigmatism. Even for seasoned eye care professionals, it can be an abstract idea. Before Gemini, my go-to explanation was often a simplistic analogy like "your eye is shaped like a football," which, while somewhat helpful, didn't always fully convey the nuances of the condition or its impact on vision.

Now, with Gemini, I can input phrases like "explain astigmatism in simple terms" or "explain astigmatism in a way that emphasizes why clear vision is important for reading," and it generates a variety of ways to communicate at the patient's specific understanding level. It might suggest comparing the eye to a camera lens that isn't perfectly round, causing light to focus unevenly and blur vision, or relating it to a fun activity like drawing a perfect circle versus an oval. Gemini also goes beyond a simple analogy; it provides creative phrasing and different approaches I might not have considered on my own.

Beyond patient education, I've discovered other valuable applications for Google AI in my practice. For instance, I’ve been using Gemini to help create eye-catching graphics for our social media, saving me countless hours that I used to spend scouring the internet for relevant and engaging visuals. Recently, when I updated our policy manual, Gemini helped me polish and condense the content so it was less overwhelming for my staff.

Gemini plays a vital role in helping the growth of my business and impact of my care. If I can't effectively communicate to a patient the care their eyes need, they'll undoubtedly seek out someone who can. When tricky topics arise and I need additional data points at the patient level to explain complex issues, I now have a resource that helps provide invaluable alternative ways to communicate. In a business built on relationships, Gemini empowers me to focus on that critical piece—building lasting relationships—by streamlining my communication and ensuring patient’s understanding.