What does the future of laser eye surgery hold?

I have been doing laser eye surgery for 15 years now and I have seen some amazing advances. And every time I think, well it can’t get any better than this, something comes along that proves me wrong.

I am sometimes asked what does the future hold for laser eye surgery. I would make two predictions. One, is that laser eye surgery will increasingly be a “no touch” procedure meaning that I will need to do less and less as a surgeon and my main job will be to program and supervise the laser machine. This is already happening not just in medicine but many other fields as well. The most obvious example is airplanes and pilots.

My second prediction revolves around AI or artificial intelligence and big data learning. About 1-2% of people will have variable reaction to laser eye surgery and need a second laser eye surgery or enhancement to fully correct their vision. And at the moment it is not possible to predict who those people will be. I think, big data analysis will provide us with that answer especially if there is international collaboration between big laser centres like Vision Eye Institute. I think we will start to find patterns which will allow us to further individualise laser treatments to improve both safety and accuracy