Dr. Violin graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1967 and completed his ophthalmic residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He was one of the pioneers in small incision cataract and implant surgery in Massachusetts and has worked in the specialty for nearly 25 years. Dr. Violin was also one of the early investigators of epikeratophakia, a precursor of LASIK technology.
Dr. Violin is affiliated with Caritas Norwood Hospital, Faulkner/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and New England Medical Center. He devotes most of his practice to cataract surgery, Boston LASIK and related surgeries.
In an interview with Becker’s ASC Review, Dr. Violin discussed the importance of standardizing surgical products. “The bulk of ASC ophthalmology services are cataract removal and lens implantation,” he said. “If you can convince every surgeon to use the same knife, the same pre-packs of surgical instruments and cataract kits, then you don’t have to stock 10 different kinds of lid speculums and other tools. You achieve uniformity of disposable items and kits and avoid multiple iterations and variations of the same thing. And you save a lot of money.”
Dr. Violin also advised minimizing inventory of all supplies to reduce overhead costs. One way is to hold an annual “Dutch auction” to select the lens used by that ASC for the year. “The lowest priced lens wins the auction and all surgeons must commit to use a common lens,” he said.
