Every manual pretest step adds time and variability across your day. PretestPro automates key parts of the process, giving your staff a simpler workflow and your doctors consistent baseline data from exam to exam.
Pretesting gives doctors baseline information that helps guide the eye exam, but traditional workflows can increase time and inconsistency. Patients may move between multiple devices and manual screening steps, while results can vary based on technique, documentation, and technician experience. Over time, these inefficiencies can compound across exams, negatively impacting the patient’s experience and quality of data delivered to the clinician.
Heru’s newest feature, PretestPro, is designed to solve this challenge by automating key parts of the pre-test process, reducing variation, and creating a more consistent experience for patients, staff, and doctors.
The limits of manual pretesting
Manual pretesting requires several separate tools and hands-on steps, including a pen light, cover paddle, finger-tracking, and, in some workflows, a dedicated visual field screener.
Depending on the practice setup, these manual steps can add up to five minutes per patient. That added time has practical consequences:
- Patients: a longer, more fragmented intake experience
- Staff: more steps to coordinate and more variation between technicians
- Doctors: lower fidelity of data due to manual, variable entry across technicians and locations
- Practice flow: more opportunities for bottlenecks before the exam even begins
How PretestPro is elevating the pretest
PretestPro is built to streamline a meaningful portion of the pre-test process by running four critical tests in just 90 seconds through a headset-based experience. When paired with Heru Prime’s Visual Acuity testing for an additional 30 seconds, technicians can complete 50% of their pretesting just 2 minutes, for faster and more consistent tests.
The experience brings visual field screening, cover/near testing, extraocular motility, and quantitative pupil testing into one connected workflow. Instead of relying only on separate manual tools and subjective steps, PretestPro helps capture consistent baseline inputs at the start of the exam. This gives practices a more standardized way to gather early clinical data while reducing the number of transitions patients experience before seeing the doctor.
That matters because pretesting is not just a workflow step. It is the first clinical touchpoint in the exam experience.
Capturing subtle findings manual testing may miss
One of the most important advantages of automation is consistency.
In a fully manual workflow, certain findings can be difficult to quantify, especially when they fall in a normal-to-borderline range, or it may be documented differently depending on who performs the test. PretestPro helps capture subclinical data, giving clinicians earlier visibility into findings that may otherwise go unnoticed or inconsistently recorded.
“The more we can standardize through the Heru Prime platform, the more repeatable that process, the more high-quality and premium that patient experience can be, no matter what time of day or who’s administering the test.” — Keith Brock, Chief Product Officer, Heru on the Wavelengths Podcast
Raising the standard for baseline data capture
The purpose of pre‑testing is to support diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient education. When baseline data is captured quickly and consistently, doctors can receive clearer inputs earlier in the visit and staff can spend less time managing fragmented steps.
A shorter pre-test process with fewer device transitions can feel more organized, more comfortable, and more high-tech. For patients, that first impression matters. A streamlined intake experience can build confidence before the doctor even enters the room.
Looking ahead
As practices assess automation in eye care, pre-testing is a natural area to evaluate first. It affects patient flow, staff efficiency, data consistency, and the doctor’s ability to start the exam with clear baseline information.
For practices looking to improve both workflow and patient experience, Heru Prime is a scalable diagnostic platform that can evolve with the practice over time. It gives providers a software-driven way to consolidate testing, standardize data capture, and deliver a more efficient exam experience through a single headset-based platform.
———
Heru is a software company that delivers multi-modal diagnostic testing through a virtual or mixed reality headset, using a browser-based, cloud-based platform powered by decision support and AI.
Ready to Prime Your Practice?
Better outcomes start with a Primed Practice.