Dr. Joseph J. K. Ma

Intelligent Systems Approach® (ISA®)

Medical Director 

Dr. Joseph J.K. Ma

Research/News

Bionic-i™ Intelligent

Systems Approach®: ISA®

Intelligent Systems Approach®


Our Intelligent Systems Approach® (ISA®) drives our philosophy for operating as a first class Medical and Surgical Eye Institute. ISA® is based on systematically refining treatment practices and surgical techniques, creating and gathering high quality research and data, deriving, analyzing and integrating scientific insights, and then continuously applying these concepts to create a constantly advancing foundation for innovations in clinical care.

How does ISA® benefit me as a patient?

Our Intelligent Systems Approach® ensures that you are receiving the most advanced, safest, and customized vision correction treatment based on objective research, proprietary scientific findings, and the insights gained from over tens of thousands of ocular procedures. The result for you is superior post-operative results.

Clinical and Surgical Experience

Clinical and Surgical Experience is a crucial input to the ISA® model because nothing can substitute for the type of dynamic and nuanced insights gathered through hands-on patient care and rigorous, systematic self-evaluation. With over 38,000 ocular procedures performed and more than 15 years of experience, our Surgeon has developed finely honed surgical skills and techniques and a deep understanding of how to optimize vision correction treatment for each unique patient. Our team of experienced Vision Care Associates performs tens of thousands of diagnostic examinations each year and is also committed to continuously improving processes and care through implementing and monitoring system checks.

Proprietary Research

Proprietary Research is fundamental to the ISA® model because scientific research drives the advancement of vision science. At our Innovation Centre, we have developed and conducted award winning research studies that produce findings that have led to safer and more effective surgical techniques, unparalleled diagnostic objectivity and accuracy, and advancements in vision science. Proprietary Research also allows us to put resources into developing advancements that will uniquely benefit the specific patient populations we serve. Essentially, the proprietary research conducted in our Innovation Centre enables us to create best practices and techniques that we apply everyday in our Clinic to result in superior post-operative vision for our patients. As members of the community for more than a decade, we have been committed to understanding and serving its needs through translating research insights and results into patient-care advancements. As the community has grown, we have and will continue to reinvest resources into further meeting its evolving needs. To ensure this continuous advancement, we inject the cumulative scientific benefits of the ISA® model back into the process to generate the next cycle in vision science evolution.

External Affiliates

External Affiliates are necessary to ensure the constant evaluation and adoption of the most progressive technology and techniques. On an ongoing basis, our Surgeon-led team of Vision Care Associates assimilates research and best practices from esteemed and reliable external sources, including medical journals and scientific research publications. Maximizing the benefit of External Affiliations and Collaborations requires an active exchange of information. To contribute to the wider repository of scientific information, our Surgeon lectures and speaks at prominent educational and medical institutes and international conferences. Through this we are able to engage the scientific community in an exchange of ideas that leads to the synergistic development of new concepts. This process allows us to incorporate new insights and more effective approaches to clinical care.

ISA® Customized Services


Our ISA® Customized vision correction procedures incorporate our ISA® Customized Services to ensure the best possible visual results.


ISA® Customized Vision Correction Procedures Include:


• ISA® Customized Refractive Cataract Surgery

• ISA® Customized Laser Vision Correction

• ISA® Customized Bespoke Blended Vision


We apply the ISA® model to how we perform each and every component of the vision care process. We also incorporate the vision care advancements that the ISA® model produces into the development of each vision care component. This integration has led to the creation of ISA® Customized Services that are completely unique to our clinic. Our ISA® Customized Services leverage the best of our Innovation Centre, years of experience, clinical and surgical expertise and passion for providing the customized treatments that allow us to deliver superior post-operative results.


Our ISA® Customized Services include:

ISA® Customized Surgical Consultation

3 important features set ISA® Customized Surgical Consultations apart.


First, our Surgeon personally conducts each ISA® Customized Surgical Consultation. While the broader Vision Care Team is important to your care, the surgeon possesses the most expertise. This expertise is crucial at every step of your treatment process therefore having the surgeon involved in the continuity of your care is important to achieving superior post-operative results. By managing the acquisition and analysis of your diagnostic measurements, our Surgeon becomes completely familiar with your distinct corneal and visual system architecture. This in-depth, first-hand understanding of your specific needs is an asset to producing the best post-operative results because it allows our surgeon to dynamically refine your treatment and intra-operative care real-time, based on the nuances of your diagnostic assessment.


Second, our Surgeon-led team of Vision Care Associates meticulously measures your corneal and visual system architecture using more than 13 diagnostic tools in addition to administering a qualitative assessment of your lifestyle and overall health. We call this our 13-D or 13 Dimension assessment. Each individual’s eyes have distinct characteristics and capturing the best possible representation is crucial to delivering optimal post-operative vision. Each piece of diagnostic equipment can best capture different characteristics of a patient’s corneal and visual system, therefore using a combination of the most advanced and proven technology yields the most accurate results.


Finally, our ISA® approach to research has produced objective evidence that identifies which unique diagnostic technology types are best suited to capturing specific corneal and visual system characteristics as well as techniques that deliver superior results. These proprietary findings have been incorporated into choosing which diagnostic tools, surgical techniques, and technology we use and how we use them.

ISA® Customized 13-D Diagnostic Set

Our ISA® Customized 13-D Diagnostic Set delivers unparalleled diagnostic accuracy and objectivity. It starts with preliminary diagnostics using the full array of diagnostic tools that our ISA model has indicated as being the most accurate along broad functional dimensions. Our Surgeon then assesses the measurements to identify the best subset of diagnostic technology for capturing your unique corneal and visual system architecture. Our Surgeon-led team of Vision Care Associates then performs multiple subsequent measurements as necessary in order to build the most accurate and detailed representation of your unique eyes. Our Surgeon assimilates, analyzes, integrates and validates the multiple measurements to ensure the highest level of diagnostic precision. This overall process allows us to deliver unparalleled post-operative results because the more accurate the diagnostic measurements, the more customized your vision correction.

ISA® Customized Surgical Technique

Surgical technique is a vital component to the vision correction process. Our ISA® Customized Surgical Technique encompasses tactile surgical technique, optimized surgical technology selection, and customized intra-operative application of surgical technology.


Through over a decade of experience and sub-specialized training in the most intricate of cataract, refractive and corneal surgeries, our Surgeon has developed an understanding of the subtle nuances necessary to achieve unparalleled dexterous skill. In addition, applying the ISA® model to researching surgical techniques has enabled our Surgeon to develop a superior surgical approach to specific procedures (ie. cataract surgery). These approaches have proven to yield superior post-operative results and our Surgeon has subsequently instructed many experienced colleagues in some of these techniques.


Using the ISA® model, our Surgeon has an in-depth understanding of which surgical technologies are best suited to each patient subgroup. The level of customization is further advanced by applying the findings from your ISA® Customized 13-D Diagnostic Set to the selection process. This dual integration allows our Surgeon to identify the surgical technology that is best able to correct for your unique refractive error while accommodating your distinct corneal and visual system architecture and optical characteristics, including any slight imperfections or aberrations.


Lastly, how this technology is applied to your intra-operative care is uniquely guided not only by the results of your ISA® Customized 13-D Diagnostic Set, but also the scientific advancements generated by the ISA® model and proprietary research.

ISA® Customized Algorithm

Our ISA® Customized Algorithm is the result of leveraging the best subspecialty expertise and training, extensive clinical and surgical experience, rigorous evaluation of technology, and scientific research. It is a proprietary method for assimilating, integrating, and validating information for the purposes of selecting a customized set of diagnostic technology for each patient, and for selecting the best lens technology based on a patient’s unique corneal and visual system architecture.