For much of the past decade, Macey E. McAleer, OD, had been running a corporate lease while raising her children. As they settled into school, she found the time and confidence to build a private practice that matched her strengths: heavy medical optometry paired with a boutique optical experience.
With nearly two decades of experience, Dr. McAleer opened Moderneyes Advanced Eyecare in Tampa, Florida in April 2025. From the outset, Dr. McAleer resolved not to compromise on the instrumentation she would use to care for her patients. Technology had been central to her work for a long time: she first encountered Marco TRS automated refraction systems in 2009 and, aside from occasional manual techniques when clinically required, had relied on them ever since.
That history made the decision to outfit Moderneyes with a familiar and trusted suite of technology. The Marco TRS system has long supported her ability to deliver efficient exams and integrate easily into her digital workflows that integrate with the practice’s electronic health records.
ALL IN FROM THE START
Her commitment went beyond a single lane or a single device. Moderneyes opened in April 2025, fully equipped: two identical exam lanes, both fitted with Marco TRS systems and a Marco slit lamp. A pretesting area houses an LM-7 lensometer and an OPD-Scan III-3 autorefractor, keratometer, pupillometer corneal topographer and integrated wavefront aberrometer, along with ancillary testing equipment.
The OPD-Scan III mattered to Dr. McAleer not only for future scleral lens fittings but because many of her patients present with subtle corneal irregularities or astigmatic questions that she could not reliably answer without topography. With that data available at pretest, she can choose her direction efficiently, reduce patient wait times, and tailor the exam before the patient ever sits in the lane.
For Dr. McAleer the technology was never purely about speed. It was about clinical confidence and patient trust. Automated refractions allow her to demonstrate results in real time—flip between a patient’s old prescription data and the new measurements. She can isolate an eye and show step-by-step improvements— an approach she finds helps reassure patients who arrive with a lot of information and questions. “That’s the bread and butter right there,” she says of the instant comparison that results in more optical sales.
The integrated Marco ecosystem—devices that communicate with each other and with electronic health records —means that diagnoses and prescriptions are accurate and documented immediately, enabling faster decision-making and a smoother patient experience.
POISED FOR GROWTH
Financially and operationally, investing upfront made sense. Dr. McAleer did not want to find herself retrofitting lanes later; she wanted a practice built to scale. “I never questioned myself on what I wanted in that category. I thought, ‘Let’s do this now because I have confidence in myself and that I can grow.” The buildout from the start made sense. “I’m constantly using both lanes now,” she says.
Plus, equipping both lanes identically reduces patient shuttling, preserves a calm, personalized experience, and allows her to maximize efficiency without sacrificing the high-touch care she prized. “I didn’t want to have to keep moving people. Now it’s the one room until we’re done.”
For now, Dr. McAleer performs her own pretesting. That decision originated in an effort to save on staffing costs while the patient base was building, but she’s found that it suits her. The hands-on approach lets her catch subtle findings that might elude a technician. Plus, it gives her more time to spend with the patient as she brings them from pretest to exam lane.
With her ability to ask questions and the technology that amplifies her clinical judgment, she has more time to spend on patient education, prevention and treatment planning — the hallmarks of her practice philosophy. Dr. McAleer developed Moderneyes as a union of high-quality medical care and boutique optical service. The investment in Marco and complementary devices was less a purchase than a pledge to clinical excellence, to patient-centered care and to building a practice she could grow without regret.
Photos provided by Dr. McAleer or Marco.
Read more about advanced technology from Marco Lombart and WO here.
