“I get pleasure out of helping people communicate better and get their ideas across.” – Dr. Andrew Schachat
Some people worry about what they’re going to specialize in during medical school, and I think that’s inappropriate. The eye’s only an inch across, but there’s a lot of different specialties and a lot of different aspects of eye care, and I think it’s nice to get an exposure to at least a few of them before you pick a specialty. So although there’s some pressure to decide at some point in the second year as far as planning fellowship applications, I think the longer you can delay, the more chance you have to try different things and see what you like. I liked almost all aspects of ophthalmology.
I find editing fun. I get to deal with lots of different people. I get to learn things again and again. I get to help people communicate and teach. A lot of people write a lot of great scientific content, but sometimes it’s too complicated, or the sequence is presented in a funny way, so by tweaking other people’s knowledge I can help them bring it across better. I also enjoy helping people explore some of their unintentional biases.
Retina specialists know that there’s been a tremendous amount of new material in the last five or six years. We’ve looked back through ophthalmology journal citations and the articles that get the most hits on web sites, and more than half of the new material has been focused on anti-VEGF therapy and new treatments in medical retina. There’s a tremendous amount of new information there, and the electronic versions of Retina will stay up to date. There’s a lot more international emphasis too, and we have gone out of our way to make it a more international book, by adding more international authors.
There are lots of versions of books one can have. You can have a single volume version, which can give you the top line information and some highlights and maybe is appropriate for a medical student trying to get a quick overview of the topic. There are 10- and 20-volume encyclopedic works, which have almost everything there is historically to know about something. For me, the three volume textbook format hits the sweet spot: it’s encyclopedic, it’s usable, it’s current. I really appreciate the simplicity and convenience of eBooks, too. If you’re sitting in your academic office, you can pull the book off the shelf, but if you’re with a patient, you can use the electronic version. Different people look at things different ways, and it’s incumbent on us now to supply material in ways that allow people to use it the way they like.
Andrew P. Schachat, MD, is Vice Chairman for Clinical Affairs at the Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic, and Director of Clinical Research. He is the former Karl Hagen Professor of Ophthalmology, Vice Chairman for Safety and Quality of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Ocular Oncology Service at Johns Hopkins University. He was also Professor of Oncology. He is the editor of the Retina and Oncology volumes of the bestselling Retina, 5th Edition.
A New York City native, Dr. Schachat received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, followed by residency training at the Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins. He performed a retina and oncology fellowship at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia.
Dr. Schachat has served as secretary of Quality of Care for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and president of the Maryland Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. He is a former associate editor of the Archives of Ophthalmology. Dr. Schachat has been editor-in-chief of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s journal, Ophthalmology (2003 – 2012).
Dr. Schachat’s clinical interests include age-related macular degeneration, clinical trials, and diabetic retinopathy. He has been a principal investigator in many studies that have led to new FDA-approved therapies for age-related macular degeneration.
Related Authors: Stephen J. Ryan, MD; David R. Hinton, MD
W. Barry Lee, MD, FACS, specializes in cornea, external diseases, and refractive surgery at Eye Consultants of Atlanta, The Piedmont Eye Group. He is also a Clinical Instructor at Emory School of Medicine in the Department of Surgical Anatomy. He is a co-author of Ocular Surface Disease: Cornea, Conjunctiva and Tear Film.
A native of Kentucky, Dr. Lee graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky, where he also earned his medical degree with highest distinction. He completed an internship in Spartanburg, South Carolina, followed by a surgical ophthalmology residency (chief resident) at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Lee performed a fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at the University of California, Davis.
In addition to an active clinical ophthalmology practice, Dr. Lee continues to participate in ophthalmic research with over 50 published works in peer-reviewed scientific journals along with scientific meeting presentations and teaching courses in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, he has authored 13 book chapters on cornea and refractive surgery while maintaining a research focus on new techniques in corneal surgery and refractive surgery.
Dr. Lee volunteers as one of the medical directors of the Georgia Eye Bank and has been selected by the American Board of Ophthalmology to serve as an annual board examiner. He is a member of numerous professional societies and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He also serves as a mentor in the teaching of cornea specialists in Georgia through the cornea fellowship program at Eye Consultants of Atlanta and Piedmont Hospital.
Dr. Lee has gained extensive experience in cornea and refractive surgery through his training and a large consultative cornea/refractive practice. He received an Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2010, and has been listed in Best Doctors in America and Castle Connolly’s America’s Top Ophthalmologists for multiple consecutive years.
Related Author: Edward J. Holland, MD; Mark J. Mannis, MD
Edward J. Holland, MD is the Director of Cornea Services at Cincinnati Eye Institute and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati. He is a co-author of Ocular Surface Disease: Cornea, Conjunctiva and Tear Film and Cornea, 3rd Edition, the most highly read textbook on corneal disease and surgery.
Dr. Holland attended the Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and trained in ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota. He completed a fellowship in cornea and external disease at the University of Iowa, and then completed a second fellowship in ocular immunology at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Holland formerly served as the President for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery from 2011-2012. He was a former member of the Board of Trustees for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has also been the Secretariat of the Annual Meeting for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Holland was awarded the Life Achievement Honor Award at the 2012 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting. Dr. Holland has served as the Chair of the Eye Bank Association and was the former Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for the Eye Bank Association of America as well as past President of the Cornea Society and has previously served on its Board of Directors.
Dr. Holland has received both the Senior Achievement Award and the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He was awarded the Binkhorst medal by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the Estelle Doheny Living Tribute Award-USC, The Vision Award, and the Paton Society Award given by the Eye Bank Association of America. He has been listed in Best Doctors in America and is a U.S. News Top Doctor in the top 1% of his specialty. He has a national and international reputation for his knowledge and expertise in the field of cornea and external disease, and is frequently invited to lecture both nationally and internationally. Dr. Holland is the author of over 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
As the Director of Cornea Services at the Cincinnati Eye Institute, Dr. Holland has attracted worldwide referrals for medical and surgical corneal problems and for stem cell transplantation. His clinical interests include corneal transplantation, cataract surgery, ocular surface transplantation, and refractive surgery.
Related Author: Jay H. Krachmer, MD; Mark J. Mannis, MD; W. Barry Lee, MD FACS
David R. Hinton, MD is the Gavin S. Herbert Professor of Retinal Research and Professor of Pathology, Neurological Surgery, and Ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Vice Chair of Academic and Research Affairs in the Department of Pathology at the Keck Hospital of USC. He is a co-author of the highly regarded Retina, 5th Edition.
Dr. Hinton earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He served an internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and a combined residency/fellowship program in neuropathology at the University of Toronto. He completed a research fellowship at California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Hinton’s research focuses on the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the role of the retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cell in this disorder. He is particularly interested in the role that growth factors and cytokines play in mediating the two late forms of AMD; late dry AMD (geographic atrophy), and late wet AMD (choroidal neovascularization). Most recently, Dr. Hinton has focused his efforts on the development of a cellular therapy for geographic atrophy using embryonic stem cell-derived RPE.
Along with his deep commitment towards the research and practice of medicine, Dr. Hinton remains a devoted educator. He has won multiple “Outstanding Teacher” awards, has taught and mentored students at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels and has been either chairman or member of dozens of PhD thesis committees. Dr. Hinton also remains a prolific author, having co-written well over 400 peer reviewed articles, abstracts and book chapters. He is a sought-after lecturer and has shared his knowledge of ophthalmology with audiences all across the globe, including several trips to China.
Related Author: Stephen J. Ryan, MD
Melvin I. Freeman, MD, FACS, is Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, Emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He is a co-author of The Ophthalmic Assistant, 9th Edition.
Dr. Freeman received his medical degree from the University of Washington, and completed his post-graduate training at Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary/Harvard University and Boston Biomedical Research Institute. He is board certified in ophthalmology.
Dr. Freeman’s previous positions include Affiliate Clinical Investigator, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason; Past Head of Ophthalmology at Virginia Mason Clinic and Medical Center; Past President of Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology, St. Paul, Minnesota; and Past President of Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, Birmingham, Alabama.
Honoring his long-term commitment to continuing education, the Accreditation Council for CME recently announced Dr. Freeman as the recipient of the 2012 Rutledge W. Howard, MD, Award. The award recognizes Dr. Freeman for his contributions and commitment to advancing community-based continuing medical education (CME) programs and the intrastate accreditation system. Dr. Freeman was nominated for the award by the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) where he has been a member of the WSMA CME Committee since 1985, serving as vice-chair since 1993. He volunteers as a WSMA surveyor and as a reviewer of accredited providers’ annual reports. Among many other achievements, Dr. Freeman was the physician leader in the development of the CME Networking in the Northwest Conferences and in the development of the Washington State Networking Group.
Related Author: Harold A. Stein, MD
Nathan Efron, BScOptom, PhD, DSc, FAAO, FIACLE, FCCLSA, FBCLA, FACO is a research professor at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. An award-winning lecturer and author in optometry and ophthalmology, he is the author of Contact Lens Complications, 3rd Edition.
Before joining the staff at the Queensland University of Technology, Dr. Efron was the Head of Department at the University of Manchester, where he was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Science. He served as Dean of Research from 2001-2004. Dr. Efron completed his Bachelor of Science (Optometry) and PhD at the University of Melbourne in 1981, and performed post-doctoral studies in at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Among the honors Dr. Efron has received for his work are the Gold Medal of the British Contact Lens Association, the Optician journal’s ‘Contribution to Optics’ award (UK), and the Max Schapero Memorial Lecture Award, given for a significant contribution to the cornea and contact lens field. He is a past president of the British Contact Lens Association and the Contact Lens Society of Australia.
Dr. Efron’s current research involves an investigation of novel non-invasive ophthalmic markers of diabetic neuropathy. He lectures extensively worldwide, particularly on the subject of ocular response to contact lens wear. He has authored over 650 scientific papers, abstracts and textbook chapters, and has written or served as editor for nine books.
William Trattler, MD specializes in refractive, corneal, and cataract eye surgery, and is a specialist at the Center for Excellence in Eye Care. He is a volunteer assistant professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and has served as an invited guest lecturer across the US. He is an author many articles and abstracts and co-author of Review of Ophthalmology, 2nd Edition.
Dr. Trattler received his doctorate of medicine from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He then completed a residency in ophthalmology at University of Pennsylvania, Scheie Eye Institute, followed by subspecialty training in cornea in refractive surgery at the University of Texas. He is board certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology.
Related Author: Neil J. Friedman, MD
Neil J. Friedman, MD is an ophthalmologist and surgeon who serves as Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a leading investigator in the field of laser research, and has authored many scientific papers, book chapters, articles, and textbooks, including Case Reviews in Ophthalmology, The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Illustrated Manual of Ophthalmology, and Essentials of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Friedman is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a member of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. He has served on subcommittees of the AAO for cataract and refractive surgery. He is a devoted educator, and travels nationally to lecture at conferences and workshops. He has been honored for his commitment to the field with the AAO’s Achievement Award and the AMA’s Physician Recognition Award. Dr. Friedman has also been named as one of America’s Top Ophthalmologists and has received the Patients’ Choice Award.
“Retina continues to be a specialty that’s exciting both medically and surgically. It’s really a great time to be a retina specialist.” – Anita Agarwal, MD
I had my early medical education in India with my residency and a fellowship there. Then I moved to the states and did my residency and one of my fellowships with Don Gass, my mentor, whose book I continued on after his passing. I became a faculty member alongside Don, and that really gave me a lot of insight into how his mind worked and how he managed to describe so many new conditions, and understood the pathogenesis of other conditions. Somehow it transplanted to me as I spent more time with him — the more I got comfortable, the more I understood the way he thought.
As a medical student, I usually directed the ophthalmoscope, looking at retinal exams in a lot of patients. I realized that the retina is a window to the rest of the body. I like solving mysteries, and it looked like the retina was one place where I could see things and figure out what was going on elsewhere in the body, and that’s what really attracted me to retina initially. As I got into it, I realized that there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s a very delicate structure: it gives you just that little window to treat it, and if you don’t catch it and treat it right then, you might lose. So the fact that you have to be alert and on your toes all the time, is the challenge that stimulates me.
Don Gass published the Atlas of Macular Disease as his own personal experience, and everything that’s written in this book is from Don’s own experience and what he learned, diagnosed, and evaluated over 40 years in his medical career. This is a unique book in that it was written by a single author in our field, and he’s an author who described at least 25 to 30 new diseases. The plan is to continue what he did. He tried to make this book pretty unique and different from other books. The entire book is like a story — the story of each patient unfolds to several photographs and descriptions. With this he tries to convey not only the common features of retinal diseases, but all the unusual and rare manifestations of diseases too.
Gass’ Atlas of Macular Disease, 5th Edition has about 5,500 color pictures. We tried hard to make the pictures as large as possible, and have the newer modalities such as optical coherence tomography (OCT). The book is a comprehensive and an exhaustive textbook of information that any good clinician needs to make a good diagnosis and manage a patient. The idea of the book is for a clinician to make a good diagnosis, and to understand why a certain disease looks a certain way and how it’s different from something else that it closely resembles.
Anita Agarwal, MD is a Professor of Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She is considered one of the leading US researchers in macular disease. She is an author of Gass’ Atlas of Macular Diseases.
Dr. Agarwal holds her MD from Mangalore University and completed an internship in transitional medicine at the university, as well as an internship in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. She was a resident in ophthalmology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India and University of Florida, and held fellowships in retina research at the University of Minnesota, medical retina at Vanderbilt University, and surgical retina and vitreous at West Virginia University. Dr. Agarwal is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, and a member of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Tennessee Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Society of Retina Surgeons.
Harold A. Stein, MD, MSC(Ophth), FRCS(C), DOMS(London) is Medical Director of the Maxwell K. Bochner Eye Institute in Toronto, Canada. He is Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto; Senior Attending Ophthalmologist at Scarborough General Hospital in Scarborough, Ontario; Attending Ophthalmologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Stein is the lead author of The Ophthalmic Assistant: A Text for Allied and Associated Ophthalmic Personnel, 9th Edition.
Dr. Stein is a graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School. After completing an internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, he received a fellowship to study ophthalmology and ophthalmic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Stein also received a Master of Science degree from the University of Minnesota, and a fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons. Later, Dr. Stein became qualified as a plastic surgeon after studying with world-renowned plastic surgeon Professor Pomfret Kilner in Oxford, England.
In Toronto, Dr. Stein practiced with Dr. Maxwell K. Bochner, working side by side with the Bochner Eye Institute’s founder for over ten years. He was soon recognized by the medical community for his expertise in cataract surgery, corneal transplants, contact lenses and later, refractive surgery. He was a pioneer in the development of the intraocular lens for cataract surgery and among the first in Canada to use it.
Dr. Stein was among the first ophthalmologists in North America to practice laser vision correction. Over the years, he has been invited to speak at medical meetings and conferences throughout the world on laser eye surgery. Dr. Stein’s commitment to his community extends to third world countries where he has volunteered to perform delicate eye surgery in areas where blindness is rampant. In addition, he has donated his time to teach doctors and other medical professionals in several countries about improved treatments, techniques, and technology.
