Who inspired me to pursue a career in ophthalmology?

Actually, in medical school, I had a friend who was an ophthalmologist. He suggested that I learn more about ocular disease since it was to him a fascinating career. He considered himself unusual because he was African-American and there were not very many African-American ophthalmologists 50 years ago. He convinced me that there was available research support and many unusual, unanswered questions related to vision, suitable for a variety of academic assets and a great opportunity to provide a good family life during career development. He and I also had an interest in modern jazz; so, we would try to keep up with the academic demands for training and relax on evenings before a major medical school test by listening to jazz in a club in South Boston. He also recommended that I spend some time with Dr. David Cogan at the Howe Lab….a very stimulating experience involving complicated neuro-ophthalmological cases. At the end of my experience with Dr. Cogan, a presentation was required and I selected an unusual treatment for “Pituitary Ablation for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy,” an approach now completely abandoned. Professor Cogan complimented me on my presentation, in which I used lots of slides to support, but he said that I was off-based completely with the use of that particular application. He suggested that I meet his neighbor, Professor Charles Schepens, who could introduce me to further complex retinal problems. It was early in my career; so, there was no time to spend at the Schepens Institute. Dr. Schepens advised me to “get lost,” do a residency in ophthalmology, and eventually learn more through a fellowship period. Later, he thought that I could join the Retina Research Group and work with fluorescein angiography. I declined.

Who was my principal mentor or role model in ophthalmology?

My role model will be no surprise because he was just about every retinal specialist’s role model in my generation…..J. Donald Gass. He was just getting involved with a new diagnostic adjunct for retinal disease….fluorescein angiography. I became interested and adapted everything I could learn about fluorescein and introduced it to the Greater New York area with the aid of Don’s assistant, Johnny Justice, Jr., Don’s head of photography. Johnny, a friend, also helped me to adapt an old black-body Zeiss fundus camera (Nikon camera back and adaptor) to advance the film plane and a super juiced up charger to recycle the flash to study perfusion. I was able to do this with a $200 award from the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration by one of the anterior segment surgeons at Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, Dr. Herb Katzin.

How do I support or mentor younger members in training in our field?

Well that was an easy question for me. I first learned at an early stage in my career that patients who are philanthropic were anxious to support people and projects in vision research. I was able to raise enough funding to purchase the first commercially available laser instrument in the Greater New York Area, from Coherent Laser. I was also fortunate to be around Dr. Fran L’Esperance who knew a heck of lot more about lasers and methods for delivering them than I did. He advised me on lasers, and I introduced him to fluorescein angiography….a very good trade-off and basis for a long-term friendship.

What is one change or improvement you’d like to see in the field of ophthalmology?

I am strongly against advertisement of drugs and devices on television. Such solicited commercial information available seems to me to be designed to do more harm than good. Something ought to be done about that.

What advice would you give members joining the IntRIS membership?

I would advise everyone to pay attention to ideas of others, appreciate that new information since it may somehow be of value to you. You never know. A nephrologist who eventually became the editor-in-chief of The New England Journal, Professor Arnold Relman, once tried to convince me to look more closely at renal physiology. When he learned that I was set on going into ophthalmology, we had periodic updates on some of my decisions. He also told me to pay attention to what is going on in the rest of the body, its physiology and metabolism and its response to ocular therapies. I took his advice when I became interested in non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and convinced Merck to adapt one of its non-steroid drugs, Indomethacin, so it could be administered topically. The purpose was to treat post-cataract macular edema, and I wrote a couple of papers on its use for post-cataract CME. (Klein R, Katzin H, Yannuzzi LA. The effect of indomethacin pre-treatment of aphakic cystoid macular edema. Am J Ophthalmol 87 (4):487-89, 1979.) Eventually, I combined it with steroids and had limited benefit. It is still used by some today. He also told me that I should basically remember in the course of training, and in practice, and in research that “Family first” should be my motto. That is to say, you must find time to nurture your family, as a parent and a spouse, and then find time for your research, teaching and clinical experience. He also said to not hesitate on a first draft. You can put it down until you have something more solid to report, but get something down on paper to initiate further progress.

What people might be surprised to learn about me?

The one thing about me is that I am a New York Yankee fan, and I suffer any time my Yankee team records a loss. I can’t help it. My dad used to take me to Bear’s Stadium in Newark, New Jersey. That was a divisional team for the Yankees, so I learned about some players whom I was able to follow at Yankee Stadium. A couple of them eventually became my patients. It was a win-win-win situation.

If I could give your young readers any advice about a career for the future, what else would I say?

Pay attention to their thoughts. Try to do as much as you can to inspire them on making their own decisions. I have three children. One is a psychiatrist and one is a retinal specialist who works down at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and loves it. Both are extremely happy in their chosen careers. However, I have a third child, and I thought he might be the best suited for medicine. He has so many friends and does so many good deeds, and he loves counseling them all. He has been very successful, too, in his own field. Interestingly, he is already retired, and that was my decision a couple of weeks ago, but I still intend to do as much research as possible and be involved in teaching programs.