Eye care innovators should not allow patients to feel abandoned
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Key takeaways:
- Innovators in ophthalmology should not let their patients feel abandoned.
- Innovation requires reliance on others and never being satisfied with one’s accomplishments.
SAN DIEGO — A key to becoming an innovator in ophthalmology is to never let your patients feel abandoned, a speaker said here.
“Innovation is powerful. With great power comes great responsibility,” Eric D. Donnenfeld, MD, said during the Cornelius Binkhorst, MD, Lecture and Medal at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.
Donnenfeld shared an anecdote about a time in his career when he was faced with unhappy patients. Listening to their complaints and concerns “made me a better doctor.”
“I left that day with a firm commitment in my head that myself, and all of us, we must acknowledge our complications, embrace the complications of others and never allow a patient to feel abandoned,” he said.
While sharing pearls on what makes someone an innovator in eye care, Donnenfeld said it is important to be proud of but never become satisfied with one’s own accomplishments.
“Every time I do anything, I always say to myself, ‘How could I do this better? How can I save more patients? How can I do this study better? What can I do to make things better?’” he said. “I am the wall that moderation breaks against. I’ve always felt that anything worth doing should be done to excess.”
Donnenfeld also said that innovation is often created through trial and error, is rarely disruptive but is mostly incremental, and is fostered through support from colleagues, peers, industry specialists, friends and family.
“I say very firmly that my greatest innovation will be made by the accomplishments of the young ophthalmologists I have in some way mentored and perhaps inspired,” Donnenfeld said.
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Donnenfeld E. The road to innovation: What a long, strange trip it’s been. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting; May 5-8, 2023; San Diego.
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