Catania: Pioneer of full-scope primary care optometry

Louis J. Catania, OD, FAAO, is credited as being responsible for many of the legislative gains in optometry over the past 30 years.

Issue: January 2015

As part of Primary Care Optometry News’ 20th anniversary celebration, in each issue throughout 2015 we will profile a “Pioneer in Optometry” as chosen by the PCON Editorial Board.

In this issue we feature PCON Editorial Board member Louis J. Catania, OD, FAAO.

“Lou Catania had a vision of what optometry could be by embracing a broader scope of patient care responsibilities,” PCON Editorial Board member Randall Thomas, OD, MPH, FAAO, told PCON. “He seemed to understand the true potential for optometry in a manner that preserved our refractive expertise while expanding the medical services we could provide. He stretched his own training and competence by doing many things he was uncomfortable with and found great success in his clinical bravery.

“He ventured into areas no one had before,” Thomas continued. “It is because of the spirit Dr. Lou Catania expressed over 30 years ago that thousands of us have been able to medically manage our patients. Because of Lou’s leadership, we have all enjoyed a greatly enhanced profession, and the American people have been privileged to receive care from an army of primary care-oriented optometrists.”

PCON Editorial Board member Joseph Shovlin, OD, FAAO, stated: “Lou, perhaps more than any other optometrist, is responsible for our therapeutic gains over the past 30 years. At last count, he was a consultant to 49 states and 37 different countries on legislative, statutory, education and clinical matters. I find it hard to think of anyone in our profession today more qualified for this recognition in terms of professionalism, skill and dedication than this gentleman of high integrity and ability.”

Catania at home.

Images: Catania LJ

“Dr. Louis J. Catania is the pioneer of full-scope primary care optometry as we know and practice it today,” PCON Editorial Board member Linda Casser, OD, FAAO, FNAP, shared. “Throughout his career, Lou has been a dedicated and energetic clinician, lecturer, educator, role model and mentor. He served as the director of one of the earliest residency programs in our profession. Lou’s vision for optometry’s scope of practice – how he lived it, how he shared it, how he inspired others – has had an enduring positive impact on our profession.”

In an interview with PCON, Catania shared his experience with the profession, his accomplishments and his wishes for the future of optometry.

PCON: Why did you choose optometry as a career path?

Catania: In 1965, I was rejected from Marine aviation school due to a condition called myopia. Not having a clue what it was, I investigated and wound up on a telephone conversation with the late Dr. John Crozier, then the dean of admissions for Pennsylvania College of Optometry. John must have had a sudden vacancy in his first year class that was to begin the following week and he astutely said to me: “No more Marines, so you have nothing to do for the next 4 years. Why not come to optometry school?”

Catania on sea turtle patrol.

The residents of the Wilson Health Center Primary Care Optometry Residency Program, from left to right: Katherine Hitchcock White, OD; Col. Randall Beatty, OD, MD; Linda Casser Locke, OD; Murray Fingeret, OD; Louis J. Catania, OD; H. Ted Woodcome, OD; Stuart Samuels, OD; Michael Walvick, OD, DO.

PCON: How has your career unfolded?

Catania: My kids always told me that my schedule and work wasn’t like other doctors. They were right for two reasons. First, having a habit of thinking outside the box, opportunities opened up for me (as a very average optometrist) that others often don’t get to experience. And, second, it wasn’t long into my career that I realized to keep your mind, heart and spirit fresh and excited, you have to re-invent yourself every 10 years or so. So I went from clinical care (which I never gave up); to therapeutic eye care (and writing); then to education (and writing); then to health care administration (and writing); then to optometric politics; then to international education; then to refractive (excimer and femtosecond) laser research, education and writing; then to wavefront technology (research, education and writing).

PCON: What are you doing now?

Catania: Now, I continue some clinical care in a large ophthalmology group in Jacksonville, Fla., and consult for Marco Ophthalmic and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (both excellent companies, longstanding friends of optometry and Jacksonville-based – otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing it). I am also beginning to explore (re-invent myself) in the areas of biophysics and their current and future applications in eye care and health care in general. Genetic engineering, stem cells, nanotechnology and quantum physics should keep me busy for a while.

I announced about 2 years ago that I was going to retire from my continuing education activities, hopefully showing a little class by stepping aside and passing the baton to more capable, bright, young OD educators. I must admit I do really miss (not the travel and hotels) the preparation and sharing of new information with my colleagues. I have tried to fill that void by doing volunteer teaching (eye care, lasers, health care management) at the University of North Florida continuing education department in Jacksonville. I consider myself semi-retired now and, thus, I have begun to fulfill my long-term goal of giving back through volunteer work (and teaching beyond optometry) in the areas of human welfare, the environment and animal protection to name a few. My wife calls me a professional volunteer now.

PCON: What have you learned?

Catania: Aging keeps showing me how little I’ve learned over the years (left and right brain). But it also is teaching me to smell the roses a little more; to listen a lot more; to be kinder and gentler; to recognize, appreciate and respect feelings more (others and my own); and to be patient with the tough stuff and thankful for the good stuff life deals us.

PCON: What is your most significant accomplishment?

Catania: I must mention three to be accurate. First is the Wilson Health Center Primary Care Optometry Residency Program and its very special residents (my second family and the “real pioneers”) who began the changes our profession has enjoyed over the past 40 years. My second significant accomplishment would be my opportunity to have helped introduce the concept of primary care optometry in the U.S. and to 37 countries (who’s counting?) around the globe who understood the concept and embraced it for themselves and their patients. And, finally, I feel my third significant accomplishment and the essence of my professional efforts has been my educational contribution to my U.S. and worldwide colleagues in optometry.

PCON: What have you contributed to optometry?

Catania: I feel my greatest contribution to optometry would have to be my educational efforts in sharing clinical information at an understandable and “comfortable” level during the many years of vibrant professional growth and expansion our profession has enjoyed.

PCON: What do you enjoy most about optometry?

Catania: In addition to the rewards and fulfillment patient care provides all health care practitioners, I would have to say that my greatest joy in optometry has been the wonderful people I have gotten to know at home and around the world in our profession and beyond.

PCON: What do you wish for the future of optometry?

Catania: I wish all good things for my profession’s future – good things that will come from adjusting to a volatile and changing health care environment and making wise decisions, first, in the interest of patients and the public health and, second, for the protection of optometry.

I could never have done any of this without my loving and supportive wife, Stephanie. – by Chelsea Frajerman