Kendall E. Donaldson

Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Medical Director, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at Plantation, Florida, USA

What industry trends are catching your attention right now?

I’m very interested in the development of IOL technology – particularly in the field of post-operative adjustment of IOLs and in future accommodative technologies. I’ve personally enjoyed providing the light adjustable lens to our cataract surgery patients and, over the next decade, I look forward to progressively increasing the range of vision with cataract surgery while maintaining high quality vision to parallel monofocal standards. 

If you weren’t an ophthalmologist, what would you be doing instead?

Though it was a childhood dream of mine to become an ophthalmologist, I certainly encountered a few bumps along the road. At one stage, my career path seemed destined for dentistry after I enrolled into dental school with a full scholarship at the University of Maryland. At another, I transferred into a masters of anatomy and physiology program that would eventually lead to me teaching anatomy and physiology. 

Fortunately, at dental school I met a mentor – Dr. Leslie Gartner (my histology professor) – who supported my plan to transfer and has since stood by my side throughout my professional career. No one in my family had ever attended college, so he “adopted me” professionally and has become a part of our family. So, if I had not had the confidence and support from Dr. Gartner to leave dental school at that time, the entire course of my life would be different. 

What global trends in eye health should ophthalmologists be aware of?

As ophthalmologists, we are faced with caring for the rapidly increasing population of age 65 and over; finding ways to serve our patients efficiently along with maintaining the same high standard of care is a challenge that we need to address in the upcoming years. This means coming together as an industry to engage in debates over bilateral same day surgery, office-based surgery, decreased use of opioids/IV sedation, and alternatives to drops to find the best, most effective and safest way to secure the future of cataract surgery.