82 MMP | The Case for Going Straight to Parents

Kerry, what do you, uh, what do you think?

Yeah.

Well, I think this really highlights many different things and working, you know, so many different places to start here.

But I think centrally, I, I think mentorship, uh, uh, it's a huge thing in every professional's life is to find a mentor.

I've seen this mentioned, too, in other venues and other s- talks.

I think that's fundamental rule number one is that young doctors that really wanna, you know, go forward with this need to find someone.

You know, and I think the academy is a great place to start with that, you know, the American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control.

But there are places to find mentors, and I think because that's what really shaped my life was Newton Wesley was my mentor.

He invented the modern contact lenses I, if I mention the name a lot of times, people don't even recognize it.

That's how time flies, you know? And, but he's one of the most famous eye doctors that ever lived, actually.

And, and so this allowed then me to study under a, a, a gentleman that was, uh, you know, he was historic.

He owned a, he owned an optometry school all by himself, Pacific, at one point.

He was interned, uh, during the, the Second World War, uh, his Japanese ancestry and, and on the west, on the, on the, uh, in Cal- in, in, uh, the Portland area.

And then he had to move out to Chicago because they wouldn't let him practice out there.

You know, they had this, this concentration camp type treatment of the, of Japanese Americans.

So he had the-- and yet he was a, he, he was a great humanitarian.

You know, he didn't let this cloud his view of humanity and what it was all about.

And so this is a guy that I, uh, you know, I-- shaped me quite a bit.

Um, I took a lot from him, and eventually it became many, m-many, m-much more than that.

But he was someone who was, you know, was a unique individual, a leader, and he, he didn't kowtow to the conventional wisdom at the time, which was he, he actually invented the modern contact lens, and so at that time, no one was wearing con-- I mean, they had glass scleral lenses.

That's it.

So no one was doing anything with this.

And, um, you know, there were great questions about whether it was safe and, and efficacious and such.

And, and so he, instead of spending t-the time that he could have with his colleagues, he decided that it's best just to go straight to the public.