Eyeworld

50 | EYEWORLD | SUMMER 2026 R EFRACTIVE Building your own network Initially when he opened his private practice, Dr. Goel had a non-compete coming out of his other practice, so he didn't have day-to-day patients he could rely on. Most of the patients that he treated were "one-and-done" cases. "I had to recreate patients, and that's where marketing was very important, but because I've been in the Baltimore area for 20 years, I also had tremen- dous word of mouth." Coming out of residency, Dr. Goel said that if you do good work, people will find you. Word-of-mouth referrals, how- ever, may be difficult when you're fresh out of training. Adding new technologies in practice When adding new technologies in a solo prac- tice, Dr. Goel said it can be challenging finan- cially to decide what to invest in, but it's also beneficial to be the decision-maker. "One of my lines that I say to residents is 'Get comfortable being uncomfortable,'" he said. It's too easy to get comfortable in what you're doing and not want to change because you're comfortable doing that. "I've invested in all the best technologies," Dr. Goel said. "We do LASIK, PRK, and ICL." He also has a 3D cataract system for his ASC and an ALLY laser (LENSAR). "I'm constantly changing and adapting to all the new stuff that's coming out," Dr. Goel said, noting that these investments can get expen- sive. "I hear at meetings that everyone is trying to decide what to implement. It can be quite a challenge deciding." Dr. Goel said his approach is to think of vendors and companies as partners. "As such, the product must do one of two things: It needs to give me better patient safety or better patient outcomes. If it doesn't do one of those two things, then I don't need it," he said. Additional advice For a physician coming out of residency, Dr. Goel said it might be beneficial to work for a private equity practice or a private practice, learning how to bill, how to run a team, and how to manage employees. If it's a refractive practice, he suggested learning how to market through social media. These are the things we're not taught in medical school or in residency, he said. After you learn those things, then you can go out and do your own thing or join forces with another physician. But he recommended doing things where you "have some skin in the game." Some physicians want to have a job with set hours, and that's fine, too, he said, adding that it's important for each individual to find what's going to make him or her happy. Ophthalmologists are generally very entre- preneurial, he added. "I think they're trying to cram so much into the training programs these days that it's obviously focused on the surgery, but there are many other factors at play, espe- cially with these extra procedures that you can charge for and figuring out how to let patients know that those are available," he said. J. Morgan Micheletti, MD When thinking about what type of practice he wanted to go into, Dr. Micheletti said he focused on the long-term career he was seeking. "For me, the biggest factors were mentorship, surgi- cal volume, access to technology, opportunities for growth, culture, and whether the practice aligned with the type of patient care I wanted to provide," he said. Dr. Micheletti added that it's important for young ophthalmologists to be honest about how much autonomy they want early on versus how much support they would benefit from. "There is no universally right answer," he added. "The best fit depends on personality, professional goals, tolerance for business risk, and lifestyle priorities." When Dr. Micheletti joined Berkeley Eye Center, he had a strong interest in cataract and refractive surgery. "Over time, my practice expanded to include complex anterior segment surgery and interventional glaucoma," he said, adding that the experience taught him that your initial interests do not always map out where your career ultimately leads. "Still, if you are drawn to technology-driv- en care, advanced IOLs, MIGS, or other pro- cedure-heavy areas, the practice environment matters a great deal," he said. "You need the right patient base, infrastructure, equipment, mentorship, and openness to innovation." Dr. Micheletti said that clinical interests should play a major role in practice selection because not every setting is equally positioned to support the same type of work. At the same time, it is important to keep an open mind as your inter- ests may evolve while you develop your own area of expertise. continued from page 48

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