Eyeworld

EW NEWS & OPINION 20 October 2016 center in the first issue of EyeWorld. "No zap without the flap," an early cover line proclaimed. Today, of course, such a line might be written as "New zap for the flap," with the femtosecond laser now very much a part of the flap-making equation. Dr. McDonald reflected on how far things have come. "There is no doubt that flaps created with the femtosecond laser are superior to microkeratome flaps," she said. "It's safer, it's more reproducible, and the bed is smoother." Dr. McDonald has run the gamut when it comes to LASIK flaps. "After doing the first laser vision procedure in the world in 1988— my little toehold in history—I did a lot of PRK, then I did a lot of LASIK, and then I came back to PRK because I realized that even with a Looking continued from page 18 Are you a fan of EyeWorld? Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/EWNews femtosecond laser, the only prob- lems left with laser vision correction are flap-related," she said. "You can make a perfect flap, the patient rubs his or her eyes, and 24 hours later it dislodges the flap or you have epithelial ingrowth." As a result, Dr. McDonald devoted a great deal of time to improving PRK, which she finds has transformed since the early EyeWorld days. "Now not only is there a perioperative cock- tail that keeps patients comfortable and keeps their vision coming back quickly, but we also have epi-Bow- man keratectomy, which is the latest iteration of PRK, and it is gang- busters," she said. "It's a disposable single-use device that takes the ep- ithelium off atraumatically leaving basement membrane." With this, patients recover quickly, with much less pain, Dr. McDonald finds. Politics were also front and cen- ter in that first issue of EyeWorld, the month before a U.S. presidential elec- tion. One article discussed Clinton vs. Dole and the impact each would have on health care. Dr. McDonald views such coverage as important. "It does make a big difference who comes into the White House and where he or she decides to make cuts," she said, adding that Medicare and Medicaid are a large part of any ophthalmologist's practice and are on many ophthalmologists' radar. "It was important to watch Clinton and Dole back then," she said. "Your life could change in an instant depend- ing on who's at the helm." Overall, Dr. McDonald looks back at the early EyeWorld, which she guided in those first years to- gether with editor Keith Croes, followed by Michelle Rizzo, and then Brad Fundingsland, with pride. She pointed out that the articles always included differing points of view, with an average of five sources per article. "There are some magazines that will take a piece that was written by the marketing department of a company and put it straight in without changing it. We never did that," she stressed. "We might use a lot of information from companies, but we'd always go to other sources." That took extra leg- work and was particularly difficult in the beginning when EyeWorld was not well-known, she pointed out. "Twenty years ago, people didn't always respond when they got a call from a reporter from EyeWorld," she said. "I think EyeWorld has become a big player, and I'm very proud that I was there at the birth." EW Contact information McDonald: margueritemcdmd@aol.com

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