About Me

Welcome to my page! I am incredibly excited every day by the work we do at Kaiser Permanente and know we are at the forefront of medicine when it comes to our vitreoretinal surgical practice. I specialize in retinal surgery, and treating ocular inflammatory diseases affecting the retina and vitreous. After having trained many residents and fellows, I have chosen to pursue my career as a Permanente physician because I think our model of ethical care is unsurpassed. I love our team approach to member care.

Biography

After growing up first in England and then moving to Concord, Massachusetts, when I was 8, I completed my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 2000. I worked as a co-op intern during this time at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on positional control microsystems for unmanned space exploration. I then earned my MD from USC’s Keck School of Medicine and my PhD in bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology. I completed my residency and Vitreoretinal Surgery Fellowship at USC and was an assistant professor at the USC Roski Eye Institute and Viterbi School of Engineering until December 2017. I was awarded the Heed Fellowship for the 2013-2014 year and the Ronald G. Michels Fellowship in Vitreoretinal Surgery for the 2014-2015 year. I have written or coauthored more than fifty journal articles, refereed conference-proceeding publications, and been granted more than twenty patents to date.

About my practice

I believe that all members need to be treated with respect and kindness, and I strive for this every day. I especially want each one to feel like I am a coach in his or her life, helping the member through an eye disease one step at a time. As a retina surgeon, I feel it incumbent on me to explain a member’s disease at length, describe any lifestyle modification factors that may improve the condition, and take the time to answer all the member’s and family members’ questions. This allows each person to be a fully-informed member of the member’s team, and I have found that only in this way can we achieve a successful result. I also endeavor to make sure that care is coordinated across the spectrum of the healthcare system, from providers to staff and caregivers, as this, in my experience, greatly improves outcomes.

How I thrive

My wife and I spend a lot of time outdoors, and especially love surfing and snowboarding. I'm also an avid tennis player. We try to eat vegan/vegetarian food as much as possible. In addition, I try to take the stairs up to my 7th floor office at least twice a day and use the elevator as little as possible. Our toddlers keep us active outside of work and make sure we keep mentally and physically active.