DR. ANNA LEHMANN
Focus Through the Generations (FTTG) offers insight from four different generations of the nation's top ophthalmologists. Hear from the experts themselves on their varying life experiences in the industry.
Dr. Anna Lehmann is trained to perform the latest surgical techniques including traditional and laser cataract surgery with the highest quality intraocular lenses for astigmatism and presbyopia correction. Her other professional interests include LASIK, PRK, glaucoma and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), as well as treatment of retinal diseases including diabetes and macular degeneration.
hear from DR. ANNA LEHMANN
Our host, Polly Neely had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Anna Lehmann for an exclusive discussion regarding her life and industry experiences. Get to know Dr. Lehmann a little deeper in this episode of “Focus Through the Generations”.
Polly Neely: Good morning. Thank you for joining us for Focus Through the Generations this morning. We have Dr. Anna Lehmann who has joined us, and we're so glad to have you this morning. And I thank you for joining us.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Thanks for having me.
Polly Neely: So I'm going to ask if you would just introduce yourself and tell us just a little bit about yourself to get this going.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Sure. So I am Anna Lehmann. I work at Lehmann Eye Center in Nacogdoches, Texas. I graduated from the University of Virginia, then finished medical school and residency training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. And since completing residency, I've come full circle returned to East Texas, to join the practice that my dad started 44 years ago.
Polly Neely: That’s so great. And I’ve had the privilege of knowing your dad and knowing you when you were much younger. Your dad and your mom, they're great people. We're going to actually be interviewing your dad, later as well. So it's fun to get that both perspectives here, like, you know, what's it like to work for your dad and what's it like to work for your daughter.
I want to ask you a question. Just want to start off with a little icebreaker here. When you were 12, did you imagine yourself being a doctor or something else?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Oh, definitely. I wanted to be a doctor from the start. Really it came down to hands or eyes once I got into medical school and training. I liked the elegant surgeries. There were no rounds, it's a nice lifestyle. I'd watched dad do it my whole life. But I looked for anything else during my training, that I might like better than ophthalmology. My biggest hesitation was the question of whether I could carve out my own place in a field in which my dad was already very well-respected. But when I reframed that doubt and saw it as more of an opportunity, everything just fell into place.
Polly Neely: That is very well put. I love that because there's so many. I think there's a difference; I wanted to ask you this, I see father and sons practicing together and we've heard from a few of those, and the dynamics I think of a daughter and a father are way different than a father and a son working together. I don't think the competitiveness is there; I think more of the nurturing is there, am I wrong?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: You know, I can definitely see that. I think my dad and I are a lot more alike than we are different. And that could lead to a lot of butting of heads, but it really doesn't. I think I learned a ton from him and I've been able to teach him some things too.
Polly Neely: I love that. What key skills, when you were younger, do you think that you developed as you grew, that that brought you to this place where you are right now?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I think that obviously the surgical skills, the hand-eye coordination, all of that is really important to be a good surgeon. But I think what's more important than that is the sense that you need to do your best, that you want to be your best, and that every patient is a family member. You should treat everyone like that. And I think that's the more important developmental skill. That's not something that you can teach necessarily. So I think that being able to connect with people, being able to really care for them, and show compassion is what makes you a good doctor.
Polly Neely: I agree with you. That's a beautiful thing to say. And I know that you practice that. What do you think from your perspective is the biggest challenge facing ophthalmology today?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I think one of the hardest things is the expectations of patients. As technology develops so rapidly, our patients expect absolute perfection in every single outcome. And I think that's something that most of us are in some way, perfectionist. That's something that's hard to deal with because at the end of the day, you can't be perfect. So meeting that expectation or figuring out how to communicate with people so that they understand that's not a realistic expectation, is something that we're going to have to deal with. I think another thing though is all of the red tape, EMR, and insurance. That's something that I certainly didn't fully understand until I got into private practice. There is a lot behind the scenes that is not just you and the patient in the exam room, or you and the patient on the operating table that has to do with how you're able to practice and what you're able to do.
Polly Neely: That's so true. You still don't get that even today, from what I understand. And when you're going through medical school and your residency and your fellowship, you might get some in your fellowship because they may show you some of the behind the scenes things. But I think the residency medical school, that's just not something that you're made aware of. It's all about how to be a doctor or a surgeon, not how to be a business person.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Yeah. That's certainly the focus and that's their job. Their job is to make you a fantastic doctor. But unfortunately, more and more of what that means is being able to handle the non-medical part of practicing medicine. I think my training actually went out of their way to make an effort to teach us some of those things, but it's just not the same until you're in private practice.
Polly Neely: It's really difficult to. What piece of technology do you like the most that you feel like is something that you couldn't practice without?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I mean, surgically, I think the phaco machines are fantastic, they've come such a long way. And when you think about what my dad trained on or when he didn't have phaco when he very first started, I think they've made huge advancements. On the clinical side, I love the OCT machine. What that has been able to do for treating retinal diseases and seeing if there's fluid leakage that you may not have been able to pick up with the naked eye or don't have access to an FAA or something like that has really been a game changer for access to care for people who aren't able to go see a retina specialist.
Polly Neely: Yeah, we've had a lot of people say the OCD. I think I should start keeping track of this. I think we should give it a prize.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Oddly, I'm not getting any kind of compensation for that line.
Polly Neely: You didn't mention which one, so that's okay. What do you do in your free time? What do you like to do?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Well, right now it's taking care of my baby. I'm a new mom. I have a 16-month-old. And so my entire non-work time is pretty much devoted to him.
Polly Neely: I love that. Well tell me, I know you're early in your career, but tell me about the most memorable, whether it's humorous or whether it's serious, patient that you've had so far in your career.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I had a lady recently, and this is why you get up in the morning and go to cataract surgery because the post-op day is the best day of the week. So I had a lady recently who I think was a minus 16, when you're super, super nearsighted, always obviously totally dependent on her glasses or contacts. And we did her cataracts and she was just thrilled. I mean, from the crying, she couldn't even speak. And those kinds of experiences are just very memorable and just really keep you going.
Polly Neely: Her life has totally changed. That's so good. I love that. This is the question that we've asked everyone. So I want to ask you this question, and it's going to be so different because you're just coming into practice. I want you to think back, like through your medical school residency and then to where you are now, how have you seen technology in ophthalmology transition through your career and where do you see it going in the next 10 years in ophthalmology?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: Yeah, my, my private practice career is shorter than people you'll be talking to. But if I think back and even think back to growing up, I think one of the biggest advancements, or maybe it's just that my dad was so excited about it, is the change in the lenses. The intraocular lenses that we have now are so much better than they used to be. It's so exciting how it seems like every few years there's one that’s new and better; it doesn't do the things we didn't like. It does the things we wanted it to do, with more reliability and predictability than it did in the past.
One of the areas where I'd love to see that continue to drive forward is in our ability to predict which power is best for patients. So the post-refractive patients who have always wanted that great vision, that's why they have refractive surgery in the first place. They're now in a position where, you know, they're less predictable outcomes, because of their post-refractive status. So I'd love to see these great premium IOLs that work great in their eyes too, with more reliability.
Polly Neely: I like that answer. I agree with you. I think that the premium lenses are definitely something that has changed so many lives and just changed our lifestyle, so much. And to me, it's been a great advancement as well. What is your favorite book and why?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I’m going back to my 16-month-old. We're doing a lot of board books, so right now The Three Little Pigs.
Polly Neely: That's all right. That's a good one. That's one of my favorites too. I wasn’t even sure if it was still out there anymore. I want to ask you one question. What, what is the sweetest, funniest, or strangest thing that a patient has said to you since you've come to work at Lehmann Eye Center?
Dr. Anna Lehmann: I think my best story is in residency.
So I had a patient who I saw on call at the VA, who had a corneal abrasion and gotten something in his eyes, scratched his eyes in pain. It was a Saturday afternoon or something. And he was absolutely adamant that he would do something for me, give me something. And he wanted to give me chickens. He was a chicken farmer. He said, “Doc, I really appreciate everything you've done. I'm gonna bring you a box of chickens.” And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no, sir, please. I'm living in the middle of Houston. I don't have a place to put these chickens, you know?” But he was so adamant. He said, “I'm going to write your name on them and put them in a box, and put them up here in this ambulance bay. Is that okay?” I had to convince him that, no, I couldn't take his chickens, but he tried so hard to give them to me. But I think it's sweet. Patients are very appreciative of what we do, and they want to be able to make a connection with you and show you their ‘thanks’ in ways that they know how.
Polly Neely: I would have just said, “Can you just bring me the eggs?”
Thank you so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate you so much for doing this. And I look forward to watching your career grow and hopefully getting back to Nacogdoches to actually see you practice.
Dr. Anna Lehmann: That would be great. Thanks for having me.
Focus Through the Generations is supported by Bruder Healthcare Company.
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