DR. CYNTHIA MATOSSIAN
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.
Cynthia Matossian, MD specializes in the treatment and management of Dry Eye disease, providing the latest diagnostic and treatment options to optimize the ocular surface. Dr. Matossian is an active member of numerous associations, a thought leader, and pioneer in her field who speaks nationally and internationally, is frequently published, and participates in many clinical trials each year.
hear from dr. matossian
Our host, Polly Neely had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Cynthia Matossian for an exclusive discussion regarding her life and industry experiences. Get to know Dr. Matossian a little deeper in this episode of “Focus Through the Generations”.
Polly Neely: Thank you so much for joining us this evening. I'm really happy to have you here and I want to enlighten you on what we're doing. It's called ‘Focus Through the Generations’ and we are interviewing active, practicing ophthalmologists in 4 different generations that are happening in our world right now. Which is to me, amazing, just amazing. So I want to thank you again for joining us. I'm going to ask you some questions and we're just going to have a really fun time.
Dr. Matossian: I can't wait. First, thank you Polly for inviting me. I'm honored to be included among your ophthalmologists whom you're interviewing and I can't wait. We're here and I'm delighted to be part of your series.
Polly Neely: Thank you so much. I want you just to introduce yourself to the audience and tell them a little bit about you. I know pretty much everybody probably knows you in the industry, but let's just give them a little pearl. Tell them something about you.
Dr. Matossian: Sure. I'm Cynthia Matossian from Matossian Eye Associates. I started the practice many years ago. Actually, it was June of 1987 with one technician, one exam room and one receptionist who was working part-time. Since then, I've worked hard and with the support of a lot of people, including my family and my husband, I was able to grow the practice to the point where we now have three offices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey with a very large number of physicians, including all the sub-specialties like glaucoma, oculoplastics, cataract and so forth. We're an integrated ophthalmology-optometry practice. Almost two years ago, I sold the practice to a PE backed entity called Prism Vision Group. So, I am no longer the owner of Matossian Eye Associates.
Polly Neely: But they kept your name!
Dr. Matossian: What a journey from beginning to now.
Polly Neely: Well, you started in a year before me. My first job in ophthalmology was 1988 as an administrator. It was a job I hated to love at the time, but it worked out really well. I've never strayed from ophthalmology since then and it got me and kept me, so I've enjoyed it.
Dr. Matossian: That's what they say about ophthalmology. Once you find it and it finds you, you never let go. It magnetizes you back, no matter how hard you try to leave. Fortunately, for me, I feel so lucky that I found ophthalmology and it found me. I've been passionate about the field since I started in my residency.
Polly Neely: I agree and I tell everyone here, when I'm training them on ophthalmology, ophthalmology is a beast all its own. It's not like any other specialty. Our group is different. Our peers are different. Our fan base is different. Our meetings are different. Our industry is different. I don't even know how to describe it. I've been in other industries, but I've yet to be in an industry that I've loved more than ophthalmology. So I'm really happy I landed here and met people such as yourself.
Dr. Matossian: I agree. It's like an extended family. When I go to big national meetings, as big as the meetings are, it still feels like a big family gathering because we all know each other. It's a small world and I think most everybody is incredibly kind and generous and supportive of one another. That's what I love about our field.
Polly Neely: I agree a thousand percent, I always call it “old home week” when I get to go to a meeting and see my family I haven't seen in a year, because I only see them at this one meeting. I have a question for you. What do you think is, is the biggest problem facing our industry of ophthalmology today?
Dr. Matossian: Well, we have, I think a bunch of problems facing our industry and the biggest one in my opinion, is the disconnect between the cost of doing the business of ophthalmology and the reimbursement that we're getting in return. Right now to operate a state of the art cutting edge ophthalmology practice requires a lot of pieces of equipment. The lifespan of the pieces of equipment is getting shorter and shorter, meaning that there are newer versions that you have to constantly upgrade to or new pieces of equipment that are coming in, that we never had before. The cost of staff is increasing because you need more educated staff to operate these more sophisticated pieces of equipment. It's not just checking vision anymore and writing a Snellen visual acuity in a chart anymore. And unfortunately on the flip side, the reimbursement is going down and it's hard to make that balance. So you have to be inventive and creative and include cash paying procedures to profit and to become successful.
Polly Neely: That's true. Very true. I agree with everything you just said and I have to tell you that your peers have pretty much voiced the same thing. So I know that has to be our biggest problem too. What is our biggest opportunity in ophthalmology right now?
Dr. Matossian: We are so fortunate that we can help people with their vision. We can now expand the range of vision and correct presbyopia in so many different ways. Not only through contact lenses and spectacles for our, optometry colleagues, but also through a lens-based surgery. Whether a refractive lens procedure and a clear lensectomy, or even after a cataract procedure we can expand the range of vision, appropriately, of course. Also, now very soon down the pike, we're going to be getting presbyopia correcting drops. Where with a drop or two per day, we're going to be able to read better up close under most lighting conditions, and again, that will be a bridge between the onset of presbyopia and lens-based surgery.
Polly Neely: I can't wait for that honestly. I mean, that's the one hole, is presbyopia and it's the biggest thing. Yeah. I love it and with all the next generation coming into their forties, that's gonna be a rather huge treatment path too for them to take. I think this generation too, you can tell me what you think, but I think that generation coming into their forties now is going to be more apt to use a drop then maybe to have a surgery. Where, you know, the boomers were used to the surgery. So we just said yeah. Okay. But I think they're going to be more apt to try the drop which is more conservative than the surgery.
Dr. Matossian: And because they have the option to try it, we never had that. It was either surgery or wear glasses all the time. So, I think the drop is going to help a lot of patients or doctors or people really in that interim phase as a bridge. But obviously, when the lens becomes blurry and opacified enough, there is no alternative but cataract procedure and by then we may even have more options with implant types to correct presbyopia.
Polly Neely: I agree. I love that. Who or what Dr. Matossian has influenced your life the most and why?
Dr. Matossian: You know, that's a very good question. I would say my mom, she is 96 ½ years young right now. She has always believed in me and encouraged me to get my education and to persevere even when hurdles have come up in life. Also, my husband has always been by my side, encouraging me and being my supportive person on whom I can lean through happy times and challenging times. So, I've been extremely fortunate to have that kind of love around me which has made me confident and pursue or take risks that I perhaps otherwise may not have taken.
Polly Neely: We share that, my mom is my biggest influencer as well and still my biggest supporter out of all the people in my life. She is my biggest supporter and pushes me just like your mom. What is your favorite thing to do in your downtime?
Dr. Matossian: You know, I study wine and I love trying different wines and comparing them, contrasting them, pairing them with different food types. And I really study it like a science, the different grape varietals. What's nice is that not all everywhere in the world, but in many parts of the world, when my husband and I travel, we go to vineyards or we go to distilleries or we go to breweries and taste wines and spirits, or my husband likes beer. I'm not a big beer drinker, but it's so nice to be able to travel the world and savor the different spirits all around.
Polly Neely: I love that, I also love wine and we were just talking about this. That's one of the things I want to study. I would love to join a wine club, and be able to do more with that and study more of that because it's really interesting and it tastes good. So, it's a great hobby.
Dr. Matossian: It's a great hobby and there's always a cause to open a bottle of wine, you know, with dinner, to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary. Whether it's a sparkling wine or a flat wine, a dessert wine, you know, it's great, I love the field.
Polly Neely: Well, while we're on wine I have to ask you, what is your favorite wine? Maybe not the brand, but a wine, a type.
Dr. Matossian: I get asked that question a lot. It depends actually what I'm eating and whether I'm having it before the meal, with the meal, after the meal. So it changes. So I don't have a particular one I like, but I like the more complex, less sweet, more earthy wines than the sweet or fruit based wines.
Polly Neely: We are a lot alike.
Dr. Matossian: Well, we'll have to have a glass together.
Polly Neely: I know, I love it. And one other question, during this COVID, what is a lesson learned that you know you'll take forward and use and continue to use?
Dr. Matossian: COVID has taught me patience because nothing was happening quickly. COVID has also taught me how to utilize my time in a different way, because I was so busy pre COVID traveling constantly really on a very fast paced track. I want to say in fifth gear, going around a racetrack. Well with COVID, travel stopped, meetings stopped, evening events stopped, but I was able to really focus and remain busy, but not as crazy busy and I'm able to balance life better. There's more downtime to enjoy time with my husband and my family. Our daughter and I have two grandbabies, so I get to see them much more. And fortunately my daughter and son-in-law and their two kids live an hour away from us. So, we get to see them, they're in our bubble. So I'm enjoying so much family time and I feel these moments were meant to happen.
Polly Neely: I agree. I love it that you have grandbabies, I'm jealous. I want them.
Dr. Matossian: You can come visit mine anytime.
Polly Neely: I rent people's grandchildren, I'm like, I'll take your grandchild, I'll take your baby, you know. Yeah. I have a dog and that's okay. There was one last question that we do ask and we're trying to get everyone to answer this. We're asking everybody different questions too, just so you know. Actually, there is one other thing I want to ask you, cause I love this. Who are the people that are your go-to people for advice in the industry or anything your patients, your practice, your business.
Dr. Matossian: I have different go-to people, depending on the issue at hand, I have people within industry I lean on, they’re good friends, they’re mentors, they’re advisors. I have colleagues I lean on if it's a complex clinical situation. Then I have other friends on whom I lean for business strategy and trying to figure out which business maneuver would maybe end up with a better result then a different option. So, I kind of have different groups of people, and they've always been there to help me whenever I've reached out to them.
Polly Neely: I love that. I love having all different people around us. I think that's what gives us a little bit of flavor is to have different people in our life and helps give us perspective.
Dr. Matossian: Yeah.
Polly Neely: Thanks. Yeah. How have you seen the technology in ophthalmology, we've talked a little bit about this, but how have you seen it transition since your career started and what do you foresee to be one of the biggest things coming? I know we talked about presbyopia, but maybe otherwise coming in technology and ophthalmology,
Dr. Matossian: The speed at which technology is progressing is absolutely amazing. When I first started out, we had an ASCAN biometer where we had to touch the cornea with it and probably were indenting it and getting incorrect axial length, but that's all we had, and a visual field, and a slit lamp of course, and that was it. Now the diversity of equipment from testing equipment, to diagnostic equipment, to OR equipment, to guidance systems, head-up surgery, light adjustable lens, I mean, it's unbelievable what there is. It's (a). harder to keep up with all of it because we're not only surgeons, not only physicians, not only clinicians, but also we have to keep up with all the technology that surrounds us, which is almost a full-time job. And (b). of course, there's a cost associated with all of that. I do believe that eventually cataract surgery will probably move into an office-based procedure, just like it went from a hospital procedure where people were actually admitted and spent a few days to an outpatient procedure. I believe it is going to move more commonly into an office based procedure. It's already happening, but it's not standard yet, but I believe it's going to do that. The other thing that I think we're going to be able to trial what looking through a presbyopia correcting lens will feel like. So, just like any other purchase we make we try out a car, we go and visit a house before we buy it; we should be able to trial what the vision is like and at what distance we wish to see so that we can choose appropriately. The light adjustable lens is coming close to that, but it's a monofocal lens at this point. So, to be able to trial it before getting it in the eye, I think will be a huge evolution.
Polly Neely: I love that. I would love and I hope I see that. That I would love to see.
Dr. Matossian: Me too.
Polly Neely: I'm going to end with this because I like to end with something humorous. What is one of your most memorable, funny moments in your practice that have happened to you that you remember, and will still laugh about today?
Dr. Matossian: Well, there are so many that I could go on and on and on, but you know, patients are funny, they're loving, they're you know, most of them, are so appreciative of what we do. But one of the funny episodes is that we have Bruder masks that we sell in our practice as one of the at-home remedies for dry eye disease. So, I had given the patient a brochure about the Bruder mask and told him that he could either go online and purchase it or buy it from us. When I saw him back, he brought the brochure back and it looked kind of dried out and cracked. He said, I've been putting it in the microwave and putting the brochure on my face and it hasn’t helped me much. I had to crack up. I said, I can't believe it. It's not the brochure that you put in the microwave, it's the mask that you have to put in the microwave. But clearly that's what he understood, and that's what he was doing.
Polly Neely: That's the best one I've heard so far! You have that.
Dr. Matossian: And it's so funny, but it's a true story.
Polly Neely: Did you tell Mark Bruder that?
Dr. Matossian: I have not, actually I should tell Mark and Mary that story. It’s crazy, it’s unbelievable.
Polly Neely: They should send that man a lifetime of Bruder masks. Well, Dr. Matossian thank you so, so much for joining us this evening. We have had such a good time with you and you're brilliant in all things and we so enjoy your time and thank you for it.
Dr. Matossian: Well, thank you. This has been so much fun Polly, lots of luck with the rest of your interviews.
Polly Neely. Thank you.
Dr. Matossian: Bye-bye
Focus Through the Generations is supported by Bruder Healthcare Company.
Bruder Healthcare Company is the maker of the #1 Doctor Recommended Moist Heat Eye Compress for the treatment of dry eye (DED), meibomian gland disease (MGD), and blepharitis. For more information about the complete line of Bruder products including the newly introduced Bruder Pre-Surgical Patient Prep Kit, please click here.