DR. FRANK BOWDEN
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. Frank W. Bowden, III, is one of the few corneas and external disease specialists in the area. In addition to being a board-certified ophthalmologist, he has completed specialized fellowship training in disorders and diseases specific to the cornea and front structures of the eye.
hear from dr. Frank Bowden
Our host, Polly Neely had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Frank Bowden for an exclusive discussion regarding his life and industry experiences. Get to know Dr. Bowden a little deeper in this episode of “Focus Through the Generations”.
Polly Neely: Thank you for joining us today for our series, Focus Through the Generations. We are in a unique time right now, where we have four generations of actively practicing ophthalmologists, and we are lucky this evening to have Dr. Frank Bowden with us. Good evening, Dr. Bowden, how are you?
Dr. Frank Bowden: Greetings, thank you, thank you.
Polly Neely: I'm so glad you did this. Thank you so much. I'm going to ask you to just introduce yourself to the audience and just tell them a little bit about you, even though people pretty much know you let's give them a little bit.
Dr. Frank Bowden: Fair enough, first of all, I'm Frank W. Bowden, III, MD, and I have been in private practice in Jacksonville, Florida for the past 32 years. That followed an eight year stint in the US Navy as a Naval Officer and ophthalmologist, immediately following my ophthalmology residency training in San Diego at the Naval Hospital. So I'm part of the landscape here in Jacksonville, Florida, you could say. I am a cornea fellowship trained surgeon, but my practice now has evolved, that I am now a cornea, refractive, cataract and glaucoma surgeon, as well as a dry eye specialist. That's pretty much the bane of my existence today.
Polly Neely: Well, I don't think other than adding heart surgery, we couldn't give you anything else, and I think you could probably do that, Dr. Bowden. Well, you’ve certainly grown. I've known you now for about maybe 15 years and I've watched your practice just excel and excel and excel, and I'm so very proud of what you all have done; and especially with your Dry Eye University, it made me so proud. I felt like I was watching my children grow up during that. So it was really beautiful to see. I am very proud of all of you and what you've been able to accomplish and teach. It's been beautiful to watch everyone learn and grow from that. So, I want to ask you a fun question to start off with, if you could pick anyone alive or dead to have lunch with, who would you pick and why?
Dr. Frank Bowden: Wow, that's a big one. Hadn't considered that one. I would say, alive or dead; I would say probably the man who influenced me the most to actually go into ophthalmology as a specialty training career. That's Axel Hansen, who is a black ophthalmologist at Meharry Medical College, where I attended back in 1975 to 1979. He was the only ophthalmologist on the faculty at the time, but he inspired me as being just a polished, very sharp, elegant, eloquent man who just exuded confidence. And, as the impressionable medical student, I basically said, I want to be like him.
Polly Neely: I think you made it. Well, you'll be happy to know that you are being shot or zooming into Nashville. We're right in the heart of Nashville. I forgot that Dr. Bowden went to college at Meharry Medical College. We've talked about that a lot because I grew up in Hendersonville, and I've moved back to my roots, so I'm back home. So you're going to be broadcast from here. How fun is that, back on your home ground?
Tell me about a memorable patient case. So it doesn't have to be a surgical case, but what case comes to mind when you think of your most funny or pleasurable or a memorable or meaningful patient case?
Dr. Frank Bowden: I've got so many, I'll give you a couple of brief ones. One of which is a patient who trusted me so much, that after their corneal transplant, they had an accident at home. It was an elderly lady, funny lady, but, very trusting. She fell at home, hit her eye, and on a Monday she basically called my office and insisted on seeing me. I was in surgery, and she basically decided, you know, I can't see out of the eye, but I think I'll wait for Dr. Bowden. So she came in the following day with my technician telling me she only can see light perception, but I think her cornea transplant is gone. And as it turned out, I couldn't believe it, so I walked into the room and there she was with an open globe. Her corneal transplant was totally missing, gone. I was looking directly into her ocular cavity, and she was basically trying to make light of it, and had no idea how serious their situation was. I thought she was going to have it like an expulsive hemorrhage right there on the spot, and she started giggling and I just told her to stop giggling and close her eye.
I had to take her to an ambulatory surgery center on the floor below and suture a temporary keratoprosthesis into the cavity, because there was no donor tissue available. As I was looking in her eye, her vitreous was dried, I could see her optic nerve. Her blood vessels were pulsating, it was the most unbelievable experience. And the following day, I was able to get donor eye tissue and suture a new cornea in place. I've seen this lady now for the past 25 years, she still has her eye, she has like 20/400 acuity and I've sutured in an IOL later and we're just like lifelong friends. She's just a treat whenever she comes into the office, because she made light of a dire situation, and I was fortunate enough not to have a terrible result of her having waited.
The second patient I would mention was a child that I did a corneal transplant on at six months of age, born with Peter's anomaly and with the variant in which her lens was spared. And so she had a more favorable prognosis than most. But it turns out, at six months of age, she was just a cute little kid, and I had a picture made with her holding her in my arms with her mother by her side; and I've basically taken care of this patient for the past 22 years. And she has been in and she is as sharp as she wanted to be, highly motivated, and she finished high school, she went to Jacksonville University and got a degree in International Business Politics and Braille. Then I found out that she got accepted to Georgetown Law School in which she's currently a second year law student.
In one eye, she has the original corneal transplant that I did and the opposite eye, she's had a couple of graphs, a DSAEK, and a cataract surgery, and she's had more problematic course with glaucoma, but she still has her eyes. She has limited vision that the educational system is basically made provisions and allowances to enable her to excel, and it's just a joy to see that I've had a role in her development. And of course, they consider me part of the family and it's just a joy whenever they come in the office. So to have longitudinal care of patients and specialty care on top of that, has been very rewarding.
Polly Neely: Great, those are some good stories, how lucky and what’s so great is her attitude. I mean, she just kept going, nothing stopped her, see that that's so important. Dr. Bowden, in hindsight, is there anything differently you would have done in the path that you've taken?
Dr. Frank Bowden: You know, I don't think so. I went to medical school with the intent of being a provider and as well, an independent provider. Back in Knoxville, Tennessee, when I grew up, there were four black medical doctors and they were all independent, all managed their own practices, and my parents were friends with them. My mother was a nurse, and so I had that contact with black healthcare professionals. So when I went off to school, I fully had the expectation that I would be trying to have my own operation, my healthcare delivery system. It has been very challenging, daunting at times, to be the entrepreneur healthcare provider and, you know, match business acumen and growth, and the like, with professional development and growth.
I mean, my profession has evolved over the years and I've tried to stay up with it, the developments in cornea, glaucoma, cataract and refractive over the years, and it's been just an amazing journey if you will, that I wouldn't trade nothing for it. I mean, to be a refractive surgeon and to say that I've actually done RK surgery back back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and to now do femtosecond laser assisted LASIK surgery, and implantable collamer lenses and, and to manage keratoconus with intacs, cross-linking and the like, where I used to uniformly do corneal transplants. You know, at one point, I was doing over 120 transplants a year, and that's changed dramatically with the innovations that are available, that I’ve stayed up with just evolved with the technology and with the profession.
Polly Neely: I know that's amazing. I actually, you probably remember Casebeer’s course on RK. I went to his course and I actually did RK on a pig's eye. It scared the living life out of me to do that, but I had to do it, but it's more amazing to me that people actually let people do RK to their eyes.
Dr. Frank Bowden: I still have a few of those patients in my practice still today.
Polly Neely: Yeah. I know some doctors who just have them come in too, and it's like, wow. But it worked. And it was what we had, it was the latest innovation, so we grabbed it and ran with it. So you've always been a solo practitioner.
Dr. Frank Bowden: Yes, I joined a multi-specialty ophthalmic group, between 1990 and 2000, it was a good experience. It was a group of competitors that joined together to deal with the looming threat of managed care in our community. We were scared, the prevailing discussion at the time, was that private practice would be a thing of the past, and if you weren't a part of a group or an organization, you were going to wither on the vine and not have any access to patients. It took a bit of courage to join a group, band together, and it was a bunch of great guys, but not everybody was on the same page, if you will.
Polly Neely: No, not ophthalmologist, they always agree.
Dr. Frank Bowden: It was tough, tough 10 years, and afterwards we all saw the light, that we would do better and be happier if we established our own individual practices. In 2000, I established my practice Bowden Eye and Associates and basically started acquiring optometrists and ophthalmologists, and back in that time created an integrated eye care practice in which we had collaborative work with optometrist, ophthalmologist and opticians and providing full range of service. At that time, it was very important, because I was the consultanting ophthalmologist for the Jacksonville Jaguars football team. We needed to have the full range of services to provide for them from refractive to comprehensive eye care, to optical and, and the like, and so that was, I think, just a nice introduction into to what is now a prevailing eye care model that is working out very, very well for us.
Polly Neely: You absolutely are a prevailing model. I absolutely know that. And I was at one of your OD meetings, so I know how well attended and how gracious they are and, how respectful they are of you and your talent, and you of them as well. It speaks very highly. I want to ask you, what do you do in your spare time? You don’t have any spare time?
Dr. Frank Bowden: I don't have any spare time.
Polly Neely: If you have any spare time Dr. Bowden, what would you do?
Dr. Frank Bowden: Well, I usually spend it playing tennis and working out and trying to maintain some sort of balance physically, cause you have to have a lot of stamina to maintain a busy ophthalmic practice schedule and life, and balancing with home, and family. I've struggled with that, I'll admit that my generation basically made sacrifices, for the good of the practice, that probably my younger colleagues would not have made or wouldn't make it this time. But, I look back and say I did what I thought was best to, as they say, to keep the boat afloat, keep growing the practice, and maintaining the branding, and being available, and seizing opportunities when they arise and, maintaining what development and clinical knowledge and surgical skills that were necessary.
For example, back in the day, in order to learn new surgical procedures, you had to travel to another practice, you had to visit other surgeons. Fortunately, I've had some wonderful, gracious surgeons who have welcomed me into their practices or homes, their lives, and I've made lifelong friends accordingly, and it's been great to be able to have had that kind of a journey. I would have to say again, I have no regrets. I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world to have the profession and a career that at my stage of life, I look forward to coming to work every day.
Polly Neely: I had a wise man once tell me, and you'll know him, Dr. Manus Kraff, ‘Kid if you ever find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life”. And it's so true. I found my love too, so I know how you feel. So what would you say to those upcoming, and you have quite a few of those in your practice as well, that next generation and the generation even below that, what would you say to them, coming up and how to build their life and their practice. You know, they're a little bit different than when you and I came up through the ranks.
Dr. Frank Bowden: I think there are a couple of things, one of which would be to understand who you are, and understand what it takes for you to be happy, and kind of define what and how you want to position yourself in the field, as an educator, as a clinician, as a high volume surgeon, and just kind of figure out if that's a long-term model that you'll be satisfied with. In my particular situation, I have enjoyed longitudinal relationships with patients, families, and providing specialized care, and it's been unique for me to enjoy that. I know, I have some colleagues who would find that just very undesirable, treat and street, and move on to the next patient, but that's okay.
The other thing I would say is you want to stay current, maintain engagement with colleagues, go to professional meetings to stay current, and don't be afraid to invest in yourself. Don't be afraid to invest in your practice. I've, I've probably taken home less income over the years because of my continued drive to make sure that we maintain the best of technologies in our practice and that we implement those innovations and developments that enhance patient care, solve problems more effectively than in years past and improve patient satisfaction.
Polly Neely: Okay. I have to have a funny story. So give me something that's happened on your travels.
Dr. Frank Bowden: Well, one of the things I like to do is, if I work hard, I have a mantra, I like to play hard. So one of the things that I decided to do about 10 years ago, when I adopted another mantra, life is short and I'm old. So if I find something I need to do or want to do, I've got to go for it. So, I basically organized an all guys trip to a concert, after first asking my wife if she would attend.
Polly Neely: If she would let you go.
Dr. Frank Bowden: No, I want her to take her.
Polly Neely: Oh, she's wanted to be the only woman on that trip.
Dr. Frank Bowden: No, no. I was going to take her alone. And, and so when I told her who I wanted to see in concert, she shot me down with, uh, not only, no, but hell no!
I thought, I really want to do this. So I started chit-chatting with my anesthesiologist, my family doctors, my tennis buddies, my ex-medical school classmates that are in the area, and everybody was like, hey, I'm on board with that, I think I want to do it. All of a sudden, I basically am organizing a road trip with eight guys, all professionals, doctors, optometrists and we went to see a Lady Gaga concert.
Polly Neely: Did you really?
Dr. Frank Bowden: In 2011, we had a little stretch limo. We partied all the way from Jacksonville to Orlando to watch the concert, and then we had dinner. We went out after the show. We had a good time, and then came back in the dead of the night, arriving back home at about five in the morning, cause this was kind of like a hall pass for all of us.
I think half of us were married, you know, so it was a hall pass for like 14 hours. It was the most fun ever. I'm walking around at the concert and people are just kinda having a good time, and I'm walking around and thinking, gee, nobody knows I'm a doctor, this is great. It was the most liberating experience ever, and it was just a fun atmosphere. One of the text messages I got from one of the attendees of our group was, I haven't had this much fun since I was 10 years old.
Polly Neely: Wow. You guys need to live.
Dr. Frank Bowden: It was epic, it was so fun. We were the talk of the medical staff for a good number of years. Many of the people wishing they had joined us. It was funny.
Polly Neely: Lady Gaga, I have to remember that one. I can't imagine you at a Lady Gaga concert, but I'm really glad you did.
Dr. Frank Bowden: Life's short. I'm old. Gotta go for it.
Polly Neely: I'm thinking, at least, it could have been Cher. I mean, that would have been my guess, but lady Gaga. Yeah. That's one up. Good going.
Dr. Frank Bowden: I know, it was visionary.
Polly Neely: I've got one final question, and I know Patty told me I have to let you go because you have a meeting, and I'm not going against Patty. How have you seen technology in ophthalmology transition through your career and where do you see it going in the next 10 years?
Dr. Frank Bowden: I was just thinking one of the biggest impacts of modern technology has actually been in the sphere of education. When I reflected earlier on what it took for us to stay current in terms of going to annual meetings and visiting other surgeons, and now information transfer is so rapid, so effective, with our ability to get electronic media, to disseminate information, knowledge, clinical studies, new to evolving surgical techniques; now, I mean as you try to access a new surgical procedure, oftentimes you go to Eye tube and look at your colleagues videos and never leave your office or your home and feel just as empowered and prepared to get your wet lab experience, if necessary, and feel confident to take care of your patients with what you've learned.
I think the ability to disseminate knowledge, to collaborate with colleagues around the world, it's just mind boggling, it's something I never really appreciated outside of our international meetings that we used to go to. I would go to all of our meetings annually, plus the regionals and the like. That's probably one of the biggest innovations, obviously the technologies with lasers followed up and managed and utilized. It's just amazing how we're able to take care of more problems with less patient morbidity and more success and better outcomes and better patient satisfaction. It's been wonderful to observe all of this over a 30 plus year experience in private practice.
Polly Neely: I agree, information, that's a new one. No one has said information for technology, so you brought up a new one for me, but it's brilliant, because it's so true. I remember, you know, getting the VHS tapes, sitting with my surgeon while we watched these things over and over and then going, and putting it into practice and now you're right. You can just bring it up on the computer, you watch it, and do it. It’s very cool.
Dr. Frank Bowden: It really is.
Polly Neely: Dr. Bowden, thank you so much for being with me this evening. You know I love you and I'm just so thrilled and honored that you would agree to do this for us and Vision Care Connect thanks you.
Dr. Frank Bowden: I appreciate it. It's been a privilege and an honor, and I thank you for the opportunity.
Focus Through the Generations is supported by Bruder Healthcare Company.
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