DR. LISA MCINTIRE
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. Lisa McIntire is a board-certified ophthalmologist and is licensed by the Texas Medical Board. Dr. McIntire specializes in cataract, LASIK, and cornea surgery. She has been living and practicing in Austin since 2011.
Dr. McIntire has recently been named the new President of the Refractive Surgery Alliance. Congratulations, Dr. McIntire!
hear from dr. lisa mcintire
Our host, Polly Neely had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Lisa McIntire for an exclusive discussion regarding her life and industry experiences. Dr. McIntire shares with us an exciting announcement in this episode of “Focus Through the Generations”.
Polly Neely: Thank you for joining us for Focus Through the Generations, today with me is Dr. Lisa McIntire.
Dr. McIntire, we're so glad to have you with us. I want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and what's going on in your life, where you practice and a little bit about you professionally and personally.
Dr. McIntire: Great. Thank you, my name is Lisa McIntire. I am one of the two owners of Heart of Texas Eye Institute in Dripping Springs, Texas, we are right outside of Austin. We opened our practice five years ago. We are an entirely female owned and operated ophthalmic practice, which is a little bit unique. And it's been very interesting and a huge learning experience putting this together and growing this practice. Both learning how to manage a practice, how to administrate a practice, how to lead a team and how to work well with a partner. It just goes on and on. The opportunities for personal growth are endless. When you own your own business, you can just grow and grow.
I'm a refractive surgeon. I trained at Wake Forest and then I did my fellowship at Tulane University in cornea and refractive surgery.
I've been practicing in this space for a little more than 10 years. I just absolutely love it. It's a very gratifying experience to be able to bring vision to someone which affects their every waking moment for the rest of their life, their job opportunities, and their abilities to interact with the world around them. It is very cool to be a part of that.
As of this week, I am the first female President of The Refractive Surgery Alliance, which is a huge honor. I'm very excited to serve to amazing group of thought leaders in refractive surgery. It has brought a lot of introspection and thought as to how can I, as a female, lead from my truth? I am a woman and what it is that is inherent to me and my own strength that I can bring to serve without just trying to be a man, which I'll never be. I'll never be the best at that. So how can I be the best me? This is a new opportunity to grow and to serve.
Polly Neely: We're so happy to hear that, I'm clapping in my heart and my head, I'm really happy. What about your personal life? How do you have the work-life balance? I know it's going to differ with every generation. I feel like, but how do you make certain that you have that work-life balance?
Dr. Lisa McIntire: Yeah, I think it's ever evolving. I am blessed beyond measure. I don't know what else to say. My husband has been very flexible, and I think forgiving at times to, let me do what I'm doing. We also have two teenage boys, and my work is extremely demanding, so Jim, my husband, has made a lot of sacrifices in his career, but it has worked for us.
You know, we we've had struggles, don't get me wrong. It hasn't just been rosy the whole time. We sometimes struggle before we figure it out, but just takes honest conversation, honest communication, and even overdoing it because the thing that makes us hit roadblocks or hit walls, butt each other's head is when we assume that the other person thinks the other thinks like we do. It's obvious like, why are you doing this, you're clearly wrong or, you are trying to be hurtful. But not that, we really do see some things differently and it's taken us awhile to learn how to compromise. So, he mostly works from home and he is always available for the kids, for their doctor's appointments, dropping off and picking up from school, everything that needs to happen.
That's how our life works. There's a million ways to do it but that's what we do.
Polly Neely: I love that mine was similar. My boys were little. I traveled all the time, so my husband did the same thing. We knocked heads a lot, but we usually came to the right conclusion. There's something that we want to ask you here. Right now, in your ophthalmic career, who's your go-to person when you have an ophthalmic issue or a patient or a dilemma?
Dr. Lisa McIntire: So, I don't have one, but I have a few forums that I reach out to with difficult patients and just trusted colleagues who I know will tell me that they don't know if they and don't send me in the right direction.
I won't say that it's always one person as there are certainly people who I know are really good at a certain thing. You know, if I have a SMILE question I'm going to call or text Dan Reinstein and ask what do I do here? Whatever the problem is, I I'll probably pick who my go-to person is.
Polly Neely: You have a go-to person for everything. That's a good thing. Not just one, one person can't know it all.
How have you been able to manage through COVID? How has your practice been able to survive? I know you survived because you're here. What do you see the changes in 2021 moving forward that you will continue to use? If today we could go back to normal, what practice did you learn or adapt to in 2020 that you'll take into 2021?
Dr. Lisa McIntire: I'm going to just kind of preface my words here by saying, like, don't judge me too hard because nobody's going to agree with what I'm saying, if I just come out and say 2020 was a great year. But we learned so much in 2020 that it would've taken us a decade or 15 years to slowly muddle through and find out all of problems that we had to fix. If we did it just kind of on a normal keel, but under the fire, we found out really quick where our weak links were and what we had to work on. It's been hard, but super valuable.
The beginning, oh my gosh, in March and April we were managing emotions. We were managing fears. We didn't have a virus. There was, I don't think there were any cases in Hayes County, but, you know, just people were terrified. They had no idea what to expect. And as a leader, I didn't know that I was going to be able to get them through it. I couldn't say, “hey, it's going to be fine, I’ve got this.” I did not know that I had this, but we would have, as often as we needed to at least weekly, sometimes more just group sessions where we'd say, what's happening for you right now. Like, “how are you?” And we'd go around the room and we'd talk about our concerns or our worries.
And all that I could do is just be honest and say you know I'm going to show up and I'm going to do my best for you, you know? And we're going to do our best for each other. It wasn't like, I'm the one doing everything, and we'll see what happens. That's all we can do.
Polly Neely: What would you take with you if you had to pick one thing that you would not let go of that you found that made your practice a better place, or you a better doctor, what would it be that you take into 2021?
Dr. Lisa McIntire: One of the main things that I learned this year that seems like it would be intuitive, but it wasn't for me, was that Lisa McIntire and Heart of Texas Eye Institute are two different things. And it was easy for me to get my ego wrapped into Heart of Texas Eye Instituted because my name is on the door and, you know, everybody knows I own it. I felt like everybody's actions were a representation of me. And that made me very I guess, insecure or felt like I needed to be in control of what everybody did. And really like being able to draw that separation and step back a little bit, not to say that I don't oversee, and support and you know, we still have standards of care but, I can give a little bit of breathing room to people so that they can master their own world, in their own right. Not just as my proxy. I like that and that's a big one for me.
Polly Neely: I have just a couple of more questions, but one of them is what is one of the most memorable cases that you have performed, whether it was your toughest or whether it was just your most heartwarming case? Just give us one case that stands out to you as the one that you will never forget.
Dr. Lisa McIntire: One case that comes to mind right away and these little gems they are surprises when they come along, because this young man he had amblyopia. As a child, he had a refractive error stronger in one eye than the other. His parents didn't know about it. He didn't get patched; he didn't get treated. As an adult, he could only see about 20/60, maybe 20/100 out of his amblyopic eye could see 20/20 out of the other, but he needed a strong prescription for both eyes. So, we went through his consultation, had the whole conversation about expectations. You know, we're going to be getting you to see as well as you can with your glasses, that's our intention. You're going to be able to see 20/60 without glasses.
So, we did his procedure, he had LASIK surgery and the next day he's 20/25 in his amblyopic eye. And the next week he's 20/15 in his amblyopic eye. And this boy has never seen the world like this. Like I still see him, he works in the building with me and he can't hug me anymore, but when he could hug, he would every time we saw each other. He is just still so grateful to be able to have this new life experience.
Polly Neely: I love that you gave him life, literally sight his life. You gave him a life that he had never experienced before. I just love that. That's so perfect. And to be able to see him every day is awesome because it's a constant reminder of what you do and how great you are for what you do. You know to me it is a really great reminder of that.
I have one last question, and then I'm going to let you go. How have you seen technology in ophthalmology transition since your career started and where do you see it going in the future?
Dr. Lisa McIntire: That's a great question because there's so much being done all the time. I think in the last 10 years since I started practicing, refractive surgery is just getting even more, and more accurate and a lot of that is on the diagnostic end. So that means to me safer and it means to me to not do surgery on people that shouldn't have it because we're now able to really narrow down on those criteria. Maybe even expanding in some places and saying, well, without this technology, we wouldn't have been sure, so we'd have said no, but now we can say yes to you because we're sure.
It means being even more precise, because it's been precise and it's been great for a long time, but even more precision in the fringe cases. And the ones that are difficult are becoming more and more accurate and precise and are having greater confidence in outcomes.
What I see happening in did you say 10 years? I think refractive surgery is going to be the primary vision care option for people suffering with refractive error. I think that it's not going to be for the elites and the privileged and those who are fortunate enough to have access. I think people who can't see are going to be able to have their vision corrected, and then they're going to be able to go out into the workforce and the community and serve in their own capacity. That's what I see.
Polly Neely: That's what I hope happens. I really love that because it should be, it should happen for everyone to be able to have that. I agree with you. I love your excitement, Dr. McIntire, you have been amazing as always. And I appreciate you so very much and congratulations again on your appointment and we will look forward to speaking with you again.
Dr. Lisa McIntire: Thank you, Polly. The feeling is mutual. I always enjoy an opportunity to speak with you. Thank you for inviting me.
Polly Neely: Well, thanks for coming.
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.