What does it take to become an eye surgeon?

The short answer to this question is: a long long time. First, one must become a medical doctor. This requires four years of college, four years of medical school, and one year of internship at a hospital.

After these nine years, a three or four year residency training program in ophthalmology is required. During this training, the aspiring ophthalmologist learns all about eye conditions, medications and treatments, and also learns how to perform eye surgery. At this point, the minimum requirements for performing LASIK procedures have been met.

However, most LASIK surgeons seek additional training beyond this point in order to obtain greater experience before practicing in this highly specialized area. Dr. Rothman has gone far beyond the minimal requirements. In fact, after his internship, Dr. Rothman actually practiced as a general medical doctor and emergency physician for five years.

It was during this time that he refined his clinical skills and made the commitment to become an eye surgeon. Even before he became an ophthalmologist and LASIK specialist, Dr. Rothman studied and performed research at Harvard, studying dry eye conditions and refractive (vision changing) eye procedures. He made a major contribution to the development of better artificial tears by inventing a machine to measure ion concentrations in tear microvolumes.

As a result of this effort, the artificial tear “Theratears” was developed over 20 years ago - and this product is still available today as one of the best artificial tears available.