By Kaitlin Candelaria
Dr. Marc Michelson became an ophthalmologist almost by chance.
Michelson was making his way through medical school when he decided to take a few extra classes on subjects that interested him. One of those was ophthalmology.
“I took ophthalmology because I thought I would never get to learn any more about it when I finished – we don’t teach a lot of eye-specific diseases in med school,” he said. “I left the class feeling like I’d learned a lot.”
A month later, Michelson was able to make what he called a “rather fascinating diagnosis” on a patient. The case ended up being presented to the ophthalmology residents and Michelson found himself receiving a call from the head of the department offering him a place as a resident in the program.
“When I started doing eye surgery, I found that God had a plan for me,” the doctor said. “I really enjoyed doing microsurgery and it became my passion and my profession and led me to who I am today.”
The Mountain Brook resident, who works from Michelson Laser Vision, is now considered a pioneer and innovator in the world of optic laser surgery. He’s done surgery all over the world and has worked on eyeballs belonging to celebrities such as Paul Finebaum and Dollar Bill Lawson locally as well as baseball players, airline pilots and CEOs.
“I meet a lot of fascinating and interesting people who come to me,” Michelson said. “I learn a lot about people. I like to find out a little about who I’m operating on. It’s not cut and dry – we like to get personal with our patients.”
There are special considerations when considering whether women, for instance, will make good candidates for laser eye procedures.
“One thing that’s important for women, especially as they go through hormonal changes as they age, is dry eye issues,” Michelson said. “We have to pay special attention to females because laser surgery has the risk of making a dry eye situation worse. In our evaluation, we are very tuned in to recommend a procedure that’s the best fit.”
Women also can experience changing eyesight during pregnancy, Michelson said.
“We don’t recommend doing LASIK during pregnancy because hormonal changes can make your eyes more nearsighted and we only want to treat you when you’re on a baseline level.”
A Celebrated Career
Michelson has had quite the career considering most of the technology that Michelson Laser Vision is renowned for wasn’t invented when he started practicing in the 1980’s. Since then, he’s been at the forefront of clinical trials first for photorefractive keratoplasty – which he was the first in Alabama to perform in surgery – and then for LASIK in the late 1990s, which he also was the first surgeon in Alabama to use in surgery. Now, he runs a practice that specializes in both procedures as well as cares for a wide variety of optic conditions including glaucoma, corneal disease, cataracts and more.
“I enjoy taking care of people,” he said. “I enjoy taking care of complex problems that other people don’t want to deal with or don’t know how to deal with.”
Michelson Laser Vision originally was opened at The Summit in the late ‘90s but has since moved to UAB Highlands in downtown Birmingham. Not to ever be behind on technology, Michelson is now using the WaveLight ex500 laser, which is the fastest laser approved for use in the United States.
“The easy part is learning the technology but the hardest part is bearing the costs of all these changes,” Michelson said. “You want to stay up with the best and you have to pay for it, but we feel that the patients always come first and we don’t want to use inferior technology – we want to be top of the line.”
Although people all over the world have gone under Michelson’s skillful laser, he said he never considered having a practice anywhere but in Birmingham.
“My roots are in Birmingham and I don’t want to move to a different city,” he said. “I’m very much tied to the community. Over the Mountain is our home and our family’s home. We’re here for the people around us and we’ll always be here for them.”
