Dr. Ritesh Patel is the owner of an award-winning, multi-location practice in the Toronto area. He holds the unique distinction of being the first practitioner in North America to implement LipiFlow into a dry eye practice. Oh and, by the way, he was formerly the official optometrist for the Cincinnati Bengals.
In this episode. Dr. Patel shares his experience building a successful optometry practice with multiple sub-specialties including dry eye, myopia control, and specialty contact lenses.
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Progress Not Perfection: Dr. Ritesh Patel
Thank you so much for taking the time to join me here. Before we jump in, don't forget to always subscribe. Please leave a comment and review. Whether you're watching on YouTube, listening on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, I always appreciate all the feedback that you guys provide. I have an amazing guest here. Dr. Ritesh Patel from See & Be Seen Eyecare in Ontario. They have two beautiful locations. I'm not just saying that. If you guys check it out, it’s amazing décor and beautiful locations. Award-winning practices voted top three optometrists in Toronto for more than five years running.
Dr. Ritesh Patel also lectures to family practitioners on the Ontario Pharmacy Association. My favorite fact about Dr. Patel is, he was the official optometrist of the Cincinnati Bengals from the year 2008 to 2010. If you know me, I'm a huge football fan. I got pretty giddy learning that fact. Thank you, Dr. Patel, for joining me here. I appreciate you being here on the show.
Thank you so much for having me and the audience for reading. Dr. Sian is an amazing showcase of optometry and young entrepreneurship. I'm thankful to be here and for you for having me. I look forward to sharing some of these thoughts and ideas. It's Super Bowl Sunday 2021, so the football note is relevant, so thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Patel. I appreciate the kind words. Why don't we jump right in? Tell us a little bit about your practices, so you have two locations in the Toronto area. How do you feel? How would you describe yourself as an optometrist? What do you like to do? What's your favorite part of the practice?
I've been one of those lucky few that someone knew that I wanted to be an optometrist since I was a young child. Breaking glasses every other visit, my parents dragging me in going through the process of what it is with a minus five with high astigmatism type of kid and rambunctious enough to break my glasses constantly. It was one of those things that I figured, “If I can't beat them, I’ve got to join them.” The only way it would make sense is if I had the ability to be able to yield and harvest my eyewear.
Fast forward following my passion, the lines it takes to become an optometrist, I was fortunate enough to be able to do that. That's planted an important seed for me early on in terms of following my passion. When it came to a point where after graduating from school in Boston, I practiced in Cincinnati, Kentucky, and was one of the doctors from the Cincinnati Bengals, it was pretty cool. Part of all those experiences taught me what it was like to be able to care for people.
It dug deeper into what allowed me to follow my further dream to be more focused on dry eye. For us having our own practices in 2013 was pretty incredible. We were able to help people for sure, but then diving deeper into some of the passions of optometry, dry eye, and investing in technology, which I'm sure we'll chat about a little bit more like LipiFlow and IPL. That's been the fun part for sure.
We're definitely going to jump into that. I also want to give a shout-out to NECO as I have a fellow NECO alum here on the call. Go NECO. I had Dr. Howard Purcell, who's the President. That was a bit of a rah-rah conversation too like, “Yay, NECO.” You mentioned dry eye. That's going to be anybody who follows me knows that I talk a lot about dry eye these days. I have tried to document my journey into the dry eye sphere as a beginner. What were my steps? How do I get into it? I'd love to hear your version of that journey. When did you feel dry eye was a specialty you wanted to go into? Were there certain triggers, moments, or milestones however you want to put it that you feel that you are along that path?
Absolutely. I vividly remember the point, and we all do where we got our first hug from a patient and it was an incredible feeling for me. This goes back to when I was practicing in the States. It was in Kentucky and I had a patient that was impacted greatly by her dry eye. I was fortunate enough to be able to help her out and get her started on a treatment protocol. I remember seeing her 6 or 8 weeks later. She came in and before she said anything, she gave me a big hug. It was her being genuinely thankful for someone to be able to help her.
In her own journey, she had gone through different practitioners and came up with the same roadblocks and the same end result of not feeling necessarily any better than she did before. Quite frankly, I didn’t do anything special besides listening to her concerns and coming up with a plan. That helps people who are not being hopeful get them on the right track and to be able to get there. That was a vivid memory. That does not happen to be my first hug from a patient but happened to be a dry eye patient specifically.
At that point, it was a big seed that was planted in me in terms of the true nature we have as physicians and doctors to be able to help somebody. It happened to be one of the few months that I had graduated. It was much aligned with right after finishing school in NECO and being able to have this experience with the patient and in terms, to be able to take that a step further, continuously help people. That was an important thing that drove my passion for dry eye.
Few hugs are going around these days, unfortunately, but other people are appreciative and not. It’s definitely a special feeling when a patient gives you that acknowledgment, praise, and love that you've given them some relief that they haven't had before. They'll definitely encourage you to pursue that path. When you dive deeper into dry eyes, what was the first that you would consider an advanced piece of technology that you brought in? What convinced and encouraged you to go that step to bring that instrument in?
When I moved back to Toronto, I was fortunate enough to practice alongside an ophthalmologist who was in refractive eye care. One of the things that I was brought on for was to develop a dry eye clinic. Fortunately, enough, we were the first. I was the first practitioner in North America to utilize LipiFlow.
That's a pretty big and unique claim to have as well.
Health Canada approved it before the FDA, so we had access to it. It’s the same story in terms of being passionate about dry eye. I was a symbiotic fit for myself and the practice I was at. LipiFlow was the cornerstone of dry eye care for many years, and quite frankly, still is. For anybody who's been around for more than ten years of practice or longer, for many years, you had no choice. It’s like, “Here's a drop and see you in a year.” That was pretty much the end of any dry eye care that you have for those patients. Now, I'm seeing patients and I'm like, “If I did that, I would feel like it'd be malpractice.” We're fortunate to live in an age of technology.
Building Progress: There's no harm for young practitioners to test different waters. You have so many different types of patients, knowing and understanding their solutions allows you to choose your own adventure.
Unfortunately, we know that there is still a good portion of practitioners who don't care to dig into dry eye all that much, so that is what they do. They’re like, “Here's a drop. Take that. I'll see you next time.” The goal of this is to encourage our colleagues who maybe are not that comfortable with dry eye treatments yet to get into it a little bit more and know that there are some options for them to treat their patients even more in-depth. We would love for those people to come on board.
The water’s warm. The idea here is that there is a lot of technology in the realm of let's call it LipiFlow, IPLs, and BlephEx but quite frankly, there's not always a complete need for those things, so something as simple as warm compress and nutraceuticals go a long way. To your point, that’s a great idea that we can practice however we feel comfortable but at the same time know that these different technologies, vitamins, or therapies exist in various formats that whatever realm that you want to practice in, it's nice to have that option. Whereas not only that long ago, it wasn't an option. To have that flexibility of technology, both in terms of a practitioner in whatever level that you want to go at and to know that if there is an X that you want to rotate, the sky's the limit, at this point, which is great.
Let's step away from dry eye for a moment because there are a few other things that I want to touch on and we'll come back to dry eye with a few other things. You also do myopia control, you fit specialty contact lenses, and all these other things at your practice, See & Be Seen Eyecare. I don't do all of those things. I do some of them but I find that if I want to get into it, then I'm afraid that I might be taking away from some other ability to do other part of the practice. You do all of those. Do you recommend somebody who wants to get into all of those different things? Should they dabble a little bit with each thing? Do you think they should go heavy into one, get that set, then go into the next one and get that set, and so on?
There's no wrong answer, per se but I do find that the old saying, “Ten thousand hours of doing something makes you get that level of expertise.” There is certainly a value in terms of going a little bit heavy on something that you hopefully feel passionate about. Sometimes, as you're an early practitioner, you don't know what you truly are passionate about, so sometimes dabbling in those things so you can understand your passion is one of the biggest things.
For me, I was fortunate that dry eye was something that hit me early on in my career. It was something that I continued to follow through it. Whether it's Scleral, which was a byproduct of dry eyes so for my patients that want to continue to wear contacts, Scleral happened to be an organic fit in that direction. Part of my refraction, when I spent my years in the laser clinic, focused on dry eye. There are some patients that weren't suited for laser. To know that they wanted or required a non-surgical option is what stemmed into myopia control/more so than it is myopia control of my practice.
These slight movements branch off from the trunk of my tree and it happened organically. To me, I decided that I'm enjoying it, so I'm going to dive deeper into it, go to certain conferences, learn about specialty contacts, and keep going forward with it. I was fortunate it happened organically but to your point, considering something where you may want to test the waters, and dip your toes in, there's no harm in that. For young practitioners, when you have so many different types of patients that you're hopefully seeing, knowing their solutions or understanding their solutions to those various things allows you to choose your own adventure.
I like that. Choose your own adventure. That's a great advice. Thank you, Dr. Patel, because I still feel I'm in the early stages of these things. We're getting more into myopia control, probably a little more into dry eyes than myopia control right now but want to start to do Sclerals and these types of things. It's good to know that a young practitioner or even a more veteran practitioner could dabble a little bit, see how it works, whether it works for them in their practice and start to implement one or the other a little bit more heavily. It reminds me of a quote from a book. By any chance, have you read Good to Great by Jim Collins?
Yeah.
One of his theories was to fire bullets, then cannonballs. I don’t know if you remember that theory, but that completed that quote. You shoot little bullets. Let's test this theory. Let's test that little practice. If it works, you shoot the cannonball in that direction. If you haven't read Good to Great, get out there and check it out. It's a good book if you're into business and entrepreneurship, which you probably are since you're reading this. I digress. Let's get back to dry eye a little bit. How do you feel about offering more advanced dry eye treatments and things? Has it helped build your practice, with patient retention and those types of things? You can give some examples of how you think that it has.
When you're in the case of a dry eye, or anytime you're helping a patient, and somebody sees, “I was feeling one way and now I'm feeling another. I have been listened to. I have been cared for. I'm in the right hands,” that person is going to be a loyal patient. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be specialized or have the fanciest equipment, that person just need to feel they've been heard.
Fortunately, if you do have the options for having equipment like LipiFlow, IPL, and so forth, I feel we've taken steps along the way that when LipiFlow first came out, being one of the first practitioners of having that was the only thing I had my eye dry practice for 5 or 6 years. It wasn't until newer technology came out like BlephEx. It was like, “That sounds like a pretty reasonable thing for me to have.” You realize, “There's a whole subset of patients that I could be helpful for that.”
It wasn't until that was like, “Scleral lenses. That seems to make sense.” As much as we sometimes need to have this drawn-out plan about what the next thing I should get or the next piece of equipment I need to invest in, sometimes dipping their toe in first and realizing how many patients you can help and let that organically grow as time goes on.
I know you're out in BC and I'm here in Toronto. There's a company called Strategic Coach and this is coaching for entrepreneurship. It’s right down your alley. One of the things they always talk about is progress, not perfection. As much as the idea that you want to be perfect for that person, for that one patient, or for your practice, the reality would be, as long as you're making progress. In this case, whether it’s the use of technology or growing knowledge or learning, then that progress is going to help that patient move further.
What's interesting in the example they give is a flight from Toronto to Vancouver, let's say it is off course 95% of the time, and there are constant course corrections that happen along the way. I take that much at home when I'm thinking about practice and even my patient care. It’s like, “One, I want to help this patient. I want them to be perfect.” The reality would be as there are probably certain things that I'm going to help them feel better. Those incremental improvements for those patients with potentially the technology I have are not with my knowledge or all the above allows that person to get incrementally better as time goes on.
When the next technology comes out, you have the option to see if that's something that you want to invest in or if there's a subset of your patients that have benefited or not. That's an important one to keep in mind. As long as you're making progress within your own practice and with the patient, that loyalty for that person and how they're able to build your practice, sharing that same type of experience with your friends and colleagues and family is organically going always to help your practice grow. No matter what, if you take a digital approach or not, word of mouth will always be the best way for you to grow your practice.
You can give people those experiences like you're talking about. Patients want to give you a hug because you change their life basically. They're going to be able to bring new people in, they're going to share that experience with other people and bring new people in. I like that growth mindset. That's so important. I've definitely been guilty of it too, where you get caught up in wanting to make it look perfect before you put it out there.
It's about being open to learning, growing and failing, frankly, sometimes so you can get better over time. That's great. Tell me about how you made the jump. You had IPL. I still can't get over that you're the first optometrist in North America to officially use IPL. You had that for a bunch of years. That was your mainstay. How did you make the jump to IPL? When did you do that? What was your impetus there?
Being first in LipiFlow and in turn, having that base of patients that we were helping along the way and quite frankly, some patients were not eligible for LipiFlow even if they wanted to. We were always looking for the next technology as it was coming out to be able to offer to nonlinear or subsidiary patients that weren’t on LipiFlow or haven’t benefited from LipiFlow but certainly from those that didn’t.
When IPL came out and it was Health Canada approved, we jumped on it. We were looking at a few different devices and finding something that was going to, of course, have the clinical papers to prove that this is beneficial for dry eye. There have been some off-label treatments for it with IPL for some time but we were waiting for that approval.
That was big for us and looking at something that especially in the demographic that we're in, but quite frankly most people, that if there was some potential benefit from me going into dryness treatment, then combining those two things into one almost beauty standpoint we were excited about that. In this case, we were the first in Canada to have the E>Eye IPL and we've had it now for more than six months and it's been incredible. We've been able to help patients. I don't know about yourself, but I've never seen so many styes in my career. It’s non-stop. Almost 80% of my patients right now will have some experience or story about styes. It's unreal.
We were fortunate in the timeliness of it. Being able to help those patients with dry eye and have a gamut of different things that we can utilize technologically, whether it's IPL, LipiFlow, BlephEx, plugs, Sclerals, warm compresses or cleansers. There's such a wide range of things you can do, which is awesome no matter what range of practitioner that you are or want to be.
You're right about the stye thing. There's something about it because people are home more. I don't know what it is, but maybe they're on their screens, more than rubbing their eyes, whatever it might be. It’s also one of those things that when you start looking for something, all of a sudden, you start to see it so much more and that's something I tell people about dry eye too.
Before I got into this sphere, more than a few years ago, it's not that I brought in a bunch of new patients in that period of time, I have been seeing pretty much all the same patients that I've been seeing. All of a sudden, a giant proportion of them have MGD or whatever because I started looking for it and it wasn't before.
One of the first investments I made even prior to LipiFlow was an interior set camera. The interior set camera was a game-changer. It still is to this day, because it's not something that's common. The retinal camera is amazing. When people say, “That's my retina. Never seen that before in my life,” in theory, that’s not necessarily the newest technology, but people are still wowed by it. It still is foreign.
They'll say, “Is that my eye?” It can be anyone's eye retina wise but when somebody sees the front of their whole eye, one, they don't know it's their eye in terms of their color and so forth. When you show them any MGD, any blepharitis, they're automatically thrown back. They’re like, “Is that my eye?” They're also offended by the fact that their eyes look potentially a certain way. Even basic things like pinguecula we’ll say, “This is UV damage,” and how that links to many other conditions potentially in the eye.
Interior set cameras are probably one of the best investments I've made in terms of patient care. It's neat to be able to see this case. I'm more than thirteen years out but going back a few years ago to see before and after images, whether it's again you've done treatment with BlephEx or having to go home and do treatment with cleaning their own lids.
Building Progress: Planting a seed early in a patient during treatment is important. Later on, they remember something you mentioned and come back because they're ready for it now.
To be able to see before and afterward not how they're physically feeling, a lot of times, even if you're physically feeling the same, but it looks better automatically, mentally that person feels a lot better about it too. I want to share that with your audience. An interior set camera doesn't have to be expensive. It goes a long way.
That’s fantastic advice. Thank you. I've tested out a couple of different ones. I don't have one that we're using. I do use a smartphone sometimes to take a photo if I need to but I often will use those generic images. When I did have a camera or I did take photos to show the patient, it's way more relatable for them. They recognize their eye, their iris, and everything.
They know that there's a bit more of a connection to it than a generic image or the retinal image that they've never seen before. A key point for somebody who's getting into dry eyes is to have imaging like that or some basic diagnostic stuff like that without going super high-end or complicated myography and non-invasive tear and stuff like that. Getting imagery is super key for getting patients on board.
Also, compliance helps in terms of the person seeing. We do a lot of lid cleansers, even if that person does not need any secondary treatment like BlephEx and so forth. I try to have the patient relate to any build-up they may have on their lids because you know that in one way, you're educating that person in terms of what you're seeing clinically. When they see for themselves, it does matter what I say. They see for themselves.
You're planting the seed like, “In terms of a compliance level, if you do this home therapy, the need for me to be able to do some incredible things. They may not be necessary.” If you don't, then at least I'm going to send you information and, in turn, at least let them know that they have technology there because patients want to know.
They may not need it right away, but they certainly want to know, “You told me about it.” Most of my dry eye patients are astute and sharp. We're probably about 65/35. We have 65% of our patients that are referred, so they tend to have some baseline knowledge of it. There are family practitioners or optometrists already educated with but they've gone home. Ten minutes of a Google search on dry eye and you can learn a lot. They're coming in with direct questions and different therapies that they've done research about even before I told them.
Having those different things that you have access to and the imagery for before and afterward keeps that person on the ball as well but what I found is with any of these treatments is that planting a seed early in that patient is important. I have patients that I may have said something years ago that are now finally coming back. It’s like, “I remember you mentioned that thing, LipiFlow, IPL, or whatever you want to call it, I’m ready for it now.” Don't be afraid to necessarily, not only educate that patient in the niche but realize that may not germinate those seeds or those seeds may not mature until a bit later on but it's okay to plant them early.
That's also good advice. Don't get caught up in the fact that maybe those patients aren't converting into your advanced treatments right away because the fact that they know about that information, the fruits of that might show later on. I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the IPL. You have the E>Eye from I-MED. Is it IRPL? Is that correct? Is that a little bit different than a standard IPL? Would you be able to distinguish the difference there?
It is. That's the IPL that I have for I-MED. What the researchers found is that the IRPL has a little bit of pulse therapy that allows it to go a bit deeper into the tissue and they’re five sub-pulses within the pulse itself. We were debating between the I-MED or the E>Eye versus a couple of other instruments. A combination of One Health Canada approval right off the bat, which is great having the history of the studies that they've had, was a pretty big distinction factor for us so again. We've been happy.
One of the biggest things for us was the ability for that specific IPL to treat some of darker skin tones. With anybody who's familiar with IPL, then there's a little bit of limitation as we get to some of the darker skin tones and this was one of the only ones that had some flexibility in terms of getting to even my own skin tone for that matter. To us, that is one of the 3, 4, or 5 different key things that allowed us to say, “This is the right one for us.”
That's awesome. That was something I was going to ask you specifically because we've been looking into these devices for our office and I understood that when looking on that Fitzpatrick scale of the skin tone, there was a limit. I've spoken to some practitioners that say, “If you are experienced with a certain type of device, maybe you can push that a little.” It sounds like you have that ability with the E>Eye. That’s good to know. Are there any other words of pearls of wisdom you want to share on the dry eye? You've already shared a lot, so it's come out organically. Is there anything else you'd like to share? I want to talk about football for a second.
To your point, especially when you're earlier on in your career, as probably a lot of your readers are, don't be afraid to try something. It's one of those classic lines, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” If we're always looking or we're potentially concerned about maybe not doing the right thing, that patient as long as you're describing to them, what your plan is and executing on that plan and what that person should expect in terms of a timeline. They're going to be happy that you have a plan for them. That would be one of the big things. Sometimes we limit ourselves. We're a bit afraid or concerned not necessarily to take that additional step, so that’s one thing.
The other thing there would be is starting off and realizing don't be intimidated by technology. There is a lot of stuff in the dry eye field out there. We named a few. Corneal Images, LipiFlow and IPL. You're talking about a lot of potential financial outlay but for me, I started off with a pretty basic slit lamp camera and trying things. It grew from there and your patient base will grow along with you. Don't be afraid to try those things and you'll need all these fancy tools. They help but they certainly are not a complete necessity a lot of the time. Spending the time to be able to educate yourself and your patients goes a long way.
What great advice. Thank you very much. The show that I released prior to this one was my entry-level beginner's plan, if you will, to get into the dry eye space. This is a perfect discussion for us to have as a follow-up to that. Learning from someone like yourself who's in a much more advanced and experienced position using these types of treatments and I feel good that you're echoing some of the advice that I hadn't given in that show but giving now your own spin on it.
I haven't practiced in this field for a little bit longer. Thank you for that feedback and that information. Tell me about becoming the optometrist for a National Football League team and what that experience was like. You were with the Cincinnati Bengals for a couple of years. If you don't mind, share how you got in there and I know you told me it was pure luck but I doubt that's all it was. What was the experience like being in optometry exactly?
It's awesome. To a certain point, I was lucky, for sure. Luck plus circumstance goes a long way and just being ready for it. I was fortunate enough that I was practicing with another practitioner who's, historically, been the eye doctor for the Bengals. Seeing a lot of the, of the players already and it organically led into we're a good fit for each other symbiotically. The practitioner was happy to have been doing it for some time. He's like, “I've had my fun. It's your turn now.” It was pretty awesome to be able to meet some of these players and they're big kids. They're nice people and you get a chance to see a practice facility. At some point, in the NFL, it is next level.
Some of the stuff that these guys have access to, it's as you can imagine, they're superhuman, in many ways. Probably one of the things that amazed me the most was many of these offensive linemen. For anybody who watches football, their whole world is arm's length away. Many of them are -1s and -2s. That's how they play the game.
You imagine, “What are you doing downfield? How do you see somebody who’s 100 yards away?” They don't bother? That’s interesting. One of the most incredible things was there were a couple of famous wide receivers there at the time. One of the most famous at the time was monocular. As you can imagine, a wide receiver needs to see depth, distance and be able to catch a ball literally while jumping in the air, even potentially seeing the spin on the ball to understand that.
I'm examining this guy and I’m like, “You know that you don't see your one eye. How are you doing some of these incredible things that I was watching him do on TV?” I was blown away at the fact that without having both eyes, he would have judged depths. There are other cues shadowing, size, and so forth. For the viewer to understand that the skill level, as you can imagine, is incredible. Your brain is able to adapt accordingly for that.
While you were there ‘08 to 2010, I'm trying to think about who was the quarterback and who were the big-name players. Are you allowed to say who was one of the more famous players that you got in touch with or in touch with?
The quarterback was Carson Palmer. Ochocinco was another big guy who was there. He’s a wide receiver. Some of these guys are super talented, potentially Hall of Fame status and quite frankly nice guys. They’re human.
That's amazing. To wrap up, there are always two questions I'd ask every guest. I wanted to pose those questions to you a little bit off-script from what we've been talking about. The first question, Dr. Patel, is if we could hop in a time machine and go back in time to a specific point where in your life, any time in your life where you were struggling, you're having a difficult time. You can share the moment if you want but more importantly, I'd like to know, what advice would you give to yourself at that moment in time?
Building Progress: Don't be intimidated by technology. Start simple and grow from there and your patient base will grow along with you. You don't need all these fancy tools, they help but are not necessary.
It’s funny. It combines a few different aspects of life, including practice. This was vivid almost to the month. Years ago, we found that we were pregnant with our first child. We had opened the practice not too much longer before that, so we're still in the opening phases of that. I'm a big sports guy, so I was playing basketball and broke my leg playing basketball. It was a pretty bad break. If any of you are sports fanatics, it was like a Paul George break. It was not fun.
I had a combination of all these different dates. What my goals were with my practice, so there's some uncertainty there. My wife was expecting our first child. I couldn't walk for about three and a half months. I was in a wheelchair. It was the whole nine. It was surgery. It was a pretty potentially dark moment in my life but certainly, most importantly, probably the biggest learning to your point, as you say and they always say, “If you want to be successful, fail faster.”
This is not quite a failure, per se, but certainly a little bit more of a challenging time. I told myself this more than a year ago, “Staying calm in rough waters is an important part of life in general.” Why I told myself this was the start of the pandemic in 2020. I did remind myself about that. Ironically, it was five years ago at that point. We had opened the second practice and we had a second child.
All these things were coming to a head and certainly the whole nine, uncertainty, financial, family and health. You name it. What I told myself then and I'm thankful I did, especially with the fact that I'm spending time with my family. Relax. This too shall end and it'll pass. Although it's taking a little bit of time for it to pass, the advice still stays valid. It’s making sure that when the waters are rough, be calm.
Especially if you are a practice owner or not, or a leader in your practice in some way or the other, making sure that the captain steers the ship a certain way is important for the team and the rest of your people around you to see that. That’s continued advice that I have given myself and make sure that the younger practitioners and family people are not or both of the above or none of the above. I know that with personal experiences.
That's an incredible experience. That’s scary to even think about. I can only imagine how difficult and painful that was. Thank you for sharing that moment with us. I know sometimes people don't like to share such painful memories but thank you. That's amazing that you got through it. I get stronger because of it too. The last question I like to ask and we've already touched on this, quite a bit but I'd like to pose it to you but more directly. Everything that you've achieved so far in your career and your life, how much of it would you say is due to luck, and how much is due to hard work?
I'm not sure if I've defined it that way. I would define it as a combination of gratitude. Being thankful and generally speaking, you get more of what you're thankful for. I’m a believer in that. Certainly, I joke around and say I'd rather be lucky than good. I always say that. I've been fortunate in terms of being pretty lucky but I like to think of myself as pretty good. Also, being thankful. Gratitude goes a long way.
Depending on how you want this show to go, before this show, we do a Sage cleansing of our clinic and we do this every quarter. We have a lot of energies that are coming in and out of our space, so we do like to be able to do that and study some of the energies, so I'm a believer in that. A combination on some of the traditional ways of thinking goes a long way. Certainly, luck. However, you want to define that. Gratitude is one of the biggest things for me.
That's amazing. First of all, I like that you went off the board there. I gave you luck and hard work, and you put gratitude but that's great. I appreciate the humility. Honestly, you're doing amazing things. Being that humble, to put it that way, is incredible. Sage cleansing of your practice. We're going to have to talk about that a little bit more offline because that sounds like something I would definitely into doing in our practices.
You're right. There are so many energies coming through daily. It's no surprise that sometimes your own energy could get thrown off and the wind can be affected. That's cool. Thank you, Dr. Patel, again for taking the time to join me here on the show and sharing such incredible insights about your practice as a whole on dry eye specifically.
Thank you for having me. You're such a great showcase for young entrepreneurs and young ODs. Thank you for having me and thank you for sharing your voice and your ideas and thoughts with the rest of the community. It's awesome and good luck to you.
Thank you so much. I want to say thank you to everybody who joined us in the audience. Whether you're watching on YouTube, listening on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, make sure you go check out Dr. Ritesh Patel. Check out to See & Be Seen Eyecare and learn a little bit more from them there. Thanks again for joining and I will see you again soon.
Important Links
YouTube - Dr. Harbir Sian
Apple Podcasts - The 20/20 Podcast
Spotify - The 20/20 Podcast
Dr. Howard Purcell - Previous episode
5 Step Plan To Implementing A Dry Eye Practice - Previous episode
YouTube - See & Be Seen Eyecare
About Dr. Ritesh Patel
Some people grow up wanting to be a famous athlete, an astronaut, or even the Prime Minister of Canada. Dr. Patel’s childhood ambition was to be an Optometrist. His dream leads him to live and practice all over the world, but his heart has always been in Toronto.
Dr. Patel was born in Toronto and grew up in the Markham area. After completing his Bachelor of Science in 2003 from the University of Waterloo, he went on to study at the prestigious New England College of Optometry in Boston, MA.
Having earned his Doctorate in 2007, Dr. Patel moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he practiced for three years in a variety of settings: surgical, and private practice. He was also part of the medical team that performed examinations on the Cincinnati Bengals NFL team.
Dr. Patel moved back to Toronto in 2010 and became the Lead Optometrist of The Herzig Eye Institute. As director of the Dry Eye Clinic, he was the first practitioner in North America to use the Lipiflow Thermal Pulsation device. His dream of owning his own practice led him to open See & Be Seen Eyecare in 2013.
Dr. Patel works hard to stay at the cutting-edge of eye health. He regularly attends continuing education seminars and, as a leader in the optometric industry, has consulted for companies such as Allergan, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb, and Tear Science. He is also a regular lecturer for the Ontario Pharmacy Association as well as the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Patel has been voted Top 3 Optometrists in Toronto in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Dr. Patel’s passion for giving back has led him to participate in volunteer missions with Optometry Giving Sight in India and VOSH in Nicaragua. He was on the board of directors for the Ontario Association for Optometrists (OAO) and served as the association’s communication chair. Dr. Patel lives in Liberty Village, Toronto with his wife and two young children. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to old-school hip-hop, exploring the city on his bike, traveling and cheering on his beloved Toronto Raptors.