In Conversation With… Mitch Jackson

Whilst in Barcelona for the XXXIII Congress of the ESCRS 2015, Mark Hillen, editor of The Ophthalmologist, invited key participants of the conference to take part in an exciting new video project: “In Conversation With...”, an ongoing series of informal interviews with some of the biggest personalities in ophthalmology in glorious settings around the globe.When we met with Mitch Jackson who runs a private practice in Chicago in the Presidential Suite of the Hesperia Tower Hotel in Barcelona, Spain, our conversation saw us discussing why he finds it harder to be a surgeon today than when he started out 27 years ago. He speaks of the lessons that he has learned in the more than 30,000 LASIK surgeries that he has performed, how outcomes have changed, what his main reasons are for turning away 22 percent of potential patients, the impact of ocular surface disease and the potential of SMILE. Having been involved in more than 30 clinical trials, he discusses the highs and lows and talks of his frustrations with regulations, which sometimes restrict surgeons from using the technology that they believe will result in the best outcome for the patient.