Emil William Chynn, MD, FACS, MBA

• American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
• American Board of Ophthalmology

LocateADoc Q&A

Describe the most rewarding experience that you have had working with a patient?

I am the only surgeon in NYC perfoming 100% No-Flap, No-Cut procedures. This spares corneal tissue, allowing me to safely treat higher prescriptions! Therefore, I get a lot of patients who've been to other doctors performing old-style LASIK, and were told their Rx was "too high" or their corneas "too thin" to have LASIK. I successfully did LASEK on a patient in 2009 who flew all the way from China, because they are still cutting LASIK flaps there, and could not treat her -22 Rx. I lasered her and she sat up in our laser suite and started crying, because she was seeing better than she ever did her entire life (because contacts only go up to -16)! So if you were afraid, or told that you couldn't get LASIK because you have a high Rx, or thin corneas, or dry eyes, or irregular astigmatism, or glaucoma, or retina problems, you OWE IT TO YOURSELF to call us and come in for a Free Consultation. We will NOT laser you unless WE KNOW you'll do GREAT as it's not worth if for either of us!:)

What is your charity organization of choice and why?

We donate 1 $4,000 LASEK per quarter to a recognized charity in NYC to raffle or auction off as a fundraiser. Typically, the charity raises $3,000 - $5,000 per donated LASEK, so we have raised almost $100,000 for various worthwhile charities, including the Dartmouth Club of New York, Pups for Peace, and VDay, among others. You can set up a donation for your favorite charity when you come in for your Free Consultation! The Charity cases need to realize their surgery will be a live seminar, where other patients will watch it! :) In addition, we perform "charity" on a daily basis to a lesser degree with every patient, as our objective is to share the Miracle of LASEK, so we need to make it affordable. We've let people partially barter with advertising, cooking, cleaning, handyman stuff, and even yoga and massage for our staff and patients! So if you have something to offer (goods or services) that we may be able to use, let us know and we can probably work out at least a partial trade

What does living in the New York community mean to you?

I was born in NYC, went to Columbia for medical school, and St. Vincent's in Greenwich Village for my internship in 1992. So I am a native New Yorker, and very loyal to NYC. I was actually the first surgeon to arrive at Ground Zero the morning of 9/11, and set up the 1st triage center down at WTC. This experience was life-changing, as you really don't have perspective on how lucky you are until you go through a great disaster like that. I actually owe my life to my dog, Hershey, as he unintentionally saved my life, as I had to feed and walk him before I went down, so that delayed me by about 15 min., and the towers were up when I left my apt. in The Village, and down by the time I arrived--so if I didn't have Hershey to take care of, I would have been in the triage center in the lobby of Tower I when it collapsed. Unfortunately, after closing my practice and volunteering "on the pile" for a week after 9/11, I came down with asthma, which I will forever have as a reminder of 9/11.

What is your favorite quote or saying?

"WE TREAT YOU LIKE FAMILY" We treat each and every patient like they are a family member, and double and triple check everything. We know that these are people's EYES and their vision for the REST OF THEIR LIVES that we are taking responsibility for! We cannot be anything less than perfect! :) I've actually had patients tell me afterwards, "You know, I chose you because you're the most anal and perfectionistic person I have ever met!" You can imagine how much pressure this puts on me, and also my staff, to always be perfect. But, as I often tell my staff, to achieve excellence you have to always strive for perfection! When you come in, you will see that my staff knows more than any other staff in NYC--not only because they all had LASEK themselves. Vanessa, our Patient Liason, actually left as our secretary to go work across town as an Ophthalmic Technician the next day--that's how "over-trained" our staff is! :) Our 2 MD Fellows will help with your care--not "techs!"

What makes your specialties the right fields of medicine for you?

I am a 3rd generation ophthalmologist; my grandfather and uncle were both eye surgeons, my grandfather was a Minister of Health in Taiwan, and my uncle is a retinal surgeon at Harvard where I trained. My father is also a doctor, and my aunt is both a general surgeon and nun! So I come from a medical background, and will treat every patient with the most honest and ethical care (or my entire family would disown me)! :) I chose ophthalmology because I like the intricacies of microsurgery, and laser vision correction because I was always very nearsighted, and remember an article in Time magazine in the 1970s where they featured RK in Russia. From that point on, I was always hoping that one day I could have my "Coke bottle" glasses eliminated--which I did--live on an AM talk radio show I had--in 1999! To be able to free thousands of patients from glasses and contacts gives me incredible satisfaction. With our Hi-Def option I can make most patients see better than glasses/contact

Finish this sentence: If I weren't a doctor I would be___.

A hedge fund manager and charity donor, as I also have my MBA from NYU and graduated from my MBA program Beta Gamma Sigma (in the top 10%), so I think I could have done well at that, and then started a foundation to promote world tolerance. Actually, I am using my MBA, as I have 1 US Patent granted and 2 pending for new ophthalmic drugs, one of which I licensed to a company and we're putting that through FDA trials right now. My 2nd patent is a glaucoma vaccine, so that would be a "game changing" blockbuster drug, if it gets approved. I also like mentoring people, and have a dozen interns rotating through my center at any given time. I also have 4 fellows, and believe I am the only refractive surgeon in NYC allowed to have 4 fellows. Therefore, we are always innovating, always conducting research, and publishing to advance the frontiers of laser vision correction--not just "follow the crowd." We were the 1st center in NYC to convert to 100% noncutting procedures, and use MMC!

When (your age) did you first realize you wanted to become a surgeon? And did you experience anything in particular to motivate you to achieve this prestigious goal?

I always wanted to be a doctor, as my father was a neuro-radiologist at Columbia, where I went to medical school. I decided in medical school that I wanted to be a surgeon, as I like fixing problems and seeing the positive results of my work quickly. I chose ophthalmology as I like the precision of microsurgery, and refractive surgery because I always wore glasses and wanted LASIK myself (I was the 1st LASIK surgeon to have LASIK himself, in 1999)! After performing about 5,000 RK, PRK and LASIK procedures, I made the decision to convert my entire practice to the safer noncutting LASEK procedure. Before, if we had a patient call at night saying they poked themselves in the eye and now saw blurry, we had to come in, as they could have dislodged their flap. Now, we just tell them to chill out, and see them the next day--as there is no way they can seriously damage their eyes after LASEK! So it's much better not only for us, but for our patients, as we both don't have any more worries!

Can you tell us in your own words what you consider a perfect outcome of a surgical procedure?

When the patient is seeing better than 20/20 after CustomVue WaveFront, has no night glare or halos, can still read after age 45 because I did MonoVision on him, and sees better than ever with glasses or contacts for the rest of their life! Before the non-cutting procedure, it was common to have night glare, which is from light refracting off your flap interface, as your cornea has a "sandwich" configuration. Before our Hi-Def CustomVue WaveFront procedure, it was common to have halos around lights, as it was impossible to put the higher Rx on the corneal periphery that is necessary for perfect vision at night when your pupil dilates. When I cut LASIK flaps, I worsened people's dry eyes, by cutting their corneal nerves and decreasing their blink rate. But now, with LASEK + Hi-Def, they have no night glare or halos, no dryness, and can usually see better than they ever did in contacts or glasses--it's truly amazing! I can make most patients better than 20/20 now!

What is your favorite procedure to perform and why?

Every surgeon knows that LASEK or Epi-LASEK which are surface ablation procedures safer than LASIK, as they spare tissue and leave the eye stronger. When performed correctly, you as an eye surgeon examining the patient under the Slit Lamp microscope cannot even tell anything has been done! With LASIK, there is always a small tell-tale peripheral scar, that can contribute to night vision problems as your pupil dilates. If I were lasered today, I wouldn't choose LASIK, but a 2012 LASEK or Epi-LASEK + CustomVue for "Hi-Def Vision"TM Most patients don't know that IntraLase and i-LASIK are procedures where a flap is still being cut, but only with a laser. Therefore, all the complications from a flap can also happen. Like if you get hit in the eye, your eye still has a flap and it can come back up. I performed a LASEK on Missy, my Practice Manager, in 2005, and she got mugged and hit with brass knuckles in 2006--guess what? No flap to come back up, because she had no flap to begin with

What procedure would you like to do more of and why?

I would like to educate my patients that with LASEK/Epi-LASEK + CustomVue, I can make most patients Better than 20/20! This is what we call "Hi-Definition Vision Correction"TM. It costs a bit more, but if you would spend more on a TV to get plasma, LCD, or HD, wouldn't it be crazy not to choose "Hi-Definition" for the eyes you will have for the rest of your life? It is really silly to save $500 and lock yourself in to "low definition" eyes, instead of doing the best and geting Hi-Def forever. I would also recommend our trademarked Reading Vizion procedure to anyone over 40, so they can not only see 20/20 at distance, but can also read without reading glasses until they're 50 or even 60! I had this myself, and will be able to read without readers until I'm about 55! We are the #1 center in NYC in terms of how many patients we perform Reading Vizion on, so we have more experience than any other center with that. So if you're over 40 and don't want readers, you need to visit us.

In a perfect world, when would you like to retire, where would you go and what would you do?

I am the only laser surgeon in NYC authorized to take 4 Refractive Fellows per year, which speaks to high level of medical care we provide. I hope to make the best Fellow a Junior Partner soon, so I can devote more time to developing my 3 US Patents for new eye drops, as well as have more time to pursue finding a nice woman to settle down with and raise a family, to add to my family of 2 (me and my cute dog, Hershey, a Welsh Corgi)! I would then like to do philanthropy in my later years. Ideally, I will find a great Refractive Fellow, and then sell a minority interest in the practice, so I would still retain majority ownership and control, but then could transition to more of a strategic management situation, and let him or her do most of the actual surgery. I'm now the #1 LASEK surgeon in NYC, and am not materialistic, so am no longer doing this for the money. I just want to achieve excellence in everything I do, and this means making all of my patients 20/20 or better! :)

What Sets Us Apart

Dr. Chynn was the 1st eye MD in NYC to have LASIK in 1999. He was not 100% happy. Like many LASIK patients, he has some Dry Eyes & Night Glare, so he switched to the noninvasive, noncutting SafeSight procedure to avoid this. Come in to learn about us!

Education

If you want to go to the surgeon with the best educational background, then you will go to Dr. Chynn! His Education background follows as:

• Undergraduate Degree: Dartmouth College.
• Medical Degree: Columbia University's College of Physicians Surgeons.
• Residency Ophthalmology: Harvard University / Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, where he was on the teaching faculty of Harvard Medical School.
• After Harvard, Dr. Chynn chose to complete a 1-year fellowship in Corneal Transplantation & Refractive Surgery at Emory University.
• Dr. Chynn also received his MBA from NYU in 2004.
• 15,000+ Procedures performed successfully
• 0 Lawsuits settled or lost
• Board-Certified
• Fellowship-Trained
• Member of AAO, ASCRS, MENSA

Why not choose the smartest LASIK surgeon in NYC? Dr. Chynn is also a member of MENSA the certified "Genius" society, he is the only LASIK surgeon in NYC who is a MENSA member. The American Medical Association

• The American Academy of Ophthalmology
• The American Society of Cataract Refractive Surgery
• The Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists
• The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

Emil William Chynn, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist.  Dr Chynn received his medical degree from Columbia University.  He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary of Harvard University perhaps the most famous ophthalmology institute in the world where he was one of the teaching faculty of Harvard Medical School. He then spent an extra optional year completing a year Fellowship in Refractive Surgery at Emory University, which has one of the most famous refractive surgery centers in the U.S.

Dr. Chynn has performed more than 10,000 procedures without a major complication.  He performs exclusively LASEK and epi-LASEK procedures.  These newer procedures are safer and provide better vision than the old-fashioned, more comon cutting LASIK procedure.

Other Affiliations

Park Avenue LASEK has the most highly-trained, best-qualified staff of any laser center in New York —period. Indeed, our patients say this is one reason they have chosen us! This isn’t an opinion—it’s a fact.

James, our Operations Manager, was a premed. graduate of NYU, and chose our center and paid for his No-Cut, No-Flap LASEK himself before he ever worked here! So he’s the perfect person to ask “Why choose us?” He is now (and will always be) better than 20/20! He’s also a true believer in the crucial safety of LASEK, as he was poked in the eye playing basketball several weeks after his procedure, but thank God he did not have his flap come back up—because he had no flap to begin with! So James is the perfect person to help reassure you that our non-cutting LASEK is safest!

Liz our Practice Manager, has extensive medical experience and has worked at practices throughout her home state of Ohio. She will have LASEK in 1 eye and Epi-LASEK in the other eye by Dr. Chynn in 2011. She has done all her own research and is extremely looking forward to getting her procedure done in the near future, so ask her any questions you may have about the procedure and ReadingVizion!

At most other centers your testing—which is used to confirm you are a good candidate, and to obtain the numbers to actually shoot the laser—is conducted quickly by an optometrist (OD) who never went to medical school, or some “technician” who may not know much more than how to push a button. Compare this to our center, where our entire Laser Team—Dr. Chynn, Dr. Almeida, Dr. Puri and Dr. Villarroel—are MDs (which requires a decade more training than an OD). Our MDs will spend as much time with you as necessary to make sure that all your testing is both accurate & complete before even booking your surgery. Isn’t that comforting?

Finally, at many other centers, you will meet “closers” whose only qualification is that they are good at “selling.” In contrast, King, our Patient Coordinator, had his procedure done in January. All he talks about in the office in his spare time is how he looks and feels with out his glasses; there’s nobody who is more excited for their procedure than King!

Congratulations about taking the first step towards a new life—experiencing the world free from contacts & glasses, and seeing how you were meant to see! We are really looking forward to giving you the Miracle of LASEK!