Michael Brown, OD, MHS-CL, FAAO

Michael Brown, OD, MHS-CL, FAAO reflects on how, sometimes, doctors fail to practice what they preach

Michael Brown, OD, MHS-CL, FAAO shares what he wishes he knew before starting his career in optometry.

Overhearing a conversation in a physicians’ lunchroom in the 1990s helped this OD to better understand the meaning of the term “real doctor.”

Conditions may be imperfect, but ODs must still always manage

I have taught many students who have never met but are nonetheless connected

An OD is struck by the thought of he and his son looking through their own microscopes, trying to care for their respective flocks but from different angles and perspectives.

Set the stage for success in telehealth visits

Intersection of eye care and national crisis

How one OD made hard decisions during a time of emergent care.

For ODs during the COVID-19 pandemic, failure is not an option.

COVID-19 has one OD making life and style choices he never anticipated.

When listening corporate bias from the podium became too much, Michael Brown, OD, MHS,-CL, FAAO, looked up the lecturer under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. And then he found his own name.

The evolution of e-reading had some once proclaiming books are dead. One OD tells how old and new technologies can flourish side-by-side like books and e-reading and how one book and author has influenced his life.

The result of the 1804 duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr may have come down to one thing-Hamilton's glasses. Michael Brown, OD, MHS-CL, FAAO, examines the role of Hamilton's glasses and what this infamous duel teaches optometry.

Treating glaucoma can prove to be challenging at times. Michael Brown, OD, MHS-CL, FAAO, shares five aspects of glaucoma treatment that frustrate him.

Every summer I think about the most recent brigade of freshly minted ODs who have survived four years of optometric boot camp and a challenging gauntlet of National Board Exams. I picture students charging forth across the “no-man’s land” of changing healthcare landscape, lugging their backpacks full of six-figure student debt. My “tale of two state boards” is dedicated to these young comrades in arms.

The great philosopher Kermit the Frog once said, “It’s not easy being green.” Not only that, I thought at the time- it’s not easy seeing green either!

It’s March Madness time, and the next few weeks will take college basketball fans on a roller coaster ride of synchronous alley oops and ill-timed, dribble-off-the-foot turnovers. I’m always looking for an apt sports metaphor to help pass the time and get me through the day. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Sometimes people ask me, “How did you choose optometry?” Considering all of the close encounters I had with eyecare professionals in my youth, you’d think my career choice would have been as definitive as a Blake Griffith slam dunk. But that’s not the way it happened.

My residency preceptor, Dr. John Potter, was a bucking fire hose of clinical aphorisms. Among the pithy pearls he doused me with was this oldie but goodie: “The last doctor’s always the smartest.”