New Orleans Living Magazine When Roman philosopher Cicero said, "The eyes are a window to
the soul,” he couldn’t have known how well an ophthalmologist would someday
agree.
"Your eyes have so many stories to tell, and there’s so much you
can learn about a patient’s health just by looking at their eyes,” says Lisa
Dang, M,D,, ophthalmologist at LSU Eye Center. "It’s my job to see the
pathology and investigate any problems.”
For example, one of her patients was recently diagnosed in the
emergency room as having had a TIA, or mini-stroke. Her eyelid was drooping and
she was having difficulty swallowing. After hearing her story and performing a
complete eye examination, Dr. Dang diagnosed myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune
disease that causes neuromuscular weakness.
"The eyes are small but very complex organs, and most people
don’t realize many diseases of the body include eye findings,” she says.
Ophthalmologists can literally see disease pathology in the delicate blood
vessels of the retina, which may be the same process taking place in the blood
vessels of the heart or kidneys.
Dr. Dang is part of a collaborative ophthalmology team with
multiple specialists, including cornea, uveitis, retina and oculoplastics. Dr.
Dang joins another comprehensive ophthalmologist to round out the LSU one-stop
eye care. They handle a huge range of diseases like droopy eyelids, glaucoma,
cataracts and diabetic retinopathy. They are constantly engaging in the latest
and most advanced technologies to provide the best eye care, including
laser-assisted cataract surgery for higher precision and better results.
"The trend after cataract surgery is to become less dependent on
wearing glasses,” Dr. Dang says. As such, her group has creative ways of
handling the problem for patients who can’t afford the pricey premium lens
implants. They are able to correct one eye for distance vision and the other
for near; or they try to correct for intermediate vision in both eyes so that
vision falls within acceptable driving range and yet the patient can still read
their cell phone. "I spend a lot of time with my patients discussing their
vision goals — what is most important to them — and we go from there,” she
says.
Dr. Dang also teaches residents and medical students, working as
the medical student director. She encourages all of her students to have hands
on learning. During wet lab, the students learn how to dissect and place
sutures on cadaver eyes, and, in clinic, she teaches them how to use the
ophthalmoscope to examine patients. Dr. Dang says that once students see the
optic nerve and retina through the small pupil window, they are always
fascinated. She feels if more medical students took this opportunity, there would
be many more ophthalmologists in the world.
"Ophthalmology is very different from any other specialty,” Dr.
Dang says. "It’s almost like a foreign language. In addition to knowing
everything about the eye, you also have to have a very good base in medicine,
neurology and even rheumatology. You also need good hands in order to perform
surgery well.”
The challenges of the field never scared her. As a family
medicine physician, her father had already inspired her to be the best doctor
she could be. He said, "You must have genuine compassion for your patients. If
you don’t have that, you shouldn’t go into medicine.” She reaches for that goal
every day and she "strives for the best and nothing less” as her mother always
taught her and her successful siblings.
Keeping medicine in the family, Dr. Dang married Mark Fujita,
M.D., a family practice physician. They have a 7-month-old son, Giovanni, who
melds their Vietnamese, Italian and Japanese heritage. The couple is planning a
week-long medical mission trip to Grenada, Nicaragua, this spring to volunteer
cataract surgery and primary care for the impoverished of that area. Since she
was a college student, Dr. Dang says it has been a dream to travel to different
locations around the world providing critical eye care and surgery to those in
need.
"I feel very gratified and fortunate to practice ophthalmology
because of the immense impact eye surgery can have on someone’s life,” she
says. "It’s humbling when my patients tell me they can drive or read a Bible
again. These simple things keep me excited about practicing ophthalmology every
day.”
Undergraduate: Xavier University of Louisiana, Pre-medicine, Chemistry
Medical School: LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans
Residency: LSU Health Sciences Center and Ochsner Clinic Foundation, Department
of Ophthalmology
The LSU Healthcare Network — LSU Eye Center
3700 St. Charles Ave, 6thfloor
New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 412-1200