Someone waiting for a routine eye exam in Dr. Randy Epstein’s office would probably be unaware that a clinical drama could be unfolding in the next room. That’s the range of Dr. Epstein’s cornea practice – from everyday eye care to complex cornea surgery, with LASIK surgeries in between.

“Much of what I see and do every day is high drama, in the sense of the television show E.R., believe it or not,” says the Chicago surgeon, researcher and longtime affiliate of the Illinois Eye-Bank. “The challenge I have as a specialist who also provides comprehensive, general eye care, which I still enjoy, is that on any given day, interspersed with people coming in for routine eye exams, could be someone who has a horrendous corneal infection that they acquired from their contact lenses, or someone who got poked in the eye by a tree branch and has fluid leaking out from their eye.” Epstein’s greatest frustration is that patients waiting for routine care are often impatient when he runs behind. “They don’t realize that you may be in the process of making complex arrangements to keep someone from going blind, or maybe a patient has just told you that their spouse of 40 or 50 years recently passed away and you need to give them a hug and spend some extra time with them.”

The reserved surgeon is known for maintaining intense, caring relationships with his patients. He’s aware of the multiple dimensions of medical care, and that often a person’s psychological condition enters the equation. “What most people don’t realize is the psychological importance people place on their vision,” Epstein observes. “There’s something very intimate, personal and important about vision… There is a deep psychological connection between people’s eyes and their souls that is absolutely undeniable. Anyone who takes care of eye patients will tell you that. I never realized that such a high percentage of my time would be devoted to attending to the emotional needs of my eye patients.”

Ophthalmologists, he says, are second only to dermatologists in the number of patients they see daily. Dr. Epstein may treat 40 or 50 people a day. “You can’t imagine how many stories can be generated from those encounters.” One of his recent patient stories concerns the plight of Jackie Stillmaker, a high school student who contracted an infection after wearing contact lenses while swimming. She was referred to Dr. Epstein after emergency treatment for excruciating pain in her left eye. While treatment is critical to recovery, Dr. Epstein realizes the importance of bonding with his patients. During the long, arduous treatment process, he provided Stillmaker, a promising young basketball player, with the reassurance she needed that she would not lose her sight. More importantly, he became a role model for the young scholar, encouraging her to pursue a career in science.

“He was basically my second dad,” says the senior at Maine West High School in the Chicago area. “I was with him pretty much for two years.  He made me want to go into the medical field – not necessarily into eye care.” Currently thinking about a career in research science, perhaps microbiology, Stillmaker says, “If I were to become a doctor, he inspired me to want to be the strongest person there, learn everything I can. He’s so knowledgeable. Even though he doesn’t say much, he knows exactly what he’s doing and how to do it. He saved my eye. He cared about me. He wanted my vision to come back.  Not all doctors do that.”

Dr. Epstein is working with Stillmaker and her mother, Mary Beth, who is actively lobbying Congress to mandate better education and product information for people wearing contact lenses. “There’s ignorance on the part of the American public regarding the danger of wearing contact lenses,” he says. “Almost every reporter I’ve spoken with on this subject has been amazed that this is even an issue, because many of them wear contacts and no one told them that this was even a potential downside. If you consider the millions of people wearing contact lenses, it’s a huge problem. Every month, I see at least one other new Jackie Stillmaker, another young person who may wind up needing a corneal transplant because of a contact lens-related infection… No one educated them properly with regard to the risks associated with wearing contact lenses.”

It’s not surprising that Dr. Epstein would encourage a young person to explore research science. While at Rush University Medical School in the 1970s, he was impressed by one of his professors, Dr. Frank Hughes. “One day I asked him if I could watch him use an electron microscope; I had never seen one in use. We talked about what he was researching – corneal neovascularization.” Dr. Epstein joined Dr. Hughes in researching the causes and treatment of corneal neovascularization, which led to his decision to become a corneal surgeon even before he decided to specialize in ophthalmology. Dr. Epstein was able to present his original research at a number of the annual meetings of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He received a National Eye Institute Research Service Award, which funded further studies he performed during his corneal fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta. He later continued to research corneal neovascularization upon his return to Rush.

More recently, preventive medicine and advocacy have become areas of interest for Dr. Epstein.  His research is exploring ways to prevent ectasia or “corneal bulging” that may occur during LASIK surgery. A major article on this subject was published in the journal Cornea. Dr. Epstein notes that corneal bulging occurs most often in younger patients. “It caused us to become more conservative about doing LASIK surgery on younger patients with risk factors such as high astigmatism, myopia or thinner corneas. They may be at risk for developing keratoconus, which frequently requires a cornea transplant. If they’re only 21 years old, they may not yet have developed the disease. It may be best to wait until they’re closer to 30 to offer LASIK, if they do have risk factors.”

Along with his partner, Dr. Parag Majmudar, Dr. Epstein has been recognized internationally as an expert in the treatment of corneal haze, or scar tissue, that may form after surface corneal refractive surgery, such as PRK. Dr. Epstein’s research has led to the prophylactic application of the “off-label” medication, Mitomycin-C (MMC), to the cornea following procedures to prevent the haze from forming. “It has become a standard treatment for post-operative corneal haze, and we are now investigating its use for prevention,” he says. “Thousands of patients worldwide have benefited from our research; that has been very gratifying.”

Dr. Epstein was also active in promoting the passage of a change in the Illinois organ donor law that increased the availability of eye tissue by requiring hospitals to notify the organ procurement organization of deaths.

Dr. Epstein also feels it’s natural for an eye surgeon to support the local eye bank. “Having a dynamic eye bank can make a tremendous positive impact on the career of a corneal surgeon,” he says, adding that he started his practice about the time that Chuck Pivoney was a technician at the Illinois Eye-Bank. Pivoney, who now serves as the Eye-Bank’s Vice President, Illinois Operations, fondly recalls his early work with Dr. Epstein.

“I remember him as an active, supportive physician when I started,” Pivoney says. “As far back as I can remember, he was a member of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society’s Eye Bank Committee.” The committee served as a medical advisory board, providing clinical advice to the Eye-Bank. Committee members also volunteered to evaluate eye tissue prior to transplantation.

“These physicians took time out of their practice and personal schedules to travel to the Eye-Bank and evaluate tissue for us,” Pivoney explains, adding that eye tissue evaluations were performed day and night and often on the weekend. “I am still impressed by the obligation Dr. Epstein and others felt in helping us. Dr. Epstein has always helped in the promotion of the Illinois Eye-Bank. He chaired the first several golf outings, joined the [Eye-Bank’s] Illinois Advisory Council, is a regular contributor and always present at our charitable functions.”

Dr. Epstein places value on community giving as part of his heritage. “The most rewarding thing for me, personally, is something I never really anticipated – the concept of giving back. It’s something a lot of people give lip service to and many people don’t do it at all. You get caught up trying to make a living and getting ahead professionally… but being involved in a charitable organization isn’t at the top of a lot of people’s lists.”

Dr. Epstein takes great pride in his children. Sarah is a sophomore at Penn State, majoring in Communication. Joshua is in Junior High School in Northbrook, Illinois.  When Epstein’s oldest daughter, Rachel (who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California-Santa Barbara, and is now pursuing pre-medical studies) began her “Bat Mitzvah” class, the rabbi brought all of their parents together with the children and explained that “mitzvah” is the Hebrew word for “good deed”. He then asked parents to talk about what good deeds they were doing for society, and what activities they were involved with that were voluntary or altruistic in nature. Dr. Epstein said that he became a little anxious as they worked their way toward him. “I was thinking to myself, there are people here who were volunteering for this and that, doing great things for society, working in soup kitchens… and I was thinking that they would come to me and I’d say, ‘I see patients and I work really hard.’ I was afraid that I would be embarrassed that I had nothing more to say.”

Then, suddenly, it occurred to him: “I volunteer my time to help the Illinois Eye-Bank. We raise money to be able to provide donor corneas for people who can’t afford surgery, and fund research to help keep people from going blind.”

He smiled. “I felt very good about that.”

Eye Surgical Associates is a busy clinic on the campus of OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, Illinois. This is where Catharine J. Crockett, M.D. sees most of her patients. Although some of her patients come into the city from as far as an hour away, Crockett travels many miles on a routine basis to provide care at other clinics across the vast rural area.

“We have a lot of Apostolic Christians, farmers and other folks in the rural areas around here,” she explains. “They don’t always like to come downtown, so I work in other places where it’s easier for them to see me.”

Crockett has been a Board-Certified ophthalmologist since 1991. She performs three major types of surgery: cataract surgery, cornea transplants and Lasik procedures. For several years, she was the only specialty-trained corneal surgeon in the Bloomington/Normal area; however, others have recently begun practicing in Springfield, Peoria and Champaign.

In addition to the growing number of corneal surgeons, Crockett notes growth in the field of transplantation. “Corneal surgery is evolving,” she says, pointing to such new developments as Deep Lamellar Endothelial Keratoplasty (DLEK) in which the surgeon removes only the diseases endothelial tissue and replaces that tissue, rather than removing the entire cornea. Other advances include new types of contact lenses for patients with keratoconus, and new tissue adhesives for treating pterygia which help to minimize surgery time, avoid complications from sutures, and reduce pain following surgery.

Since 1996, Midwest Eye-Banks has operated the Illinois Eye-Bank, Watson Gailey, with Crockett as its Medical Director- a position she had held since 1994. The Eye-Bank is located on the southern edge of Bloomington, a short drive from Crockett’s main office. It was formerly housed at the BroMenn Regional Medical Center, and was then known as the BroMenn-Watson Gailey Eye-Bank. Dr. Crockett notes that the relationship between the Eye-Bank and surgeons has improved tremendously in recent years, ever since Midwest Eye-Banks and the Illinois Eye-Bank assumed managements of the Watson Gailey facility. “Now there is more equitable distribution,” explains Crockett, “and we can have surgeries when we want.”

Today, in addition to serving as a volunteer Medical Director for the Illinois Eye-Bank, Watson Gailey, Crockett is also a member of Midwest Eye-Banks’ Board of Directors. “They are co-dependent roles,” she says. “Serving on the Board is an extension of being the Medical Director.”

Crockett’s professional memberships include the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Medical Association, Illinois State Medical Society, Illinois Society of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology, and the McLean County Medical Society.