Mark Wilkinson, OD

Dr. Mark Wilkinson is the Director of the UI Vision Rehabilitation Service and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology (Clinical)
He was awarded the Iowa Optometric Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 1997.

He was born in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1955 and attended Iowa State University where he majored in Zoology until 1976, when he entered optometry school at Illinois College of Optometry (OD, 1980).

He was originally hired by Chuck Phelps as a Low Vision Clinician working part time from 1984-1986 with ES Perkins, MD. He was one of the first if not the only part-time clinician at that time. Dr. Wilkinson was in private practice from 1980 to 1997, He made the move to the University of Iowa full time in 1997 as Director of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Clinic and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology (Clinical). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001.

We caught Dr. Wilkinson in his office for this brief conversation:

What interested you to pursue a career in optometry?

I became interested as a junior in High School primarily because of a local optometrist, Dr. Phil Swanson in Ottumwa. I liked what I saw when I visited him.

Is there a teacher or mentor who helped shape your career? People you admire?

Besides Dr. Swanson, there is Dr. Eleanor Faye, author of Clinical Low Vision. She served as Director of the Lighthouse Low Vision Services from 1965 to 1993. She is a luminary in Low Vision practice and inspired a lot of people.

How did you choose to come to the UI?

In the fall of 1996, Mike Bresnahan (then the Assistant to the Head in Ophthalmology), called me to fill in while Dr. Chris Sindt was on maternity leave. At the time, in addition to my private practice, I was Director of the Vision Rehabilitation Institute at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, IA and was the Low Vision Consultant to the Iowa Braille School’s Low Vision Clinics. The simplest and easiest thing would have been to just say no, but the right thing was to say yes. Low vision rehabilitation interested me more than private practice and when the Center for Macular Degeneration expanded to include full time low vision rehabilitation services, the opportunity was right. Many people said I was crazy to leave a successful private practice after 17 years to go into an academic medical center, but as it turns out, it was the right choice.

What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being a faculty member at Iowa provide?

I feel I can accomplish more being here as part of the Center for Macular Degeneration and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences teams than I could ever accomplish on my own. Being here has given me greater access for collaboration with ophthalmology and medicine than in private practice. It affords me more time to pursue the many aspects of low vision rehabilitation than I would have had the time to pursue otherwise. The stature of the University of Iowa and particularly the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences gives me a national and international platform for advancing low vision rehabilitation care.

What about challenges?

There are challenges in every practice situation so these are not necessarily unique to UI. You see the same problems to a greater or lesser degree everywhere. For example, getting reimbursement and funding for low vision devices, and needing to justify the value of a service that is not hugely profitable. If anything, though, there is less of this pressure at UI because of the recognized value of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Service to the department; in many cases, we are the last stop/problem-solving area in the treatment chain.

What are your professional interests?

I am interested in a variety of aspects dealing with driving with a visual impairment (both visual acuity and visual field loss). I hope to see better strategies developed to evaluate driving performance of individuals that are visually impaired. This would allow a more objective approach to determining when it is appropriate to stop driving due to vision impairment.
I am also very interested in the care of children who are visually impaired. This includes issues such as the promotion of literacy skills for students with low vision as well as general educational considerations for children with visual impairments.

What are some of your outside interests? What do you enjoy reading?

I play a little golf and still do some rock climbing, both indoors here at the UI Field House, or in Bloomington, IL and outdoors during the summer at the Mississippi Palisades. As far as reading goes, I am a huge fan of books on tape. I have a two hour commute each day so I get a chance to delve into a variety of books and my interests are broad including history, spy thrillers, detective novels and many others.

If optometry were not an option, what career path would you have followed?

Many people thought I would go into engineering, so I guess that is the direction I would have gone in if Optometry had not been an option. I was always interested in health care, but wasn’t drawn toward becoming a physician. Optometry and Low Vision have proven to be a good match for me.

Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional work?

I try to remember to take care of my patients as if they were a relative I like, or a close friend. I keep in mind how I would like to be treated.

What is the biggest change you’ve experienced in your field since you were a student?

The emphasis in Low Vision practice has evolved from a device-driven approach to a rehabilitation model that now encompass more education, training, counseling and advocacy. In the past, there was a perception that every person should receive a “thing” after a Low Vision Consultation. It was almost as if without the “thing” you really had not done anything to help the patient. Devices are still important in low vision rehabilitative care and will continue to be until such time that we can restore vision for all those that have experienced a permanent loss of vision. However, now that the rehabilitation model of low vision care is considered best practice, our patients are getting better care because they are getting more than just a device. They are now getting education and training in addition to advocacy and counseling as part of their low vision care.

What would you wish for regarding the future of the vision sciences?

I would hope to see less turf battles. I hope that the radical 2% of both optometry and ophthalmology will become less powerful so the rest of us, who do get along so well, can continue to work together for the common goal of providing the best possible care for our patients. Our professions are meant to complement each other and collaboration strengthens the whole effort.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

I would like to see all people get the tools and training they need to function at their highest potential. This goes for all people, not just those that are visually impaired.