14-02-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
Hindsight Is 20/20 on Dr. Ridley's Invention
I was deeply gratified to read Andrew Lam's tribute to Dr. Harold Ridley, 'The Doctor and the Pilot Who Saved the Eyesight of Millions,' op-ed, Feb. 8). Ridley chose not to seek a patent or personal profit from the intraocular lens, viewing it as a gift to humanity. However, as a young eye surgeon in the late 1970s, I can attest that the eventual success and widespread adoption of IOLs wasn't simply because of growing comfort with the technology.
If anything, Dr. Lam's account of the fierce opposition from the ophthalmology establishment understates the challenges early adopters faced. No medical journal would accept submissions on IOLs, forcing us to create our own. A new professional organization had to be established to facilitate meetings and exchange knowledge. On graduating from my residency, I had to seek an IOL fellowship in private practice because that was where the experts were. The more prestigious the academic institution or ophthalmology professor, the more intense and often personal the resistance seemed to be.
