Meet our Speakers…

Dr. Paul M. Karpecki | OD, FAAO

Dr. Paul Karpecki received his Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University and completed a fellowship in medical cornea and refractive surgery in Kansas City, Missouri in affiliation with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He currently works in corneal services, heads the ocular surface disease clinic and is director of clinical research at the Koffler Vision Group in Lexington, Kentucky.

Dr. Karpecki was one of two Optometrists appointed to the Delphi International Society at Wilmer-Johns Hopkins, which included the top 25 dry eye experts in the world and the National Eye Institute’s Dry Eye Committee to provide insights around dry eye and women.

A noted educator and author, Dr. Karpecki has provided over 1,000 lectures at various meetings domestically and covering four continents. He has also authored over 1,000 papers in Optometry journals, book chapters, e-blasts and newsletters.

He has previously served the following roles: President of the Optometric Council on Refractive Technology, Chairman of the AOA Topical Interest Group in Refractive Surgery, Co-Chair of the Integrated Eye Care Delivery Task Force for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, Chair of the Kentucky Education Committee, Chair of the American Optometric Association Continuing Education Committee and Vice President of the Ocular Surface Society of Optometry.

He currently serves as the Chief Clinical Editor for Review of Optometry, the most read journal in the profession of Optometry. He is also on the board for the charitable organization Optometry Giving Sight. Dr. John M. B. Rumpakis | OD, FAAO

Dr. Rumpakis is currently President and CEO of Practice Resource Management, Inc., a firm that specializes in providing a full array of consulting, appraisal and manage-ment services for health care professionals and industry partners. He has developed some of the leading Internet‐ based software applications for the medical/eye care field

such as ReimbursementPLUS.com®, the industry leading cloud‐based CPT CodeData and Information Service and WhatsMyPracticeWorth.com®, a dynamic online practice appraisal tool. He is also the founder of Opt‐ED® Professional Continuing Education which creates and

delivers top tier continuing education around the country as well as Opt‐IN® which provides Optometric marketing and promotional services. Named the Chief Medical Coding Editor for Review of Optometry and Optometric Manage-ment, he has been extensively published on the topics of third party coding and billing, strategy development and execution, practice management, team building, maximizing effectiveness and profitability, including the text book “Business Aspects of Optometry.”

Dr. Rumpakis is a popular lecturer both nationally and internationally. In addition to having had a successful solo practice, Dr. Rumpakis developed the practice management curriculum at Pacific University College of Optometry and taught Optometric and Medical Economics there for over a decade.

A 1984 graduate of Pacific University College of Optometry, he most recently served on the

PRIMARY  EYE  CARE  PROGRAM   SAT  &  SUN  APRIL  25-­‐26,  2015  

AOA’s Third Party Center Executive Committee. He has also served as Vice‐Chair of AOA’s Optometry’s Meeting® Executive Committee, was the primary architect of the AOA Advantage program for student debt relief and has served as chair for the Student Debt Special Project Team, the Gold Disk Project Team, the Practice Perpetuation Project Team and Practice Transition Team. Dr. Caroline A. Blackie | OD, MPHIL, PHD, FAAO

Dr. Caroline Blackie has been a practicing optometrist since 1994. She completed an MPhil in Clinical Statistics in 1997 prior to moving to the US. She received a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University in 2001 and an OD from UC Berkeley in 2003.

Since that time, in addition to clinical practice, she has worked in the field of dry eye with specific focus on meibomian gland dysfunction.

Dr. Blackie joined TearScience when it was founded in 2005. She serves as their senior scientist, head of professional and

scientific communication. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed papers on the ocular surface and dry eye and her passion is to improve diagnosis and treatment options for patients who suffer from MGD and dry eye with an ultimate goal of generating a culture of prevention. Dr. Baseer Khan | MD, FRCSC

Dr. Baseer Khan received his MD from the University of Toronto and completed a Fellowship with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Thereafter, he completed a Glaucoma and Anterior Segment Fellowship at the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. He was honoured with the distinction as the “top cataract surgeon” of his graduating class. Dr. Khan is currently Director at the Clarity Eye Institute and Executive Lead Physician of the Eye Institute at Southlake Regional Health Centre. He is also on staff at Stevenson Memorial Hospital where he has established a leading glaucoma and anterior segment program.

Dr. Khan teaches at the University of Toronto where he is on staff at Kensington Eye Institute and Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Khan lectures nationally and internationally and is actively involved in clinical studies and research. Dr. Khan was the first ophthalmologist to provide the Victus cataract femtosecond laser procedure in Canada.

Dr. Amit Gupta | MD, FACS Dr. Amit Gupta graduated from the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went on to complete his Ophthalmology Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Department of Ophthalmology and completed a Retina and Vitreous Fellowship at Crozer-Chester Hospital under Dr. Stephen H. Sinclair. Apart from receiving many awards, Dr. Gupta has published numerous articles and papers and has been principal investigator in clinical trials of Age Related Macular Degeneration. Dr. Gupta is currently on staff at Clarity Eye Institute in Toronto, Ontario.

Dr. King Chow | MD, FRCSC Dr. King Chow received his MD from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario and completed his Ophthalmology residency training and fellowship also at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Chow is currently on staff at Clarity Eye Institute as a comprehensive Ophthalmologist with a special interest in ocular surface disease. He is also a Clinical Associate at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Melissa Tong | MD, FRCSC

Dr. Melissa Tong was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Manitoba, British Columbia, Hong Kong, Australia and Toronto. She was accepted directly from high school into the combined accelerated BS/MD program at Penn State University/Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and graduated summa cum laude. During medical school, she trained at Wills Eye Hospital and Harvard/Massachusetts Eye

and Ear Infirmary. She completed her Ophthalmology residency at the University of Louisville, Kentucky and Glaucoma Fellowship at the University of California-Davis. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and is a licensed Ophthalmologist in Ontario and British Columbia. Dr. Tong has received laser eye surgery training from Moorfields Eye Hospital, London UK. She has also

participated in volunteer eye surgery with ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital. Dr. Tong has had several published articles in the field of Glaucoma and has written a chapter on Glaucoma in the Ophthalmology textbook, Albert & Jakobiec’s Principles Practice of Ophthalmology. She is fluent in English and can converse in Cantonese.

Dr. Steve Dorrepaal | MD, FRCSC

Dr. Steve Dorrepaal obtained his medical degree at the University of Toronto, where he stayed to complete his residency in Ophthalmology. During his senior year, Dr. Dorrepaal was the Chief Resident and received several awards including resident with the highest standing over five years. He also has interests in research and international Ophthalmology and recently had the opportunity to travel on an Ophthalmology mission to the Philippines where he performed cataract surgeries. After his residency, Dr. Dorrepaal decided to pursue subspecialty fellowship training in the field of medical retina at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He also had an

appointment as Clinical Associate Staff at Kingston General Hospital and was actively involved with the care of general Ophthalmology patients as well as teaching residents and medical students. Dr. Dorrepaal recently returned with his family to the Toronto area to practice at Clarity Eye Institute in both the Vaughan and Scarborough locations. He is happy to accept patients with diabetes, retinal vascular disease, AMD and degenerative conditions, retinal dystrophies, peripheral retinal abnormalities including retinal breaks, and any other medical diseases of the retina. Although his primary interest is retinal disease, Dr. Dorrepaal aims to serve the comprehensive ophthalmological needs of his patients whenever possible.

Dr. Paul Sanghera | MD, FRCSC

Dr. Paul Sanghera obtained his bachelor and medical degrees from the University of Alberta where he was on the dean’s list. He then completed his Ophthalmology residency at the University of Toronto where he would later go on to teach medical students and lecture at the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences.

Upon completing his residency, Dr. Sanghera received surgical training with some of the world’s most renowned surgeons. He was one of the first surgeons in Canada to perform laser cataract surgery and is one of only a handful of surgeons in the province who has completed training for the keratoconus treatment Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking (CXL) plus T-PRK. He has performed over 10,000 ocular procedures

to date, and is committed to using the latest technologies and techniques in cataract and refractive surgery. In addition to his work at LASIK MD, Dr. Sanghera is on staff at Mount Sinai Hospital and the Kensington Eye Institute, both located in Toronto, Ontario. He also serves as the co-chairman of the International Ophthalmology Program at the University of Toronto. In 2014, Dr. Sanghera co-created and co-chaired Canada's first laser cataract teaching symposium. He is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including the Opal Hess Memorial Scholarship and the Dr. AJ Pauly Bursary in Medicine, in addition to being cited as the highest ranked applicant to enter the MD Program in 1997. His extensive Ophthalmological research is highlighted by the multiple grants he’s received over the years including a $10,000 grant from the Glaucoma Research Society of Canada. Dr. Sanghera’s work has also been cited in the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. Dr. Jeffrey Hurwitz | MD, FRCSC

Dr. Jeffrey Hurwitz has been the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Director of the Oculoplastics Program at the University of Toronto from 1986 to present. He was promoted to Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto in July 1994 and assumed the role as Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto in 2001. Dr. Hurwitz is also affiliated with the Hospital for Sick Children and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto as an Oculoplastic consultant. He is a member of several medical societies both nationally and internationally and belongs to many medical committees both locally and nationally.

Over the years, he has received many awards one of which was the Lester Jones Surgical Anatomy Award from the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the AAO in 2006. He has also been given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Medical Association Section on Ophthalmology in 2012. Dr. Hurwitz also acts as a reviewer for many ophthalmological journals and has also served as an external reviewer for various Ophthalmology programs in the country. Dr. Hurwitz also provides his expertise in the underserviced areas in Muskoka and Thunder Bay, Ontario and in the Caribbean, where he visits annually. For over 20 years, he has provided his expertise to the underprivileged in the Caribbean and has also helped increase the profile of the Ophthalmology program at the University of the West Indies at their three campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados and formed a strong liaison between the Ophthalmology programs at UWI and U of T. He is also on staff at St. George’s University in Grenada as a consultant.

Dr. John Lloyd | MD, FRCSC

Dr. John Lloyd received his MD from the University of Western Ontario. He completed his Ophthalmology residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, part of the world-renowned Albert Einstein Medical College, in New York. He was the chief resident in his final year and also completed a fellowship in comprehensive Ophthalmology with a focus on cataract and refractive surgery. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a member of the American and Canadian Societies of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

Dr. Lloyd has been performing laser vision correction surgery since 1997. Before joining LASIK MD, he worked at the

Bochner Eye Institute in Toronto. Dr. Lloyd is certified in several types of excimer lasers including the state-of-the-art Bausch & Lomb Z100. He teaches eye surgery to ophthalmology residents and gives lectures on ophthalmology to medical students at the University of Toronto. He is on staff at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as well as at the Kensington Eye Institute. Dr. Lloyd regularly lectures on both anterior segment surgery and comprehensive ophthalmology. He has received teaching awards from the University of Toronto’s Department of Ophthalmology for his lectures on optics. He also has the distinction of being an Examiner in Optics for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.