Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Rany Woo.
Hi Dr. Rany, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I decided at an early age that I wanted to become a doctor. I put bandaids on all my teddy bears and listened to my dog Daisy’s heartbeat by putting my ear to her chest. I learned that, through science and medicine, I could one day fix things and help people. This has remained my primary inspiration to this day.
I went to public schools growing up, did the cheerleader thing and played concert piano, but always strived in science and math. Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepted me, where I majored in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. I went to Yale Medical School next. Undergraduate and medical school were challenging–I worked really hard and it made me ask myself countless times, is it all worth the pain of studies, relentless testing, and being required to learn things that won’t have any application to my job of helping people? The short answer is although I would change many things if I had the power to, it was worth it.
I love surgery. I love using my head, my eyes, my hands, and even my feet (my surgical machines have pedals like a piano!) to operate on the human body and improve people’s lives. Eye surgery called to me because it requires an incredible amount of dexterity as well as poise and decisiveness to perform microsurgery in a space of only a few millimeters. I honed my skills as a resident at UCLA-Jules Stein Eye Institute, a top ophthalmology program in the nation, where I also fell in love with Los Angeles (no more cold for me!).
Today as a cataract and refractive eye surgeon in Los Angeles, I perform many types of eye surgeries to improve and restore sight and the health of the eye: LASIK, PRK, cataract surgery, clear lens exchange surgery, implantable contact lens surgery, pterygium removal, and cross-linking treatment for keratoconus. Without exaggeration, these surgeries provide the gift of sight.
For some of these procedures, people who were legally blind before surgery can immediately see afterwards.
Recently, I operated on my own father’s eyes. I removed his cataracts, inserted lenses which allow him to see near, intermediate, and far without glasses, and restored his vision. There is no better feeling than helping someone who has given so much to me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My parents never had the means to attend college. My brother and I were both born in Korea, and we moved to a small military town in North Carolina when I was less than a year old. My father joined the US Army even though he had already served in the Korean Army, was much older than the average recruit, and didn’t speak English well. After the army, my father worked three jobs to make ends meet. My mother worked as a seamstress. But my parents, like many immigrants, came to the United States to pursue the American Dream and give my brother and me a better life. We didn’t have much at that time–I remember that going to McDonald’s was a rare treat. But I never felt I missed out because my parents worked so hard to give me everything that they never had. I never missed a single after school activity or chance to learn.
It wasn’t easy growing up as one of the few Asian families in my town. We were often harassed and made to feel generally unwelcome. This could have harmed my self-esteem, but my parents always reminded me to drown out the noise, work hard, and achieve the better life that I and they wanted for me. This thought pushed me through all the tough nights studying and working on call as a resident.
When people see my resume–MIT, Yale, UCLA-Stein–they may assume that I’m just a natural and I achieved my success effortlessly. Not true! Studying medicine is hard, competitive, and requires significant sacrifices of time and money–by you and your family. But as long as you have a north star guiding you, you can persevere. For me, that north star has always been my desire to fix things and help people.
As you know, we’re big fans of Laser Eye Center. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am a cataract and refractive eye surgeon at Laser Eye Center, which over the last 30 years has become a household name in refractive and cataract surgery in Southern California. We have performed over 450,000 successful eye surgeries, restoring vision to hundreds of thousands of people.
Laser Eye Center performs a variety of surgeries using advanced technologies that many other practices do not offer, including:
– ALL LASER LASIK AND PRK USING CONTOURA TECHNOLOGY
– LENS & CATARACT PROCEDURES WITH PREMIUM INTRAOCULAR LENSES
– IMPLANTABLE CONTACT LENSES
– DRY EYE TREATMENT
– PTERYGIUM REMOVAL
– KERATOCONUS CARE
– SKIN REJUVENATION WITH BOTOX AND FILLER
We provide complimentary consultations to determine how we can best help you reach your visual goals. Our passion at Laser Eye Center is to eliminate your glasses and contacts and give you vision that makes you see better than ever before.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
My number one takeaway from COVID is to trust science and medicine. The politicization of COVID generated skepticism in medicine, which is unfortunate. Neutral reporting on science may generate questions, which is fine but should not generate hysteria. I support getting back to the basics–evidence based science and medicine.
It is important to adapt in healthcare. In my practice, we took extra precautions to safely provide eye care to patients. We reduced staff to decrease potential exposure and worked twice as hard to serve our patients. In short, the world does not stop turning. People need eye care. If you are one of those people, I’m here for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lasereyecenter.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dr.ranywoo
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@dr.ranywoo
