Cornea
Winter 2025
by Julie Schallhorn, MD
Cornea Editor
Driving through the verdant hills of rural Virginia earlier this fall, my 6-year-old daughter asked me, “How do hills roll?” She’d heard the phrase to describe the area, and looking out the car window, she started to wonder. I immediately burst out laughing, for despite hearing that turn of phrase hundreds of times, I had never thought of hills physically rolling. The mental image of it still makes me giggle.
Innovation starts with a moment of wonder. If we can hold on to that childlike curiosity, to see old landscapes with new eyes, there’s no limit to what we can learn or what problems we might see differently enough to solve.
To take something known and look at it from a new direction, to question our view of reality, to wonder, these are the strengths of children, but also of innovators. Imagine the first time someone proposed putting amniotic membrane on the ocular surface—lunacy! Yet now we know how useful it is in treating ocular surface disease, and our retinal colleagues have even begun to use it for macular hole repair. Read more on this topic in this issue’s excellent article, featuring comments from Neel Desai, MD, and John Hovanesian, MD.
When something is viewed as a problem, it remains just that—a problem: stubborn, frustrating, and unyielding. But turn the world on its side, and suddenly it becomes a lock, waiting for a key—an opportunity searching for a solution. Every challenge in our field is potential; every friction point offers instruction.
This is true medically as well. Atypical cornea infections, as Sonal Tuli, MD, MEd, MBA, and Gerami Seitzman, MD, point out in an excellent article, is the eternal teacher. Each new case sharpens our intellect and diagnostic capability; each patient is an instructor. Keeping an open mind and cultivating curiosity are not merely virtues, they are necessities.
So, the next time I hear my daughter ask a question like, “How do hills roll?” I’ll remind myself: Innovation starts with a moment of wonder. If we can hold on to that childlike curiosity, to see old landscapes with new eyes, there’s no limit to what we can learn or what problems we might see differently enough to solve.
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Opening doors
When asked about “opening doors,” Jeff Pettey, MD, EyeWorld Cataract Editorial Board member, said, “Reconnecting with colleagues in person at professional meetings opens doors to strengthen our community and improve our care and patient outcomes.”
