PHYSICIAN CEO 2020 Participant Directory

Frik Potgieter, MD is a native of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and grew up in the town of Uitenhage. He matriculated at the Brandwag High School in 1976 and did his undergraduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch, where he qualified as a general medical practitioner in 1982. Towards the end of his two year compulsory military training, he listed to join the military full time and served in a permanent capacity for the next 13 years. It was during this time that he was afforded the opportunity to enter Ophthalmology as part of the military’s specialist training program at the University of Pretoria. Through a strange sequence of events and while acting as the Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at 1 Military Hospital, he became the driving force behind the acquisition of an excimer laser for the Department while still being in training as a registrar. This led to him becoming involved in the field of corneal laser refractive surgery during the very early days thereof. As a result, there was a major shift in his career towards anterior segment surgery, with specific interest in refractive surgery. In 2003 he founded the Optimed Eye and Laser Clinic in Pretoria of which he is the director and where he still is in private practice. Dr Potgieter was instrumental in the introduction of various anterior segment technologies into South Africa. Locally, he was part of an initial panel to evaluate the use of phakic intraocular contact lenses, as well as an international study group on foldable iris-fixated phakic lenses. With the advent of lamellar corneal surgery, he performed the first DSAEK procedure in South Africa and also assisted in establishing the DMEK technique for corneal endothelial pathology. He was among the very first in the world to perform the SMILE technique for the correction of myopia and astigmatism, which he introduced into South Africa in 2012. As part of ongoing research, he was the principle investigator in the development of an accommodative IOL for the restoration of accommodation after cataract surgery. The very first fluid filled accommodative lens to be implanted into a seeing eye in the world was done at his facility in Pretoria. Being a keen researcher, he has authored several articles in the popular ophthalmic press, peer review journals, and also contributed a chapter in a widely read textbook on LASIK surgery. For his work, he received a number of academic honors and awards, including the esteemed Paul Harris Award from the Rotary Club of South Africa for his humanitarian services, the Epstein award from the South African Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery (SASCRS), an Achievement Award from the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2016, as well as the highest honor to be bestowed upon a South African ophthalmologist from the Ophthalmological Society of South Africa (OSSA), the DJ Wood lecture and medal in 2019. He is a member of a number of academic and professional Societies, including the IIIC, the ISRS/AAO, ESCRS, ASCRS, OSSA and SASCRS, and serves in a leadership role in some of these. As part of an ongoing desire for excellence, he was among the first group of 15 anterior segment surgeons in the world to become formally qualified as an anterior segment surgeon after passing the FEBOS-CR examination of the European Board of Ophthalmology in 2017. In his spare time he enjoys a game of tennis, participate in CrossFit, photography, competitive shooting and flying helicopters. He is married, has three daughters and is the proud grandfather of twins. Above all, he finds his strength in God Almighty, and applies Psalm 91 (especially verses 1 and 2) in his everyday life: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! (The Amplified Bible).