Richard P. Mills, MD, MPH (1943-2020). Dr. Mills died on May 9, 2020, of COVID-19. During a highly regarded career in ophthalmology, he held many Academy volunteer positions. These included Academy President (1995), Chair of Eye Care America (2007-2013), and Chief Medical Editor of EyeNet Magazine (2002-2016)—all while working in academic and private practice, teaching, and raising a family.
During his EyeNet tenure, Dr. Mills wrote 148 Opinions, which are listed below in chronological order.
2002
Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Peer-Reviewed Journals: Guarding the Jewels of the Profession
EyeNet Rated Most Valuable to Readers
Are You an Unwitting Role Model?
Of Course I’m Competent, Aren’t You?
Medicine Responds to Public Demand for Competence
The Academy’s Plan to Help You Stay Competent
How Do You Feel About Maintenance of Certification?
Too Many Burdens, Too Little Time
Relationship-Building: Let’s Try A New Twist
2003
Do Conflict of Interest Statements Bore You?
How Will We Train the Next Generation?
Sneak a Peek at the ABO’s Plan for Maintenance of Certification
Professional Objectivity: Are You In Denial?
Subspecialty Certification: Is It a Good Idea?
Thoughts on HIPAA: Wouldn’t HIPPO Be More Apt?
The Knowledge Base Project: Has Common Sense Been Exhumed?
Resonance: Can You Feel It In Your Mind?
Patient Safety: Can It Be Improved?
2004
Procrastinating? No, It’s Just My Circling Time
Subspecialty Certification: Has the Debate Been Constructive?
A Patient’s Gift: Do You Value It?
When Patients Don’t Get It, Whose Fault Is It?
Physician Education: Can You Feel the Paradigm Shift?
Academic Eye Departments: Why Don’t We Get No Respect?
Cell Phone Syndrome: A Manifestation of Autophobia?
Antitrust Litigation: Could It Happen to You?
Dissatisfaction: When Is Enough Enough?
2005
Storytelling: The Key to Ophthalmic Memory?
The Surgical Scope Fund: Have You Stepped Up to the Plate?
Patient Complaints: Do You Open the Door?
“But Doctor…” An Invitation to Listen?
P4P—Is It a Tidal Wave or Just Another High Tide?
Maintenance of Certification (MOC): Will You Enter Next Year?
Patient Compliance: Can It Be Improved?
Presbyopic IOLs: Another Feeding Frenzy?
At Meetings, How Often Do You Snooze?
Denial: Do You Deny You Are In It?
2006
Is This the Party to Whom I Am Speaking?
Drug Company Dinners: Spam or Real Meat?
Volunteerism: Are You Giving Back?
Patient Compliance: Are You Clueless, Too?
Sustainable Growth Rate: Medieval Torture?
On the Professional Road, Are You a Hitchhiker?
Patient: Are Noun and Adjective the Same?
Maintenance of Certification: Has Your Time Come?
The Boomers Are Coming: Will We Be Ready?
Disclosing Conflict of Interest: Does It Really Mitigate Bias?
2007
Cell Phone Ruminations: Do You Have Them, Too?
Too Err Is Human: To Apologize Divine?
Show Me! Is Everyone Suddenly From Missouri?
Perfection or Excellence: Which Is Your Quest?
Tensegrity: Does It Balance Your Life?
Surveys: Which Ones Matter?
The Internet: Curse or Blessing for Patient Care?
Our Dream Team: How Do They Keep the Lights On?
The Perfect Source: When Is ONE More Than Many?
Intellectual Curiosity: Do You Exercise It Regularly?
2008
After the Giving Back, Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler?
MOC Preparation: Did You Say No Additional Charge?
Training Ophthalmic Personnel: Are You Doing Your Part?
Clinical Practice Guidelines: Too Easily Purloined?
Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Optical Division?
Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: A Bargain Discarded?
LASIK Under Siege: A Battle Over Fact or Perception?
Your Money or Your Life! Which Will You Choose?
Entitlement: Do You Feel You Deserve It?
Everything’s So Different: Have I Been Asleep?
2009
Recession in Your Practice: How Will You Respond?
Recession in Your Practice II: The Calm Before the Storm?
Wrong-Eye Surgery: Will It Be Your Turn Next?
Multitasking: Is It Working for You?
Drug Company Gifts: Do You Miss Them?
Anniversaries: Opportunities to Reflect?
Individual vs. Societal Needs: What’s a Physician to Do?
Thumb Drumming: Can We Harness It Professionally?
Our Code of Ethics: Why Do We Need It?
When Does Reality Set In? When It Happens to You
2010
Trust: Will You Muse With Me About It?
Ophthalmic Criminology: Why Did They Lose It?
More With Less: EyeNet Future IMHOs?
Civility Lost: Where Can It Be Found?
Not Allowed to Volunteer? Now You Can!
History Can Teach, but Will We Learn?
When It Comes to Museums Are You a Troglodyte?
What? No Triskaidekaphobia? Then What About Surgical Rituals?
Got a Professional Pet Peeve? Vent to Your Academy Councilor!
2011
Internet Fundraising: A Culture Shift?
Too Soon to Refill? The Bean Counters Don’t Always Win
Surgical Innovation: How to Strike the Right Balance?
Who Are the Health Care Varmints? A Tale of Two Canoes
Medical Loss Ratios: Another Chance to Game the System?
Why Carry Ballast? It’s So 20th Century
EHRs Got You Down? You Are Not Alone
We Have a Good Story to Tell. Will You Help Us Tell It?
Coyote vs. Acme: Must We Always Chase the Road Runner?
Dr. Wink’s Forty Winks: A Parable for Our Time?
2012
The Reasons for Going Monthly More Than Meets the Eye?
What Is the Physician’s Unique Skill? Experienced Intuition
Patient Satisfaction: What Makes It Easy to Achieve?
Allocation of Medical Care: Is Rational Better Than Rationed?
Do You Wiki? EyeWiki
Frustrated Without Open Access? The ONE Solution
A Quixotic Quest for Directness: Downplaying Upspeak and Spin?
As We Look to Save Health Care Dollars, What to Do About the Valetudinarian?
On the Trail to Better Patient Outcomes: Aren’t Frontiers Scary Places?
Physician Behavior: Are We Creatures of Habit?
Heart Doctors: Why Do They Embrace Their Database?
Creaky? Most of Our Patients Are
2013
Off-Label Drug Use: Is Regulation Internationally Contagious?
Distracted? Finding Focus in Spite of Technology
Waste Not? Why Bother!
DICOM? What’s That? Why You Should Care
Hospital Diversification and Alice’s Restaurant?
If You Are Hitchhiking, Are You Still on the Professional Road?
A Personal Medical Saga: Almost a Zombie?
Patient-Centered Care: The New Stampede?
“Good Morning!” “Who Are You?”
Big Data? When a Mere Datum Won’t Do
Are You Anancastic? Just a Little Bit Helps
Musings About Muses: How EyeNet Opinions Are Born
2014
Forming Eye Care Teams: An Organizational First Step?
How Costly Is Blindness? We Ought to Know
Sharing the Visual Experience: Life on Instant Replay?
Communication and Transparency: Who Could Be Opposed to That?
Choosing Up Sides: Will You Be Left Out?
Last Exit Before the Paperless Office? I’m Taking It.
Could It Be Worse? It Could Be Worse.
Does It Seem Too Slick? It Could Be Health Insurance Jargon.
What’s in a Name? Inference Abounds
Health CEO Salaries: Sour Grapes or Social Envy?
Tied Up in Traffic? So Is Funding for Resident Education
An Epic Struggle Looms: What’s Wrong With the Big EHRs?
2015
Selfie-Refraction—Really?
The Law of Averages: Uninformed Consent?
Musings About the Middle: Too Many Regressions?
Maintenance of Certification: Are We Halfway There Yet?
Career Disruption: Can You Reinvent Yourself?
Professional Collaboration: Is It Worth the Risk?
Time and Person: Which Is Leading Whom?
Experience vs. Satisfaction: What the Surveys Say
Drug Value Pricing: A Way to Stop the Upward Cost Spiral?
Generic Drug Price Jumps: What to Do?
Please Allow Me to Unintroduce Myself
2016
Notice Anything Different?
14 Years: Was It as Good for You as It Was for Me?