JAN 26, 2022
Leading Ophthalmology Through the Pandemic: CEO David W. Parke II, MD
The
coronavirus pandemic was the focus of David W. Parke II, MD’s final two years as Academy CEO. Under his leadership, the Academy moved expeditiously in February 2020 to start providing
critical clinical guidance to ophthalmologists and quickly thereafter launched additional website sections
for practice administrators and
for eye health patients and the public.
Dr. Parke steps down Monday after nearly 13 years as CEO. Throughout the pandemic, he played key roles — from those early days when he delivered
a March 2020 video message to members through the challenges of running
an all-virtual annual meeting in 2020 to a hybrid virtual-in person meeting in New Orleans for AAO 2021.
His regular columns in the Academy's
EyeNet Magazine provide a month-by-month look at how Dr. Parke led the Academy through this challenging time. Since the start of the pandemic, about half of his monthly columns have been related to COVID-19. Here's everything he wrote for
EyeNet during that period: