Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC
President, West Coast Glaucoma
Clinical Associate Professor, Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
University of British Columbia
Glaucoma, EMR and Tech Guy
Host of: Talking About Glaucoma podcast
Web: westcoastglaucoma.com
Blog: wholelottarob.com
Email: iguy@iguy.org
Twitter: robschertzer
Instagram: Instagram.com/westcoastglaucoma
YouTube: youtube.com/robschertzer
Dr Schertzer is a glaucoma subspecialized comprehensive Ophthalmologist, Electronic Medical Record evangelist, medical content creator and technology geek. He currently cares for patients at his own practice in East Vancouver at West Coast Glaucoma/Dr. Robert Schertzer Inc. In October 2018 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Health Data Coalition of BC (currently in his second 2-year term) and re-appointed as Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at University of British Columbia. When not at work, Dr Schertzer hosts a podcast of indeterminate frequency and duration called Talking About Glaucoma, creates educational videos on YouTube, plays rock, folk, country, jazz and blues guitar and can be spotted around town in pop-up choirs.
Prior to his return to Vancouver in 2018, Dr Schertzer was on the clinical faculty at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in New Hampshire for 5 years. At Dartmouth, he trained at “The Dartmouth Institute” for Health Policy & Clinical Practice as a Clinical Microsystems coach, to lead teams to optimize workflow for patient care. In late 2015 he began coursework at Epic University in Verona, WI, toward becoming an Epic Physician Builder. He is the founder of the West Coast Glaucoma Centre, in Vancouver, BC and was on faculty in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of British Columbia from 1999 - 2013 as Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Glaucoma.
Much of Dr. Schertzer’s non-clinical time is spent using technology for education. He blogs about glaucoma, electronic medical records and technology, hosts a podcast series called Talking About Glaucoma, created a sub-reddit for discussing the latest glaucoma literature, and is the co-founder of the Glaucoma Patient Group Facebook page. He has been a longstanding member of the Maintenance of Certification Committee of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society.
Education: BSc in Physiology from McGill University (1983), MD (1988) and internship from Dalhousie University (1989), Ophthalmology residency at McGill (1994), glaucoma fellowship under David Campbell’s guidance at Dartmouth (1995), and an MEd in Adult Education at the University of British Columbia (2006).
From 1995-1999, Dr. Schertzer was director of the glaucoma service at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. His Multimedia Oculosurgical Modules (MOM) series became the top selling CD title for Mosby at the time. He gained a great deal of clinical experience with handling the complications of prior glaucoma surgery from patients who had high dose mitomycin trabeculectomies performed in the past. Dr. Schertzer published two papers on his experience with the Ahmed Glaucoma Valve. One on the success rate of surgical revisions of the S2 implant and, more recently, the largest study by a single surgeon looking at the 2-year success rate of the FP7 implant compared to the S2 implant. He has also co-authored book chapters on pigmentary glaucoma, ghost cell glaucoma, and surgical goniosynchealysis.
In 1999, Dr Schertzer (and his young family) moved to Vancouver in pursuit of the great outdoors, a full-time position at the UBC Eye Care Centre and an MEd at UBC. As director of grand rounds, he began to have residents actively involved in teaching at grand rounds. As director of undergraduate medical education he introduced the Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise to assure that medical students learned key parts of the eye exam during their rotation in Ophthalmology. In 2005, he founded the West Coast Glaucoma Centre where he and his healthcare team had 5 lanes, 3 visual field machines, an HRT, SLT, YAG and Argon lasers, and a fully integrated electronic medical record. He managed to get a heart attack two months later, his MEd soon afterwards, and a publication looking at whether there are enough glaucoma specialists in Canada to meet the needs of the aging population. Dr. Schertzer also looked at the needs of community ophthalmologists to provide recommendations for changes to the ophthalmology curriculum at UBC, which have since been implemented.
Prior to taking over the practice at #402-1750 East 10th Ave in Vancouver in December 2019, Dr Schertzer worked from 2018-2019 as a locum tenens in Duncan, Victoria and Nanaimo as well as in the Lower Mainland in Kerrisdale and on the North Shore. He is now happily settled into his renovated office space with a friendly and professional team where he offers medical and laser treatments for glaucoma as well as comprehensive eyecare. He also provides Refractive Lens Exchange surgery at LasikMD.
Dr. Schertzer enjoys leading talks with eye care professionals at grand rounds and small group gatherings in the U.S. and Canada. Most of these center around clinical aspects of glaucoma care, particularly related to surgical care, ethical issues, and nerve head imaging. Dr. Schertzer has also lectured at national and international glaucoma meetings on the implementation of electronic record systems. He has developed fully accredited speakers’ programs without commercial bias for in conjunction with the Canadian Ophthalmological Society.
Disclosure: Robert Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRSCSC, DABO has disclosed that he has no significant relationships with any commercial supporters.