CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — As a leader in advanced retinal treatment and surgery, Retina Associates of Southern Utah is committed to providing exceptional patient care with compassion, respect and integrity. The clinic’s approach is rooted in evidence-based medical practices focused on improving eye health and elevating quality of life.
Recognizing that Southern Utah needed a dedicated retina specialist to meet the needs of its rapidly growing – and aging – population, Dr. Ken Lord established Retina Associates of Southern Utah 10 years ago. The clinic has continued to expand and evolve along with the community.
“We’ve grown at a fast pace because we provide a much-needed service that’s hard to find,” he said. “There’s a big need for not only medical but surgical retina services.”
Today, Retina Associates of Southern Utah physicians are the only full-time retina specialty providers in the area. The clinic serves patients living in Southern Utah, Northern Arizona and Eastern Nevada with multiple office locations and is headquartered in a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility on Riverside Drive in St. George.
Ophthalmology, and particularly retina care, is a tech-driven field of eye care. As such, the Retina Associates of Southern Utah team designed their new building to support all the specialized equipment needed to help diagnose and treat patients. Many treatments, including injections and laser procedures, are performed in-office.
“We built this new clinic with patients in mind,” Lord said. “We focused on getting them the care they need in the most comfortable and efficient setting possible, and I think we’ve done that.”
Both Lord and his partner, Dr. Joshua Carlson, are board-certified ophthalmologists and fellowship-trained vitreoretinal specialists. Going beyond ophthalmology, a vitreoretinal specialist is a physician who has completed additional medical and surgical training specific to disease and injury of the retina. The clinic addresses a variety of conditions, including diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, retinal detachments, surgical complications and uveitis, along with providing care for ocular trauma and oncology.
“We use the latest techniques, treatments and research,” Lord said. “If it’s available and being done somewhere, we’re doing it here.”
A native of the St. George area and a graduate of Southern Utah University, Lord earned his medical degree from the University of Utah. After an internal medicine internship at the University of Arizona in Tucson, he completed three years of ophthalmology residency training at the University of Missouri in Kansas City followed by a two-year vitreoretinal surgical fellowship. Lord is also a veteran of the Utah National Guard and was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and Operation New Dawn in 2011.
Carlson obtained a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Brigham Young University and attended medical school at the New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship at the University of California, Irvine and the VA Long Beach Healthcare System before traveling to North Carolina for residency at Wake Forest University’s Baptist Medical Center. Carlson also underwent two years of medical and surgical vitreoretinal fellowship training at the prestigious Vanderbilt University Eye Institute in Nashville.
Optometric physician Dr. Reed Gibb joined the Retina Associates of Southern Utah team more recently. Gibb earned his bachelor of science in zoology with a minor in business from BYU, then attended medical school at Oregon’s Pacific University College of Optometry before completing residency training at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City. His two decades of clinical experience have mainly focused on geriatric eye care, including cataracts and glaucoma, as well as retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
Being proactive about your eye health is essential to maintaining your sight and enjoying all the benefits that it provides. That’s especially true when it comes to any vision-related concerns you may be having, Lord said.
Retina Associates of Southern Utah sees patients, typically by referral from another health care provider, for regular office visits five days a week and keeps a physician on-call 24/7 for emergencies.
“We don’t keep patients waiting,” Lord said. “If you’ve got a retina problem, you’ll be seen that day.”
Learn more about how the specialists at Retina Associates of Southern Utah are helping patients see more clearly at SouthernUtahRetina.com.
Written by ALEXA MORGAN for St. George News.
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Resources
- Retina Associates of Southern Utah | Address: 585 E. Riverside Drive, Suite 201, St. George | Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Telephone: 435-216-7032 | Website.
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