Dr. Devgan's Resume

Current Professional Status:

  • Private Ophthalmic Practice (August 2006 to present)

    Cataract & Refractive Surgery, Maloney Vision Institute, 310-208-3937 10921 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 900, Los Angeles, California 90024

  • Acting Chief of Ophthalmology (July 2006 to present), Attending Surgeon (Oct. 2000 to present)

    Dept. of Surgery, Olive View - UCLA Medical Center, 818-364-3538 14445 Olive View Drive, Suite 2C-101, Sylmar, California 91342

  • Ophthalmic Teacher, Lecturer, & Presenter (July 2000 to present)

    International lecturer in 23countries (on 5 continents) in 2005 & 2006 alone

  • Ophthalmic Surgery Columnist, Writer, & Contributor

    Editorial Board Member: Review of Ophthalmology, Review of Refractive Surgery, Ocular Surgery News, Cataract & Refractive Surgery Today, Ophthalmology Management.

Former Positions:

  • Private Ophthalmic Practice & Surgery Center, July 2000 to August 2006

    Cataract Surgery & General Ophthalmology, Sun Valley, California

  • Private Ophthalmic Practice, Saint John's Medical Plaza, July 2000 to April 2003

    Cataract Surgery & General Ophthalmology, Santa Monica, California

Education and Training:

  • Ophthalmology Training

    Residency in Ophthalmology, UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, 2000
    Clinical Research Award 1999
    Simpson Outstanding Achievement Award 2000

  • Medical School

    University of Southern California, USC School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California
    M.D. with Highest Distinction, Summa Cum Laude, 1996
    Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Early Junior Year Inductee

  • Undergraduate University

    College of Letters and Science, UCLA, Los Angeles, California
    Bachelor of Science, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 1992
    Acceptance into Division of Honors due to achieving high school Valedictorian status

Honors, Awards, & Invited Lectures:

  • Winner, Teaching Award, Jules Stein Eye Institute, 2002
  • Creator & Sponsor, Resident Surgery Award, Jules Stein Eye Institute, 2002 to present
  • Grand Prize Winner, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, Surgery Film Fesitval, March 2005
  • Visiting Professorship Invited Lecture, Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, June 2005
  • Invited Teacher, Resident Surgical Course, Mass. Eye & Ear, Harvard Medical School, June 2006
  • Merit Award, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, Surgery Film Festival, June 2006
  • Keynote Speaker, Colombian Ophthalmology Congress, Medellin, Colombia, September 2006
  • Multiple other lectures at various meetings (more than 50 in the past 2 years)

Certification and Associations:

  • Fellow, American College of Surgeons, 2003
  • Fellow, American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2002
  • Fellow, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, 2002
  • Certified, American Board of Ophthalmology, 2001
  • Medical License, Medical Board of California, 1998
  • United States Medical Licensing Exam, 1994, 1996, 1997

Teaching Activities:

  • UCLA Resident Surgical Teaching, approximately 150 surgical procedures per year (2000-present)
  • approaching 1,000 total surgical procedures personally attended at Olive View
  • Creator, UCLA Senior Resident Monthly Mentorship Dinner Program (2006 - present)
  • Creator of the UCLA Resident Surgical Teaching DVD, containing more than 50 edited teaching videos of various intra-ocular surgical techniques and complications.
  • UCLA Medical Student Preceptor (2005-present) with multiple projects in progress and one medical student paper already published
  • Co-Moderator, Cataract Section, UCLA JSEI Clinical & Research Seminar, May 2006
  • JSEI Basic Science Lecturer, Cataract Section, scheduled for January 24, 2007
  • Participant in the Annual Medical Student Ophthalmology Course under Anne Coleman, MD, PhD
  • Creator of the Inside Guide to JSEI and New Resident Guide to JSEI, 1998 (as a JSEI resident)

Personal Information:

  • Citizenship: United States
  • Languages: English, Fluent Medical Spanish (no translator required for clinic/OR)
  • Interests: Traveling, Cars, Mechanical Watches, and enjoying life on a daily basis

With Challenging Cataracts, Never Give Up

Cataract Los Angeles

Today I did cataract surgery on a very interesting patient. She was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a genetic disease which causes the retina inside the eye (akin to the 'film of the camera') to degenerate. These patients progressively start to lose vision and eventually end up legally blind. These patients also develop other ocular problems such as cataracts.

Our patient was refused cataract surgery by multiple other eye surgeons due to the technical difficulty of the surgery and the limited potential vision due to the RP. She had lost all hope and her cataract had become severe — it was nearly impossible for me to even see inside her eye due to the blockage from the cataract. This delay in her treatment had made a difficult surgery even more challenging.

Using a multi-step approach as well as specially ordered technologies to my office in Los Angeles, her surgery was a success. While my routine cataract surgery lasts just 5 minutes, her surgery took nearly 20 minutes — nearly 4 times as long. For the medical readers, she had loose zonules and a dense cataract and required a capsular tension ring as well as a zero spherical aberration intra-ocular lens implant (IOL), phaco chop with phaco power modulations was used to break up the cataract and remove it.

Within the first few minutes after the surgery, she smiled and said that she could already tell that her vision was improved. There's no way of reversing her RP, but the cataract was completely cured and as a result, she recovered a lot more vision than she had prior to surgery. She's not able to drive, but she can now do most of her daily activities by herself. This one little surgery has given her a new sense of freedom and independence and has illuminated her world. I was fortunate to be a part of this.