Dr. Rae Huang

Areas of expertise and specialization

Awards

• Leadership Award 2022 Health 2.0 

Professional Memberships

• American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control  

Treatments

• Orthokeratology, Dry Eye Treatment, Lumenis Optilight IPL, TearCare, Lipiflow

Professional Society Memberships

• American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control, American Optometric Assocation, Massachusetts Society of Optometry

What do you attribute your success to?

• I knew that I wanted to be an eye doctor since I was 12. My mother, Dr. Haiyan Gong, MD, PHD, is a world renown ophthalmologist who gets invited all around the world to talk about her research, and she used to take me with her. She resides in the world of academia, where she is very well published. I should know. I have been proof reading her publications for spelling and grammar mistakes since elementary school because English is not her first language. As far as eyes go, she is the most knowledgeable person I know. And growing up with her I couldnt help but absorb some of that knowledge. When she was teaching anatomy at the New England College of Optometry when I was 8, I watched her saw open the heads of cadavers and label the cranial nerves with colorful pins. I practically grew up in her lab in Boston Medical Center, where the fridge was full of eyeballs in jars and I got to play with her fancy confocal microscopes and watch keratocyte cells migrate to heal wounds in the corneal epithelium. I actually did a project on this and entered it in the Lexington High School Science fair as a freshman and won!But the world of academia is small, and the general population doesnt get their information from NIH studies. I learned this recently, when a company trying to come up with a new treatment for amblyopia (lazy eye) asked me to be part of both their doctor focus group as well as their parent focus group, since I am both the parent of a child with amblyopia as well as a doctor that treats it. The doctor focus group went great and the company really loved my insights as a doctor. But the parent focus group was awful. I was alarmed to learn that most of the parents were getting their medical advice from parenting blogs. So I was trying to explain to the rest of the parents why they should look for double blind peer reviewed studies when it comes to the health of their childrens eyes when the mediator sent me a private chat message through zoom telling me to act like Im a parent not a doctor because I was making the other parents feel bad. But I kept trying to explain that even as a parent, I prefer to trust medical treatments that had gone through a peer reviewed study published by a reputable source. And the response I kept getting from all of the other parents was that they didnt trust science and would rather make decisions based on real influencers sharing their feelings. So I decided to start a blog. l currently have 2 eyecare practices in South Boston and Newton, and I am lucky enough to work other optometrists, who share my passion for preventative eye care. We have been spreading the word about preventative eye care one patient at a time, but I think now is the time that we should start expanding our reach. I am going to try to carve out some time in between seeing patients, managing my practices, and raising my 3 children to write a blog to educate the world about preventative eye care.

Areas of research

• Orthokeratology

Awards

• Leadership Award at Health 2.0 2022

Favorite Place to Vacation

• Mexico

Hobbies / Sports

• Figure Skating, Skiing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Areas of research

Orthokeratology

Scleral Contact Lenses

Dr. Rae Huang's Practice location