WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Mohsin H. Ali, MD, was born in Hyderabad, a large city in the south of India famous for its biryani, pearls, diamonds, and tech sector—though many ophthalmologists recognize it as the home of the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. A few years later, his family moved to Kuwait, and a well-timed family vacation allowed everyone to escape the Kuwait invasion during the Gulf War. In the United States, his family settled near Wilmington, Delaware, where Dr. Ali spent most of his childhood. While growing up, he always knew that he wanted to be a physician like his father and so many others he admired.
Unsurprisingly, he enrolled in a BS/MD program at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Illinois and Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago. He attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for his vitreoretinal surgery fellowship, and he now lives in Northern Virginia (in his wife’s hometown) with his wonderful wife, two sons, and baby daughter.
THE PATH TO RETINA
Dr. Ali’s journey to the field of retina began the first time he looked through the OR microscope during a pars plana vitrectomy. He was mesmerized by the beauty, intricacy, and challenge of surgery in the posterior segment of the eye. Of course, being surrounded by the exemplary retina, uveitis, and oncology faculty and retina fellows during residency was just as influential—after all, many people tend to follow in the footsteps of those they greatly admire.
Dr. Ali’s Advice: Choose a practice where you can surround yourself with colleagues you respect and admire and whose company you enjoy, and choose a location that is good for your family. Everything else will fall into place.
SUPPORT ALONG THE WAY
Dr. Ali’s father is a gastroenterologist, his mother is a teacher, and his older sister is an ophthalmologist. He likes to think that he has followed in each of their footsteps. They have been his first, and most significant, mentors. He has also been deeply influenced by mentors during his glaucoma research fellowship, attendings in residency, every one of his attendings and co-fellows in fellowship, and his colleagues in his current practice.
AN EXPERIENCE TO REMEMBER
About a year after starting as an attending at the Retina Group of Washington, Dr. Ali was in the OR for several hours performing a retinal detachment repair on a severe post-traumatic retinal detachment with extensive proliferative vitreoretinopathy. He reflected on the second-year fellow he was working with, who at first struggled to perform a basic core vitrectomy but was now performing this advanced surgery with ease. Witnessing this transformation, Dr. Ali was filled with gratitude toward his own mentors for the patience and encouragement they similarly showed him during training. He was also filled with gratitude that he was now able to teach another generation of fellows to handle even the most complex surgical scenarios. From looking through the teaching scope as a resident and being mesmerized by vitreoretinal surgery to looking through the scope as a teacher, he had finally come full circle.
