Working life: Dr Alan Cummings, Consultant Opthalmologist

8am

I still get a buzz from sharing someone’s sheer joy at being able to see again after years of relying on glasses or contact lenses.

Now they can go swimming with their children, improve their golf, feel and look years younger, and simply enjoy their new sight.

It’s a fabulous time to be an eye surgeon. With today’s technology we can do things that only a decade ago would have seemed science-fiction.

11am

I see new patients until lunch time. Evaluations are two hours long and patients undergo many tests to determine the ocular health and the most suitable procedure.

I have an amazing team and all help with the work-up but the final decision rests with the patient and me.

1pm

I get a quick sandwich as I am operating in the Beacon Hospital this afternoon. Most of these surgeries are cataract surgery.

Other cases will include implantable contact lenses for those not suitable for laser eye surgery and clear lens extraction.

6.30 – 8pm

I try and arrange meetings for the evenings. I have a meeting or a teleconference most days.

I wear a number of hats — medical director of the Wellington Eye Clinic, head of the department of ophthalmology at the Beacon Hospital, on the medical advisory boards of a number of our industry partners, and chief medical advisor to ClearSight Innovations, an Irish technology company specialising in technologies to further improve cataract surgery.

Tonight’s teleconference is with the American-European Congress of Ophthalmic Surgery, of which I am president-elect. As this activity involves our US colleagues, evenings suit best.

9pm

I’m at home writing reports to referring doctors and optometrists, writing and reviewing journal papers, and working on presentations for upcoming meetings. My wife — an audiologist — sits at her desk too, writing her reports for the day.

Our son will drop by to say hello and then, at around midnight, we ring our younger son, who attends college in the US on a golf scholarship.

I feel privileged that my work also happens to be my passion and, even though I spend many hours at it, I still enjoy it as much as the first day that I looked into a human eye and marvelled at the mystery of sight.

* Dr Alan Cummings is consultant opthalmologist at Wellington Eye Clinic, Dublin.