Iqbal K. Ahmed
What does he do exactly?
Dr Ahmed is a fellowship-trained glaucoma, cataract and anterior segment surgeon. He is recognized as being one of the most experienced and skilled eye surgeons in Canada.
What are some of his awards and achievements?
He has won the 2017 Innovator of the Year, which is an award presented by the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (EPSO), in recognition of his work in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of highly complex eye diseases.
In 2010, Ahmed was selected as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 — a prestigious national award recognizing significant achievements at a young age.
Ahmed has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, as well as numerous book chapters. He has won five film festival awards, six best papers of session, a poster award at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), a European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ESCRS) first place video award, as well as an American Association of Ophthalmology (AAO) best of show award.
What does he do exactly?
He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and a clinical assistant professor at the University of Utah. He is the director of research at the Kensington Eye Institute and director of the Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery (GAASS) Fellowship at the University of Toronto.
Ahmed has a large tertiary glaucoma/cataract practice at Prism Eye Institute in the Greater Toronto Area. He primarily performs surgery at the Trillium Health Partners, TLC Mississauga and the Kensington Eye Institute with the University of Toronto.
Who was his childhood influence?
Dr. Ahmed was asked on his career influences as a child:
My dad is a physician, so I grew up in a household where medicine was part of the family. I think that drew me toward the field. I would also say, being a brown immigrant kid, medicine was one of those noble professions that parents always tried to push their kids toward. That’s probably why you see a lot of brown doctors these days. That may also have been part of my upbringing, valuing medicine in general.
How did it affect his creativity?
BMC: YOU MENTIONED BEING AN IMMIGRANT KID AND SEEING MEDICINE AS A NOBLE PROFESSION. HAS THAT INFLUENCED YOUR CREATIVITY?
Ahmed: That was a really strong influence, being in what I would consider a foreign environment. I was born and raised in Northern Canada, having a name and appearance different from others around me. To me, it was obvious—even if some people didn’t highlight the difference, in that environment, unfortunately, you see some discrimination. The way people look at and treat one another was always in the back of my mind. I hated that awareness of being different as a kid. No one, intentionally or unintentionally, wants to be in a situation where they’re worried about being different.
At first I resented it, and then as I got older, I turned it into an ability to look at things differently. Where everyone else might be part of a peer group and do things together, I was often not part of that group. I played hockey on the neighborhood teams, but I was the last guy who got picked. Maybe it was because of skill, but I think it was also just because I was different.