Professional Biography for Paul Schacknow
Paul N. Schacknow M.D., Ph.D., ophthalmologist is Chief of Glaucoma Services at Visual Health. He is a specialist in the medical, laser and surgical treatment of glaucoma patients. Dr. Schacknow, a native of Brooklyn, New York, did not take the typical career path to become a physician. He finished his undergraduate degree in psychology with honors at Brooklyn College and then completed his Ph.D. in auditory and visual psychophysics at the City University of New York. He was a college professor for the next seven years, teaching and doing research in the Division of Natural Sciences, State University at Purchase, New York. Seven years into his professorial career, he decided to undertake medical studies.
He entered the unique, accelerated, curriculum of the Ph.D. to M.D. Program at the University of Miami, receiving the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1983 after 23 months of study and training. He followed his medical and surgical internship at Framingham-Union Hospital in Massachusetts, with an ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School, at the world renowned Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. His formal ophthalmology training concluded in San Francisco at California Pacific Medical Center, with a fellowship in glaucoma management.
Dr. Schacknow is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and he has been elected to membership in the American Glaucoma Society. He currently holds an appointment as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Ophthalmology, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
He joined Visual Health in January 1992, after serving as the regional glaucoma specialist in Mobile, Alabama for three years. Dr. Schacknow’s excellent academic training and extensive practice experience give him advanced skills and clinical insight to bring to the care of our glaucoma patients. He is an expert in the use of sophisticated computerized visual field and optic nerve-head analyzers for monitoring the progression of a patient’s glaucoma. He has performed thousands of glaucoma surgical operations, employing state-of-the-art laser and microsurgical techniques, in patients who otherwise might have gone blind from advanced glaucoma. Dr. Schacknow is Medical Director of the Palm Beach Eye Foundation. He and his highly trained medical staff work with numerous pharmaceutical companies in ongoing clinical research projects to evaluate promising new medications for the treatment of glaucoma.
Dr. Schacknow participates in many additional activities in the professional eyecare community. He was President of the Palm Beach County Ophthalmology Society in 2001. He has published articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and written book chapters on glaucoma diagnostic and surgical techniques. He is senior editor of, and written several chapters for, the major ophthalmology textbook “THE GLAUCOMA BOOK” to be availabe in late 2009 by Springer Publishing. He frequently is invited to lecture nationally and internationally at professional meetings of ophthalmologists, optometrists and vision research scientists.
He and his wife Sharma live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Dr. Schacknow enjoys gourmet cooking, fine dining and travel. He is addicted to playing with his home computer and surfing the Internet. Mrs. Schacknow is an attorney and tennis buff. Their son Jeffrey is an undergraduate student at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Our patients will enjoy Dr. Schacknow’s outgoing personality, his caring attitude and his great sense of humor.
Dr. Schacknow works closely with his patients and their primary eyecare physicians for the diagnosis and management of their glaucoma. He is available to see new patients in our Lake Worth (561-964-0707) office.
