Our Staff
Park Avenue LASEK has the most highly-trained, best-qualified staff of any laser center in New York —period. Indeed, our patients say this is one reason they have chosen us! This isn’t an opinion—it’s a fact.
James, our Operations Manager, was a premed. graduate of NYU, and chose our center and paid for his No-Cut, No-Flap LASEK himself before he ever worked here! So he’s the perfect person to ask “Why choose us?” He is now (and will always be) better than 20/20! He’s also a true believer in the crucial safety of LASEK, as he was poked in the eye playing basketball several weeks after his procedure, but thank God he did not have his flap come back up—because he had no flap to begin with! So James is the perfect person to help reassure you that our non-cutting LASEK is safest!
At most other centers your testing—which is used to confirm you are a good candidate, and to obtain the numbers to actually shoot the laser—is conducted quickly by an optometrist (OD) who never went to medical school, or some “technician” who may not know much more than how to push a button. Compare this to our center, where our entire Laser Team—Dr. Chynn, Dr. Almeida, Dr. Puri and Dr. Villarroel—are MDs (which requires a decade more training than an OD). Our MDs will spend as much time with you as necessary to make sure that all your testing is both accurate & complete before even booking your surgery. Isn’t that comforting?
Park Avenue LASEK is the only private laser center in NYC that is a teaching facility. PAL has 4 Refractive Fellows training under Dr. Chynn at all times; 2 Junior Refractive Fellows and 2 Senior Refractive Fellows. These Fellows are all MDs and eye surgeons who graduated from medical school and completed their residency in ophthalmology. They are choosing to spend an additional 2 years with Dr. Chynn to learn about refractive surgery.
Park Avenue LASEK has the larges Refractive Surgery Fellowship in NYC. Even the largest hospitals, like Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (where Dr. Chynn went to medical school) or Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital and New York Eye & Ear Infirmary (where he was a Resident Instuctor) only have 1-2 Refractive Fellows. This is because Dr. Chynn is performing more LASEKs than every doctor at all these large institutions–combined. Therefore, the San Francisco Match Program allows PAL and Dr. Chynn to train 2 Refractive Fellows every year, because PAL has the volume of surgery, and Dr. Chynn the expertise necessary to teach this next generation of eye surgeons.
What this means for patients is their care by PAL is at the cutting edge of medical technology. Dr. Chynn and his Fellows are active in research, and present studies and publish papers about their groundbreaking techniques. This also means that you will have MDs, not “techs” helping Dr. Chynn with your preop. testing, in the OR, and with your postop. visits. Dr. Chynn will be instructing and correcting his fellows and employees so your care is as perfect as possible, so please be prepared for this. Our staff come from around the world to learn from Dr. Chynn, and are committed to our “relentless pursuit of perfection”–and you should be, too!
Finally, at many other centers, you will meet “closers” whose only qualification is that they are good at “selling.” In contrast, King, our Patient Coordinator, had his procedure done in January. All he talks about in the office in his spare time is how he looks and feels with out his glasses; there’s nobody who is more excited for their procedure than King!
If you review the bios on the back of this sheet you’ll learn about the people who will be working with you to obtain your Best Personal Vision! You’ll also know which person to ask to address your specific needs.
Congratulations about taking the first step towards a new life—experiencing the world free from contacts & glasses, and seeing how you were meant to see! We are really looking forward to giving you the Miracle of LASEK!
Sincerely,
The Park Avenue LASEK Vision Correction Team:
- Emil William Chynn, MD, FACS, MBA – Medical Director
- Elias Almeida, MD – Refractive Fellow
- Jyoti Puri, MD – Refractive Fellow
- Patricia Villarroel Arratia, MD – Refractive Fellow
- Liz Wick – Practice Manager
- Dr@ParkAvenueLasek.com
- laser@ParkAvenueLasek.com
- laser@ParkAvenueLasek.com
- laser@ParkAvenueLasek.com
- practicemanager@ParkAvenueLasek.com
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Elias Almeida, MD— Refractive Fellow
Dr. Almeida received his MD from Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda in Coro, Venezuela. He worked as a General Practitioner at the Petare Population Clinic and was a Chief Resident in Pediatrics at the Perez de Leon Hospital in Caracas. He moved to the US and worked as a Medical Assistant, X-Ray Technician, Medical Interpreter and Front Office Coordinator for Aaron Hurowitz, DO in Atlanta. Dr. Almeida had LASIK himself in 2007 in Venezuela, so can answer your questions both from a MD & patient perspective! Dr. Almeida enjoys riding his mountain bike and motorcycle in his spare time. Dr. Almeida is fluent in Spanish, and is happy to translate for you!
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Jyoti Puri, MD – Refractive Fellow
Jyoti Puri, MD is one of two Senior Fellows at Park Avenue LASEK, which has the largest Refractive Fellowship in New York State.
Dr. Puri graduated from Maulana Azad Medical College and completed her Ophthalmology Residency at Guru Nanak Eye Center in New Delhi, and her Fellowship at the Retina Foundation. She worked as a retinal surgeon in India and performed thousands of retinal surgical procedures over the course of a decade.
In 2007, Dr. Puri joined Park Avenue LASEK to learn about the state-of-the-art, non-cutting LASEK procedure that was invented at Harvard by two of Dr. Chynn’s collaborators. Very few eye surgeons in the world choose to complete two sub-specialty fellowships; Dr. Puri is the rare surgeon who is now qualified in both Retina and Refractive Surgery.
Dr. Puri, like all the Fellows at PAL, is actively involved in clinical research, which directly helps our patients while sharing our advanced techniques with other surgeons worldwide. She is publishing the results of over 300 cases of extreme prescriptions we successfully LASEK’d, all of whom were past limits for LASIK. She is conducting research on the optimum post-operative non-steroidal drop to give patients to make their non-invasive LASEK as comfortable and quick to recover as the older LASIK.
Dr. Puri enjoys both travel and art in her free time. Patients have said she is great at making them feel comfortable, while answering all of their questions clearly–so they’re ready to enjoy their lives free from glasses and contacts forever!
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Patricia Villarroel Arratia, MD – Refractive Fellow
Dr. Villarroel received her MD from San Simon University in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She completed the residency training program in Ophthalmology in the Bolivian Foundation of Ophthalmology, an institution affiliated to the San Simon University. During her training years Dr. Villarroel was named as Chief of Residents and was involved in research projects as well. After finishing her training she started working in the same institution as a full-time Ophthalmologist. She was also designated assistant professor, playing an important role in the training of the new residents and medical students. In 2009 she decided to move to New York with her family looking for additional training and improvement in her English. She enjoys spending time with her husband and children and meeting new people.
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Liz Wick – Practice Manager
Liz Wick comes to Park Avenue all the way from Ohio. Cleveland Rocks! Liz is an Ohio State University alum, and has years of experience in the healthcare industry, previously the Practice Manager at a General Practice facility back in here home state. You are lucky to have Liz here, because she will help make your visit here as effective and easy as it should be. Any questions that you have about the schedule or how our practice runs, you can ask Liz and she will make sure its answered. Liz had her Non-Cutting LASEK in March and is currently loving seeing New York City at night with no Night Glare.