Lisa Wahl has been a practicing optometrist for just over five years now. She graduated from the Southern California College of Optometry in 2013 and completed a residency in Ocular Disease at the VA Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center. Now an assistant professor at Marshall B. Ketchum University in Fullerton, Calif., she spent the last several years working at the Maloney Vision Institute in Los Angeles.

Just last year, Wahl created her professional Instagram page—@lisawahlod—in an effort to provide educational content to fellow optometrists, ophthalmologists, optometry students, residents and other health care professionals. In addition to educational content Wahl also created the page to showcase content that is also personal to her. “I wished to showcase the value of work-life balance and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” Wahl told VMail Weekend. “My page is a mixture of cases I find curious or informative and personal photos of my interests and activities outside of optometry.”

  

Though her page attracts mainly people in the field of vision, Wahl makes the effort to post information that is also beneficial for other health care professionals, as well as for the average person. “I have learned that social media is a huge platform to spread the importance of routine eyecare. I include occasional case reports with photos and imaging that other optometrists or students may find interesting. I’ll include clinical pearls or facts that I learn while seeing patients and also general cases, such as diabetic retinopathy, that are of interest to broader healthcare professionals and even lay people,” she said.

When it comes to selecting topics to post about, Wahl has found that being a practicing optometrist has helped her curate content for the page. “I am lucky to work in an office with the latest imaging technology and I try to take advantage of our tools every day. Working in academia at an inner-city clinic allows me to see a huge variety of interesting cases in ocular disease and specialty contact lenses. As a precepting doctor, it is my duty to supervise optometry interns and ensure that they have a valuable educational experience with each patient encounter. I like to photo document unusual or defining cases for educational purposes and thus have a large pool of material to pull from,” she said.

For Wahl, Instagram is the perfect medium to share her insights because it is easily accessible and visual. “There is art in a perfectly framed fundus photo. Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase remarkable photos, thought-provoking cases and provide information to colleagues in a casual manner. For example, #keratoconus is one of my favorite conditions to post about since a large part of my practice is specialty contact lens fitting. I have had both health care professionals and patients refer to my page to seek more information about lens options and technological advances regarding this condition,” Wahl said.

  

While running an Instagram page can be a challenge for a full-time practitioner, for Wahl, having the account has helped her to keep her finger on the pulse of hot topics in the industry. She updates the page two to three times per week and tries to post a story at least once a day. Being an active participant on Instagram has also allowed her to connect to people in the industry. “I have made so many new friends in the field and it is exciting to go to meetings and put a face to a name/handle I’ve been following.”

While working as an assistant professor, Wahl is also continuing her ventures in the optical field with a new project titled, Women in Vision. “I have partnered with Asha Bala, MD to create a forum to support women in the fields of optometry and ophthalmology. Our mission is to build long-lasting relationships and encourage collaboration between optometrists and ophthalmologists. We hope to be a resource for continuing education among women in vision and foster career mentorship and support for younger generations,” she said. The Women in Vision Instagram page can be found here.