{"id":787796,"date":"2026-05-11T02:07:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787796\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:07:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:07:28","slug":"dr-glaucomflecken-on-advocacy-and-eye-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787796\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Glaucomflecken on advocacy and eye misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast\u201d interview with Will Flanary, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken<\/a>. Be sure to sign up for the weekly \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast\u201d on\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast\u201d newsletter<\/a>. And don\u2019t forget to sign up for the\u00a0First Opinion newsletter<\/a>, delivered every Sunday.<\/p>\n

Torie Bosch: <\/strong>Will Flanary is better known as Dr. Glaucomflecken. He is social media\u2019s most famous comedian slash doctor, and he\u2019s not afraid of punching up.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast.\u201d I\u2019m Torie Bosch, the editor of First Opinion. First Opinion is STAT\u2019s home for big, bold ideas from health care providers, researchers, patients, and others who have something to say about medicine\u2019s most important and interesting topics. This season, we\u2019re really focused on the intersection of medicine and culture.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m speaking with Will Flanary, the ophthalmologist better known as Dr. Glaucomflecken. After a quick break, I\u2019ll bring you our conversation about advocacy, doctors behaving badly on social media, and the eye surgery he just hates.<\/p>\n

Will Flanary, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, welcome back to the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Oh, it\u2019s good to be back, thank you.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>So I have to cop to a disappointment, which was that my original goal for having you on the show for a second time was to try to get someone from \u201cScrubs\u201d to join us so we could just talk medical comedy \u2014 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>That\u2019d be great.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>They rejected me, I\u2019m very sorry about that.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Talk about nostalgia, man. It\u2019s exciting to see them back.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>How did you feel about the reboot?<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>So far, so good. I\u2019ve only seen one episode so far. I\u2019m 40 now. So, you know, I grew up on \u201cScrubs,\u201d and it still holds up pretty well so far, the old episodes. But also the new show, it\u2019s sharp. It\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>I fell off of \u201cScrubs\u201d after a few seasons, but now I think I need to go back and watch it because the reboot captured something.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Yeah, go back. It holds up well. It does.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>All right. So as much as I\u2019d love to just talk about \u201cScrubs\u201d for the whole time, I guess we have to talk about real things, too. So I wanted to ask you about something you\u2019ve been spending a lot of time on, on social media, which is something that\u2019s happening in Eugene, Oregon. So can you give us the CliffsNotes on what\u2019s happening there and why you\u2019re involved?<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Let\u2019s see, I\u2019ll try to do this as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

So it really starts a few years ago. I think it was 2023. So Eugene, just to set the stage here, Eugene is like the second-largest city in Oregon, and it\u2019s where the University of Oregon is. And so that metro area is about 200,000 people. And a few years back, there had been this hospital for a long time called University District Hospital in the city center of Eugene. And PeaceHealth, which is a large hospital system in the Pacific Northwest, decided to close that hospital \u2014 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a variety of reasons to do that \u2014 including the emergency department there.<\/p>\n

And whenever news that this was gonna happen came up, there was a pretty big outcry, particularly from a lot of the staff and the emergency physicians there, because they knew. Like, \u201cthis is going to make life so much difficult over in Springfield at RiverBend Hospital, which is now like the only hospital in this area. All the patients that were going to University District are now gonna be shunted over here. And we don\u2019t have the staff, we don\u2019t have the equipment,\u201d just outlining all these concerns.<\/p>\n

Well, PeaceHealth, they did it anyway. Closed University District Hospital, and guess what happened? Exactly what these doctors had said was going to happen. Wait times, and particularly in the emergency department, wait times were skyrocketing, patient satisfaction, and everybody was just generally unhappy. There wasn\u2019t enough staff, not enough equipment, not enough rooms. You had people boarding in the emergency department<\/a> waiting to get a room in the hospital. So just a mess.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tThe internet\u2019s funniest doctor is in on the joke<\/a><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s been like this for a couple years now. And late last year, the CEO of RiverBend Hospital decided that he was going to call for proposals for the emergency department contract. So for the last 35 years, the emergency department at RiverBend Hospital has been staffed by Eugene Emergency Physicians, which is a democratic, physician-owned group full of about 40 physicians. They\u2019ve been working there, living in the community. They\u2019re part of the community. And RiverBend decided, \u201cOK, well, we\u2019re not gonna go ahead and renew your contract right now, we\u2019re gonna get some proposals. We\u2019re gonna see if anybody we think could do a better job because we\u2019re having all these problems.\u201d None of which were created by the physicians, by the way.<\/p>\n

So Eugene Emergency Physicians, they put in their proposal, and there\u2019s a handful of other proposals. And sure enough, RiverBend went with ApolloMD, which is a corporate management group based out of Atlanta, Georgia. This is a huge deal. You\u2019re taking, you know, local medicine run by people in the community who know the community, know the patients, know the other physicians. That\u2019s really important in emergency medicine because there\u2019s so much interaction with other areas of the hospital and knowing what the social services are in the area, where patients can go, what\u2019s available to people. All that institutional knowledge, you\u2019re just gonna like give that away?<\/p>\n

The question is, OK, well, why did they do this? And we still don\u2019t really know because the CEO is on record saying it\u2019s not, it wasn\u2019t a financial decision. OK. It wasn\u2019t performance-based, OK. Well, then what could it be? And that all we\u2019ve gotten is, \u201cwell, you know, ApolloMD just had a great proposal.\u201d They\u2019re just like, \u201cwe just liked what they had to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s enough to remove local physicians and force them to either join this corporate group out of Atlanta, Georgia, or leave the community altogether because there\u2019s no other options.<\/p>\n

And so this big outcry, I came upon this story through multiple different places, and it\u2019s basically in my backyard. I\u2019m just south of Portland. And so it\u2019s happening in my community. It\u2019s important to me, but where I think this is a different story versus other places around the country that this happens, because this is not a unique thing, right?<\/p>\n

People might say, \u201cwell, you know, this is business. That\u2019s just how it works. Sometimes you don\u2019t get the contract, and somebody else had a better proposal.\u201d There\u2019s a couple of things wrong with that.<\/p>\n

First of all, as of 2025, Oregon has a corporate practice of medicine law in place. And that\u2019s one of the primary things that makes this a different story, because now there\u2019s lawsuits. There\u2019s been hearings at the Capitol building. The governor of Oregon has weighed in saying, \u201chey, let\u2019s hold off on this transition because this might be in violation of now state law.\u201d Because this new law, this corporate practice of medicine law in Oregon is specifically designed to prevent things like this from happening \u2014 where these corporate groups who don\u2019t have any physicians licensed to practice in the state who own this company, ApolloMD, they\u2019re coming in and practicing this in the states. So that\u2019s what they were trying to prevent from happening with this new law.<\/p>\n

This is not a done deal by any means, but PeaceHealth hasn\u2019t backed down. They said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna go ahead with this transition. We think it\u2019s not in violation of this law.\u201d ApolloMD has just said, \u201cThis is what our business is. We\u2019re just gonna take the contract\u201d \u2014 playing kind of innocent, like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s, we\u2019re just doing what we usually do, we have nothing against these doctors or anything.\u201d But they\u2019re complicit in this whole process, right? The entire model that this represents, which I think is bad for health care. We want, we need to keep medicine local. I think that\u2019s good for patients, it\u2019s good for communities, and then the latest thing \u2014 are you with me?<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>We\u2019re good. OK. So, so that\u2019s not even the end of the story. It gets juicier. Recently, like within the last month, there have been emails<\/a> that have come out that show going back to 2023, 2024 [involving] the RiverBend CEO, who has an administrative license. That\u2019s a very specific type of medical license that doesn\u2019t allow you to actually make clinical decisions. He\u2019s a physician, but he does not have an active medical license to practice medicine.<\/p>\n

A handful of emails from different doctors, not even just emergency physicians, but you know, there\u2019s neurologists, others, that show that the RiverBend CEO was trying to influence clinical decision-making from the C-suite office. Things like, \u201cAre you sure this patient needs to have this MRI? Why are we doing this? Why do we admit this patient? Why did we make that decision?\u201d<\/p>\n

And this is coming from the CEO. And if you\u2019re an employee, how are you going to feel comfortable going against what the CEO says? It\u2019s your employer, right? That\u2019s scary, you could lose your job.<\/p>\n

And so the emergency physicians recognize that this is not OK because he\u2019s trying to influence all this clinical decision-making. And by the way, I mean, he\u2019s not examining these patients, right? He\u2019s not even doing the work. And so how can you even say \u201cthis was what should be done\u201d?<\/p>\n

And so they pushed back. And it got to the point where some of the emergency physicians went to PeaceHealth leadership, like the overall CEO of PeaceHealth, like, \u201cLook, we have some concerns about what\u2019s going on with our leadership here.\u201d Well, word trickled down to the CEO of RiverBend, PeaceHealth RiverBend. And wouldn\u2019t you know it, a short time later, he calls for proposals for the emergency department contract.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take a big leap to think this might be retaliation against the emergency physicians. Again, no issues with their job, he\u2019s on the record. No problems there, like they\u2019re doing great work. All right, not financial. What is it? What could it be?<\/p>\n

You know, there\u2019s only so many options. And so that\u2019s where we\u2019re at now. And, you know, I hate that this is happening, but I\u2019m really excited to just help out in whatever way I can with my platform and in this fundraiser that we have coming up.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Yeah, so tell me about how you\u2019ve been helping out.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>So, just making content about it. What I\u2019ve learned is that if you make a big stink on social media about health care system-related things, you\u2019re gonna get a lot of support. Because there\u2019s a lot people in hospital administration, in health insurance, in private equity, doing bad things for patients and for doctors. And one unifying characteristic of every story, just like I just described, is that they don\u2019t want people to know what\u2019s happening. They want to keep it out of the news. They want to, keep it away from the kind of national, \u2019cause they don\u2019t want this kind of scrutiny because they know this is really unpopular and that maybe this isn\u2019t the best for patient care, but it\u2019s maybe good for pocketbooks, maybe good for other reasons that are not as altruistic, you know? And so they try to keep it under wraps.<\/p>\n

Insurance has been doing this for decades, right? They\u2019ll change little policies here and there, and hope no one notices. Like in ophthalmology a few years ago, they decided to require prior authorizations for every single cataract surgery, Aetna, just on a dime. Like, \u201cyou know what we\u2019re gonna do? Try to limit the amount of these surgeries that were happening.\u201d And we made a big stink about it, social media and otherwise, and they reversed the decision because they don\u2019t want people to know.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what\u2019s happening here. Again, this is just my opinion, but I would venture to guess that PeaceHealth did not want people to know most of the information that we\u2019ve already talked about today, all right? They want to just keep it local because it\u2019s bad press, bad whatever. And so by getting on social media with my platform at the very least and just tell them the story because it is a fascinating story and the implications that this has for the rest of the country, especially with this corporate practice of medicine law. Because if these doctors are successful in fighting this, using that law, you better believe that the other states are gonna be like, \u201cOh, well, maybe we should have a law like that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tDr. Glaucomflecken uses humor to spotlight the darkness in medicine<\/a><\/p>\n

And there are a few others out there, but we need more. And so, there\u2019s so much that can be done advocacy-wise and changing health care and making things better that can start just by making noise. Let everybody know what\u2019s happening and then you get the attention of lawmakers, of the public, the community. This is the most unpopular thing that\u2019s happened, you know, that PeaceHealth has ever done. I had to guess, just because of all the press. Yeah, that\u2019s why I wanted to jump in.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Do you get any pushback from your audience about this kind of advocacy?<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>No. I mean if I do, it\u2019s like, no one\u2019s ever going to be 100% on board with anything you say on social media, right? You\u2019re always going to find comments of people. Even when I talk about health insurance companies and the bad things they do, there\u2019s always somebody that\u2019s like, \u201cwell, you know, they\u2019re just looking out for people. They\u2019re just making sure doctors aren\u2019t abusing their power.\u201d Like, what are you talking about?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m used to it now, but at first when I saw those types of comments, I was like, \u201chow anybody on the insurance\u2019s side?\u201d And so for stuff like this, we all see it. Health care workers see it, the public sees it, and they\u2019re not surprised by it. And so, no, I get very little pushback on stuff like this \u2014 just from the people that I should be getting pushback from, which is PeaceHealth, ApolloMD. They\u2019re not gonna be happy with what I have to say, but I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>\u201cI don\u2019t care. I\u2019m right\u201d is a great motto to live by, I think.<\/p>\n

Flanary:<\/strong> That\u2019s what I tell people just about, you know, medical people about social media in general. Like you can take a stand for something and if you 100% believe that you are right, that you\u2019re doing this for the right reasons, then stand behind it, and you may still be wrong. But again, if it\u2019s a deeply held conviction that you have and you\u2019ve done the research, you\u2019ve done the work, you know what\u2019s happening, and you have a stance on it, stand behind it in the face of criticism. Because you\u2019re gonna get some criticism, all right? It\u2019s just going to happen on social media. But not all criticism needs to be listened to. Sometimes criticism should be listened to, but not all the times.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Well, speaking of criticism online, I feel like there\u2019s been a few examples recently, and we don\u2019t have to name names \u2014 though if you wanna name names, you\u2019re certainly very welcome to \u2014 but there\u2019s some examples online of medical students and physicians sort of getting major backlash over content, over things that are perceived as insulting patients, things that are possibly unethical happening. Are you seeing any sort of change in the way that doctors are intersecting with social media?<\/p>\n

Flanary:<\/strong> I know some of the examples that you\u2019re discussing. I think the more important conversation is just more just generally about ethics, right? And what is it OK for doctors to do on social media? This is an evolving topic, and it\u2019s a really hot topic right now because more and more doctors, med students, even premeds, residents are becoming quote unquote influencers. They\u2019re getting a platform. And it is so easy to lose your integrity as a physician. And so it\u2019s a topic that deserves a lot of attention, honestly, just because of where we are in society right now.<\/p>\n

I think education needs to catch up with how doctors should be behaving on social media. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve made some content about this, about where are the lines, where should you draw the lines? And certainly we\u2019ll start with making fun of patients. That is number one. You don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Just to get a little more specific, maybe, one of the examples I\u2019m referring to here, and, again, not gonna use a name, but it\u2019s a medical student slash very popular influencer. And I think there\u2019s a financial component here, too, right? Which is that some of these students, residents, are paying for this enormously expensive medical school through social media influencing and more provocative content is going to help them pay those bills. But in this case, a student posted at least two videos that were widely perceived as sort of shaming women for the way their bodies work. And there\u2019s a great deal of pushback to that.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>I saw the content, and it was clearly not OK. And it\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re talking about. It\u2019s making fun of patients and patient bodies. I don\u2019t have any patient characters for a very specific reason, because the last thing you want to do as a physician or somebody just in health care is to put out content that will undermine the public\u2019s trust in us. I think the reason people can find themselves down this path is because there\u2019s a lot of financial stakes here. Not just the money you\u2019re borrowing to go to med school, but also just the money you\u2019re making, you can make from social media.<\/p>\n

And you have med students now who even have platforms of like 6,000 people that follow them getting offered to hawk supplements, getting thousands of dollars, which is life-changing when you\u2019re not making any money and you\u2019re going into a tremendous amount of debt. Like, are you kidding me? You\u2019re telling me you\u2019re gonna give me $5,000 to make 20 videos, promoting a supplement for gut health?<\/p>\n

You can see how that can influence your decision on what you\u2019re posting on social media. And then from the lens of comedy, because that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for the last 10 years, there\u2019s this psychological feeling like you have to keep going. That people will lose interest in you if you don\u2019t continue to like push the envelope and get more outrageous, get funnier, just do what you can to like keep up. And it can push you into areas where you really don\u2019t need to be going.<\/p>\n

And so for myself, I have these ethical guardrails for myself. And one of them we\u2019ve already talked about, nothing patient related, no HIPAA violations, none of that. It\u2019s that old adage, you know, punch up, not punch down. I will be much meaner to insurance companies and hospital systems than I am to my fellow physicians or to med students or residents or nurses. Just keeping those hierarchies in mind is so important when you\u2019re trying to tell jokes, you\u2019re trying to be funny on social media. So it\u2019s tricky. But you can certainly get yourself into trouble and in terms of, you know, how to protect yourself, you really have to just put these guardrails in place.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>And speaking of social media and maybe lack of guardrails, I\u2019d like to talk to you about eyes.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tDr. Glaucomflecken says NBC\u2019s \u2018St. Denis Medical\u2019 makes medicine funny again<\/a><\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Oh, yes, please. Love talking about eyes.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>I am completely horrified by a documentary I saw on Netflix recently called \u201cCaterpillar\u201d about a man who in 2019 traveled to India to get the color of his eyes changed, which I had not realized is a thing, but apparently there\u2019s, in fact, not just one company that will do this, but there are multiple approaches.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>And there\u2019s ophthalmology influencers who do these and post these results, these patients that they treat on social media and get people all excited about color change surgery, eye color change surgery. And I hate it so much.<\/p>\n

First of all, just what they\u2019re doing is you\u2019re not changing your eye color. You\u2019re changing the appearance of your eye color. Your eyes are the same, but what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re implanting a disk that has a color to it. And it\u2019s basically overlaying just right on top of your iris. So you\u2019re introducing a foreign body into the eye. Into eyes that are totally healthy, that see 20\/15, perfect. You\u2019re subjecting them to this cosmetic surgery.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s other cosmetic surgeries that have a lot more data and safety behind them, like LASIK. It\u2019s a cosmetic surgery, and even that\u2019s not without risks. You can have devastating injuries and outcomes from LASIK. But we have enough safety data to say this is actually OK to do from just from a safety standpoint.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have that type of data for this type of surgery. And I think it\u2019s unethical. It should not be done. There are reasons to have iris implants. If you have a bad injury to the eye where you lose part of your iris, you need the iris because that\u2019s what limits, what modulates the amount of light that comes into your eye. So if you didn\u2019t have an iris, people with aniridia, no iris, they have tremendous light sensitivity because you don\u2019t need, all the lights just coming right in, landing on the retina and it\u2019s something that can be uncomfortable. If you have an injury where you lose part of the iris, same thing, too much light coming in. You don\u2019t have a full functioning iris to modulate that light as the pupil opens and closes. And so for those patients, yeah, it might make sense. That\u2019s why these things exist, all right? It\u2019s not meant for a cosmetic procedure. There are real medical reasons why you would have these implants. And so the presence of these implants is just being abused by certain doctors. And it\u2019s unethical. And I gotta see this documentary. It\u2019s just gonna make me angry, though.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Well, I would love to hear what you think about it. So these patients go to India, I don\u2019t know if this company, it was filmed in 2019, who knows what is happening now, but the doctors at this clinic in India are saying, \u201cwell, make sure you\u2019re getting follow-up care.\u201d And I\u2019m just kind of imagining what it\u2019s like to be the ophthalmologist who walks into the room to see a patient who got an eye implant in another country and they\u2019re asking for follow-up care.<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Yeah, I haven\u2019t come across that issue, fortunately, yet. And hopefully I don\u2019t. But this just underscores why we need physicians on social media, you know? I mean, not just any physician, like we need ethical physicians, people who practice evidence-based medicine, who can set the record straight on stuff like this. And you see harmful content from somebody, and you can speak out against it. And at this point, we got to be out there. We don\u2019t really have a choice. There\u2019s different ways to do it, right? Not everybody has to dress up in costumes and like record themselves talking to themselves alone. There\u2019s different ways of doing it. It\u2019s just the way I do it. There\u2019s lots of different ways to do, it can just be to your 100 followers or just your local community on Facebook, or even just with your patients. Take the time when patients come in with questions about stuff they\u2019ve seen on social media, like take the time and debunk it, if it\u2019s worth debunking. So we have to stay on top of this stuff, because if we\u2019re not there, if we don\u2019t have ethical evidence-based people out there, then social media is just gonna continue to be overrun by wellness influencers and bad actors.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>Is there anything you\u2019ve had to debunk for your patients a lot recently?<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>The one that comes up pretty routinely is this idea that wearing glasses can make your vision worse, which is something that\u2019s been like a wellness industry-type thing. Like, \u201cno, you don\u2019t want to, if you put your kid in glasses, they\u2019ll be dependent on them. Instead you should stare at the sun three minutes every morning.\u201d And then this gets also into like iridology. It\u2019s basically like palm reading, but for your iris.<\/p>\n

The whole \u201cglasses make your vision worse,\u201d that can be dangerous for kids. Because if you have a parent that\u2019s been influenced by this type of rhetoric, they may not have their child wear the glasses that were prescribed by their eye doctor. And if that happens, you can end up with amblyopia<\/a> and lack of development of vision in one or both eyes. And then you\u2019re setting that kid up for less than normal vision the rest of their life.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what can happen. \u2026 It sounds benign. But that can actually cause irreversible vision loss for people and for kids. And so that\u2019s always one that comes up every now and then. There\u2019s just a handful of other ones, just homeopathic eye drops, no, don\u2019t. There\u2019s a reason like every few years we hear about somebody having some horrible Pseudomonas infection in their eye because they\u2019re like using these unregulated eye drops. So a lot of misinformation around eye drops.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>As we start to wrap up, you know, we\u2019ve got things happening with the health care system, rampant misinformation on social media, all of these things that you tackle. How do you keep finding the humor in medicine despite what\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>That\u2019s a coping mechanism. That\u2019s how it started for me. And I think at the core, that\u2019s a big part of it still, but it\u2019s, it\u2019s now changed to once I realized that if you hide things in comedy, not hide them, but just like surround an idea with humor on social media, you\u2019re much more likely to have people pay attention to it. That\u2019s the way attention is moving. Something\u2019s gotta be entertainment. It\u2019s gotta to be catchy. You gotta have a hook.<\/p>\n

In addition to, I just love making people laugh. I\u2019ve learned how to like take these health care system things that I want changed or something, like what\u2019s happening in Eugene, Oregon, and add a little humor to it, turn it into a skit. And all of a sudden, like people laughed at this thing, but by the end of it, they actually learned something. That\u2019s been a challenge that I\u2019ve really enjoyed is like, how do I make pharmacy benefit managers funny, while still letting people know what a pharmacy benefit manager is? I love that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

And so that\u2019s been, again, my driving force now for a couple of years. But it changes over time, why I do this, you know? During the pandemic, it was, I had people just telling me like, \u201cI haven\u2019t laughed in six months, and I saw your video and it made me laugh. I was able to share a laugh with my fellow ICU doctors.\u201d There\u2019s only so much an ophthalmologist can do during a pandemic, a respiratory pandemic. And so if I can at least make someone laugh, who is seeing death and disease all day, that\u2019s something. And so that kept me going for a while. So it just changes. As long as it\u2019s still fun for me and it seems to be helping people, I\u2019m gonna keep doing it.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>All right, well, Dr. Glaucomflecken, Will Flanary, thank you so much for coming on the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanary: <\/strong>Thank you so much.<\/p>\n

Bosch: <\/strong>And thank you for listening to the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast.\u201d It\u2019s produced by Hyacinth Empinado. Alissa Ambrose is the senior producer, and Rick Berke is executive producer. You can share your opinion on the show by emailing me at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. And please leave a review or rating on whatever platform you use to get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

Until next time, I\u2019m Torie Bosch, and please don\u2019t keep your opinions to yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the \u201cFirst Opinion Podcast\u201d interview with Will Flanary, aka Dr.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[5377,210,1141,1142,17668,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-787796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-advocacy","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-physicians","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116553505842256715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}