By Shan Khan, R.O.

Some careers hit you in the chest and say, this is it. For Dr. Vishakha Thakrar, O.D., that moment came in her fourth year of optometry school, the first time she placed a specialty contact lens on a visually compromised patient.

“Watching someone see their kids clearly, recognize the details of their own face, and take in a world they thought was gone… it was a blessing,” she recalls. “Being the bridge between a scleral lens and a patient who believed their vision was gone never gets old.”

Originally planning to return to Canada after graduation, Dr. Thakrar’s path shifted when a mentor recognized her gift for specialty contact lenses. That nudge led her to Boston for a cornea and contact lens residency at the New England College of Optometry. Rotations at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Boston Foundation for Sight immersed her in scleral lenses and orthokeratology, cementing her love for managing complex corneal and ocular surface cases.

She then joined the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, where she introduced scleral lenses into a large tertiary care setting and began lecturing to share her patient experiences and clinical insights with colleagues and students. But in 2006, when she returned to Canada, she noticed something glaring: scleral lenses weren’t being widely used for patients who desperately needed them. Rather than accept the status quo, she opened a specialty practice focused on scleral lenses, dry eye disease, and myopia management, a move that would transform the lives of countless patients.

I had the privilege of consulting with Dr. Thakrar when her practice was just getting started, including fitting my husband, who has keratoconus, with his first set of RGP lenses. Watching her connect with patients so intuitively — listening carefully and getting it right the first time — it’s immediately clear why they trust her without hesitation.

Innovation has always been central to Dr. Thakrar’s practice. From EyePrint Prosthetic mouldable lenses to Ovitz higher-order aberration scleral lenses, she constantly pushes the boundaries of care. Scleral profilometry is next on her horizon, because why settle for amazing when you can be cutting-edge? Yet, for her, technology is a tool; restoring functional vision is what truly matters. “Even after 25 years, restoring functional vision hits me the same way it did on day one,” she says.

Balance hasn’t always been easy. Like many women in healthcare, she spent years putting everyone else first. Now, self-care is non-negotiable: strength training, meditation, and longevity-focused health allow her to show up fully for her patients, her family, and her team. When she does unplug, Dr. Thakrar is happiest near the water, yoga at sunrise, long beach walks with her husband, swimming, scuba diving, and evenings on a yacht with friends and family. Travel fuels her soul too, 36 countries and counting, with Bali still patiently waiting at the top of her list.

“True leadership isn’t about titles or doing it all perfectly. It’s showing up with heart, passion, and intention every single day. The best part of this career is seeing patients rediscover the world, it never gets old, and it never fails to humble me.” Dr. Vishakha Thakrar embodies why we do what we do: to make lives better, one patient, one prescription, and one clear moment at a time. She is vision, expertise, and heart personified.

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