Dr. Glaucomflecken: The Importance of Sharing a Laugh
(Access show transcript) From Ophthalmologist by day to TikTok star by night, Dr. Glaucomflecken leaves his mark by making a difference in his patients’ lives and making the internet laugh through comedy skits. He strongly believes in the importance of laughter, especially when facing hardships.
Show Summary
Dr. Glaucomflecken has a unique backstory as he made the pivot from performing stand-up comedy to becoming a physician. TikTok is now his stage with over 2 million followers, creating comedic skits about the healthcare world. Besides comedy, he also uses his platform to spread awareness about his sudden cardiac arrest in 2020 and his diagnosis with testicular cancer.
On this episode, Dr. Glaucomflecken explains his introduction to content creation, the evolving idea of professionalism in the medical field, keeping a positive mindset, and more.
Mentioned in this Episode
Transcript
Imagine you could step inside the minds of Canada's healthcare leaders, glimpse their greatest fears, strongest drivers, and what makes them tick. Welcome to Healthcare Change Makers, a podcast where we talk to leaders about the joys and challenges of driving change and working with partners to create the safest healthcare system.
Philip De Souza: Hey, listeners. It's Philip from HIROC and I'm also here with Abi, our newest team member. Hey, Abi. How are you doing today?
Abi Sivakumar: Hi, Philip. I'm doing great. I'm actually excited to be here today as we host Dr. Glaucomflecken. You've most likely watched one of Dr. G's videos, either on TikTok or on Twitter. He caught our attention because of his unique presence on socials, as well as his ability to truly engage people about healthcare.
Philip De Souza: You're absolutely right, Abi. In today's conversation, we touch upon Dr. G's journey from standup comedian to ophthalmologist. Yes, you heard me right. I did say comedian. We also get a glimpse of his life now, his practice, his family life, and of course learning how he navigates being in the spotlight.
Abi Sivakumar: Okay, Philip. Let's get to it. Everyone, meet Dr. Glaucomflecken.
Philip De Souza: So welcome. So for those of you who don't know, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: So I call myself an internet comedian ophthalmologist. So my day job is a comprehensive ophthalmologist out here in Portland, Oregon. Then in my free time, evenings, weekends, holidays, whenever I can find the time, I do this social media stuff as Dr. Glaucomflecken, and I dress up as different specialties in medicine and record satirical videos and make fun of the US healthcare system, among other things. Yeah.
Philip De Souza: I love that. So you currently have a major platform on social media with over 2 million followers and a variety of platforms, and I think you said you make comedic videos about the medical world. So what exactly inspired you to be a content creator?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: I've always loved comedy. I've always been a big fan. Started doing standup when I was in high school.
Philip De Souza: What? Cool.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was 17 years old, going to these open mics in Houston, Texas with a friend of mine. I was too young to stay past a certain hour at night. They kicked me out at 9:00 PM or something. So I've always been in that world. I never really seriously considered it as a career, though. It was always just a hobby for me. I thought it was way too hard to try to become a comedian. So I went the easier route of becoming a doctor. I continued doing standup in college and in the first couple years of med school, until life got a little bit just more difficult and challenging and time-consuming, doing medicine. So I started writing a little bit more, and that eventually turned into social media and videos.
So that's where I am now. I've always approached it not really as a career. It's just a hobby. It's just something I love to do. I love making people laugh, and I love exploring that creativity that you can do, have this blank canvas that you can just create something. It's just really exciting, and it's just so different than what you do in medicine a lot of times.
Philip De Souza: Very different. But hearing that now, do you feel that your background in comedy and writing and being that unique character or characters, do you find that it's helped you in your career in medicine?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: I think it's helped with my mental health, personally.
Philip De Souza: Oh, that's good.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, it's a way to explore some of the frustrating things that we all deal with in medicine, both on the physician side, but also on the patient side. So that's been one huge benefit just to me personally. I do talk about all this stuff with patients, and that's gotten more common, where people come in and they recognize me, or they actually make an appointment with me because they saw my videos or something. It's always a really fun conversation. I really enjoy asking people what their favorite characters are. It's always Jonathan. Oh, they ask my scribe, who's in the room with me. He's like, "Is this your Jonathan?" I'm sure my scribe loves that, to hear that a few times a day. So I think it's helped me personally. I think being able to learn a lot about the healthcare system by trying to put together these skits has taught me a lot about it. It's also allowed me to relate to my patients a little bit better from a different perspective. So yeah, I do think overall, it's been a huge benefit to me as a physician.
Philip De Souza: Very cool. So some people may not know this, but you did mention in the beginning, but Dr. Glaucomflecken is the name of your online persona, rather than your real name.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, no. People will call the office asking to make an appointment with Dr. Glaucomflecken. The front staff, I feel so bad for them. They have to say, "No, actually his name is Will Flannery. It's Dr. Flannery." They're like, "No, I want to see Dr. Glaucomflecken." So sometimes it's tricky conversations. But yeah, no, glaucomflecken, it's actually a word in ophthalmology. It's an exam finding that you see in patients with certain types of glaucoma.
Yeah. So when I was trying to come up with a pseudonym as my comedy persona on social media, because I wanted to be anonymous at first, I was like, "Okay. What's the most ridiculous word in ophthalmology?" That was a clear and obvious front runner.
Philip De Souza: Well, it definitely caught our attention.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But now me as Dr. Glaucomflecken is more famous, I would say, than the actual exam finding that's been around for 300 years. So I know there's some students around the world. They're like, "What is this? I need to learn about this," and all they get is me dressed up as a neurologist. "What is going on?"
Philip De Souza:
You've singlehandedly created a whole new ... I don't even want to call it, a whole new platform of using that word.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Right. Exactly.
Philip De Souza:
Well, that's too funny. Well, in 2020, you went into a sudden and mysterious cardiac arrest.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yes.
Philip De Souza: Your wife saved your life by performing CPR on you until the paramedics arrived. So how did this experience change your outlook on life and I guess your career?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Well, this happened right at the height of the height of the pandemic. So one thing that it actually did was I was developing a big name for myself in medical circles, but I wasn't as well-known as I am now, I would say. So at that time, though, this was during lockdown, pretty much, and everyone was on social media all the time. So not only was my content starting to gain steam just because there were so many people sitting at home with nothing to do so they're like ... well, started watching my videos, but also, I had this amazing event happen where I essentially died. My wife saved my life. So that alone, just that combination of things just expanded my platform like crazy. It changed my life in that respect because all of a sudden, more people were watching my videos, and they were listening to me talk about my experience as a patient, going through the healthcare system. Just by virtue of it being during the pandemic and more people were online, the messages, the things I was talking about were just spreading more widely.
From a personal standpoint, obviously, going through something like that, it changes your perspective on life, on family and priorities, where you spend your time. Up until that point, I had done a lot of speaking, and that was starting to gain steam. Now I had to think a little bit more about, "How much time do I really want to spend away from my family?" So time, it has a different meaning. That was really a big deal right at the beginning, when I first came home from the hospital and probably for the first six to nine months. It started to fade a little bit as you get back into your normal daily routine. But it's still there. I still feel that, yeah, I don't want to be away from my wife and kids. I'd rather just have this be a two-day trip instead of a four-day trip.
Philip De Souza: Yes.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Or maybe I don't want to do that speaking engagement, because it's all the way on the East Coast. That's three days that I don't get to be with my family. I don't know if I would feel that as strongly if I hadn't gone through what I had gone through. So in a way, it's a little bit of a positive there, I guess, among a lot of terrible things that have happened.
Philip De Souza: Of course.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Then as a physician, the cardiac arrest, it has changed what I talk about with patients. I'm more open with patients now about my own health issues if I feel like it's relevant to talk about that, because a lot of my patients are in their seventies, eighties, nineties. They've gone through or are going through cancer or heart problems or the healthcare system, dealing with insurance and billing and all these things. So I'm much more willing and able to relate to my patients and talk with them about those types of things than I was before the cardiac arrest.
Philip De Souza: Is your wife also in healthcare?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: She is not. No. She had done a CPR class as part of a job in college or something 15 years ago. So when this happened, she had no formal medical training, and the dispatcher walked her through CPR. She has been a huge advocate ever since that event for co-survivors or the people who go through these medical traumas right there alongside with the patient, because in a lot of ways, sometimes these medical traumas, and it was the case for me, because I just went to bed one night, and I woke up in the ICU a couple days later. A lot of times, it's harder for the people that actually go through those medical traumas. That was the case for her. So she's been a big advocate for talking about that with medical audiences in particular, like, "Hey, don't forget about the people who are experiencing these as well. It's not just the patient."
Philip De Souza: No, absolutely. Absolutely. But I can't stress how important it is. If you can, get CPR training. Also, I did the same thing as your wife. I had taken it some time ago, and I thought, "Oh, I don't need this." Then I ended up needing it.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, it's crazy. I was a doctor for ten years before, and for all that time, I never once thought, "Hey, maybe my non-medical spouse should learn CPR." I was always like, "Well, if something happens somewhere, I'll be the one." We're usually together. "I'll do it." But no, I was the one that needed it. So yeah, you'd be surprised. I try to tell people that a lot. I was like, "Listen, I know you're all in medicine," because I talk to a lot of physician audiences. "But I guarantee you have somebody in your life, family, friends that are not in medicine that don't know CPR." Usually, there is. There's a lot of people like that. So yeah, everybody. It should be taught everywhere, schools, workplaces, all that stuff.
Philip De Souza: Well, you're not new to podcasts, as you host your own show with your wife called Knock, Knock, Hi! with the Glaucomfleckens. So can you tell us a little bit about your podcast and why people should tune in?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, yeah. Well, we wanted to do something a little bit more long form. I figured, "Well, if people are willing to look at me for two minutes at a time on TikTok, maybe they'd be willing to watch or listen to me for 45 minutes. I don't know." This is something that Kristin and I, my wife, we've been wanting to do for a while, because one of the big things we talk about is humanity in medicine, in particular making doctors seem human. That's a big thing for me, and that's why I love doing what I do on social media. I love it when other physicians or healthcare professionals show off their sense of humor or show off their emotions or the things they're dealing with, the frustrations in their life on social media.
So this podcast is just an extension of that. We bring on medical people, mostly physicians, and we have them tell some stories. Usually it's from their training, because that's when all the good stories happen, is medical training and residency, med school. We have a lot of fun, and it always brings up important topics that we explore and we laugh about. I always try to play a little game with our guests specific to their specialty.
It's just a way to show people that doctors are just regular people and that are under a lot of the same pressures as everyone else and some extra ones as well. But we're all just regular people, and we're going through regular things. We have senses of humor, and we like to laugh and cry and get angry at times. They're just normal people. So that's the idea of this podcast, and it's been a lot of fun. I love having Kristin there, too, as a co-host, because she brings a non-medical perspective, which I think is very important, because yeah, I think people just get tired of hearing doctors talk to each other. So we need some outside influence, and so she provides that.
Philip De Souza: Has there been any aha moments on your podcast with any of your guests?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: We've talked to a couple of oncologists, which it was great. We had a Dr. Don Dizon, who is in a medical oncologist, and we played a game with him where we had him teach us how to deliver bad news. Kristin and I took turns delivering bad news to each other. Her bad news to me was that no, in fact, she is a lot funnier than me. So that was a fun experience, and also, I got to learn a thing or two. That's the goal of the podcast. We want people to learn something about medicine while also just having fun, listening to people tell jokes and laugh. So yeah, I never know with each guest. Each guest brings something different, because they're all in different areas of medicine and healthcare. So I never know what we're going to end up talking about for the most part, and it's always fun to see where it goes.
Philip De Souza: That's cool. Laughter is a form of medicine.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: It is. Some would say the most important form of medicine.
Philip De Souza: Exactly. Unless you need neural medicine. Then you might die laughing. That's neither here nor there.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Stop. I'm going to pass it over to Abi now. Welcome, Abi.
Abi Sivakumar: Hi, Dr. G. It's great to meet you.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Hi. Good to meet you.
Abi Sivakumar: So in the recent years, there's been an ongoing trend of healthcare professionals having an online platform where they're really able to show their personality and who they are outside the hospital or wherever they practice. So in what ways do you think the perception of professionalism is changing, especially within the medical field?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, that's a good question. I love this topic, because over the past, I don't know, ten years, you've seen a lot more medical professionals, especially people coming up in medicine, so pre-meds, med students, residents, have a social media presence. Quite often, they start off anonymous. I was the same way. I was like, "Oh, I'm going to be telling jokes. I don't know how this is going to go over with people. Am I going to get in trouble? Am I going to get fired because I'm just using my sense of humor?" That's a legitimate concern, and it speaks to where the idea professionalism has been for a long time in medicine. It's been this notion that you can't talk about the difficult things in your life. You can't talk about things that made you angry or sad or jokes that you tell to people, because that's not considered professional for a doctor to talk about those things.
I do think that is absolutely changing, and it's changing with the new generation of doctors that are coming up and also because they've grown up on social media as well. They're facile with social media, and they get it. I think it's really a wonderful thing that this idea of professionalism is changing to allow everybody in medicine to express themselves more, because we need the public to see that side of us. We need them to see us as real human beings, who are not robots who memorize the textbook.
So I love it. I love it. I think for too long, professionalism has been a little bit weaponized against doctors. I do think that's going away, and it should. Now, that doesn't mean you could just do whatever the hell you want on the internet as a physician, because we do have a very unique position in society, where we have people's lives. Not me. Their eyes, not their lives, in our hands. So we do have to be respectful of that and not do anything that undermines the patient-physician relationship. So there are rules. There are things that I abide by and that I hope everybody else does to not undermine that, the public trust in physicians and other healthcare professionals. But it should not come at the expense of our own self-expression, and that's the main point.
Abi Sivakumar: For sure, and I'm personally loving this trend of content creation in healthcare. I follow a lot of healthcare professionals myself, and as you mentioned before, it's really breaking that stereotype that healthcare workers have to be really serious all the time, knowing they can be creative, funny in your case, make comedy skits, and still their do their job amazingly. So I'm really enjoying that.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, I've spent a lot of time as a patient. I want my doctors to be relatable, right? I want them to just seem like someone I could just have a casual conversation with. So I totally agree.
Abi Sivakumar: For sure. It really does humanize them. On the topic of this ongoing trend, who are some of your favorite content creators in healthcare? Bonus points if they're Canadian.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Let's see. The Canadian one. Let's see. So some of them, I don't know for sure if they're Canadian, but that's okay. Let's see. So there's a lot of people on Twitter. That's where I grew up on social media, so to speak, as Dr. Glaucomflecken. So I have just friends on social media. I'll give a shout-out to a few of them. Dr. Amy G. Dala is one of my BFFs on Twitter. We wrote for GomerBlog together. She's a pediatric neurologist, and I've really enjoyed her perspective on things and laughing with her.
There's some things Bryan Carmody, who is doing great work on social media around the match and some of the issues that are really important to med students. Mama Dr. Jones is fantastic. Emily Silverman, who does a lot with storytelling in medicine, which is ... We need so much more of that. So yeah, there's too many to count. There's so many people doing awesome things and finding those little areas of medicine that we need to hear more about. So I love people getting out there and creating all kinds of content. It's fantastic.
Abi Sivakumar: Shout-out to them. We'll be sure to check them out, and I'm curious myself. So in terms of healthcare content, what types of content do you prefer to watch, comedy skits, educational, day in the life, for example? There's so many different types. So what do you prefer watching in the healthcare field?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, I really appreciate anybody that can combine entertainment with education. So Medlife Crisis is a great one with Rohin Francis. So he's from the UK. He's a cardiologist. Yeah, he's a cardiologist and just does unbelievable, these YouTube videos, educational, combining lots of humor. I think he's got a comedy background as well. So there's no better way to connect with somebody, including an audience on social media, than making them laugh. That's why I think these skits are so ... Some of them are just about the most boring healthcare system topics, like prior authorizations and deductibles. Under no circumstances should anybody really be interested in these topics. But by putting them through a lens of humor, all of a sudden, I can trick people into learning about something about these issues. So I appreciate people that are able to do that. It makes medical education fun, because it should be fun, and that's how you're going to reach the most people.
Abi Sivakumar: For sure. Being creative is definitely the most captivating way to get an audience. So switching gears just a little bit, being vulnerable and sharing personal things online is not an easy thing to do, especially when you have a big platform. People leave comments, give their opinions, whether that be nice or hateful. So what inspired you to publicly share your experience with testicular cancer and your cardiac arrest?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Well, honestly, for me, it was my way of coping, because I had always used comedy as a defense mechanism, as a coping mechanism. Social media was just how I was doing my comedy. So before, before I had been on social media, when I had my first diagnosis of testicular cancer, I processed that by doing standup, in-person standup, going to comedy clubs and stuff. But then in residency, when I got the second testicular cancer diagnosis and later on when I had the cardiac arrest, there's no time. I was not doing any in-person comedy. I was on social media. That was my comedy. That was my outlet.
So that's the reason I started doing it, just because it was a way for me to cope, was a way for me to take those difficult things in my life and add humor to them and present it to others and share a laugh. That's a very powerful thing. To be able to do that for hundreds of thousands, millions of people, it's great. When you're talking about some of these very personal things, there's not a whole lot of negativity around it. People are ... There's always one or two, but are almost universally supportive. So it's been a wonderful experience to be able to talk about these things and hear from other people's perspectives and hear other people had similar stories as well. But it's a very personal decision. Not everyone's going to be as open as I am about their own medical issues, and that's a personal decision. It works for me. Might not work for somebody else, and that's okay.
Abi Sivakumar: I think it's really important that you share that, because as much as social media could be a place that is hateful, it's also a place that people get inspired, feel like they're not alone, get motivation to keep on pushing through. So thank you for being courageous and sharing that part of your life.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: You're welcome.
Abi Sivakumar: I'm sure a lot of people can relate to the health scares that you've been through, and it's something that definitely takes a mental toll. So how do you keep a positive mind and focus on your wellbeing through it all?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: I'm not a super futuristic-thinking person. I'm not that type of person. I'm very much like, "What do I got to do today? What's on my mind right now? What am I going to deal with right now?" So in a lot of ways, it keeps me from perseverating on the fact that I now am a 37-year-old two-time testicular cancer survivor who's also had a cardiac arrest. So I don't think a lot about, "Oh, man, am I going to live until I'm 50, until I'm 60?" I don't know.
Chances are things are not looking great right now. So I don't really think that way a lot. I think more in the moment, which has helped me maintain positivity. I still have my moments, though. Family's still there, and my friends are still there. I have an unbelievably supportive audience on social media. What I've created and what we've all created together as this Glaucomflecken community, it's truly remarkable, and I am very thankful for it.
Abi Sivakumar:
That's great. I feel like sometimes, it doesn't always have to be, "Oh, I meditate. I journal." Sometimes it's just, "I live in the moment. I focus on right now, and I'm happy this way," which is amazing. Something that we have in common, actually, between my team's role in marketing and communications and your role as a content creator is that constant creativity is required to captivate our audience and keep it exciting. So how do you stay creative when making content?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, sometimes it feels like a chore. It is a business now. This is Glaucomflecken. I have an LLC. It's an actual business. Certainly, as it's gotten bigger, it has felt like a business at times. I didn't start this to turn this into some moneymaking side gig. It is just this was my creative outlet. So in some ways, it is frustrating to have that feeling, like you've got to produce content. I hate that feeling. But that has become more common, because the platform has grown, and we have bills we have to pay around this thing with our production team and all. So it's grown to the point where, okay, well, now I actually do have to create the content. That is a stress at times. It is still fun, though. Otherwise, I'd just hang it all up and not do it. But there are times when it's like, "I really don't want to record a video." We're going to Australia tomorrow, and I'm like, "Okay. I probably have to film something now so I can put something out there so it's not going to be two weeks before I have a new video."
Abi Sivakumar: Oh, wow. Yeah.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: So it's stuff like that, and it can be very frustrating whenever it's something that's supposed to be purely fun. But again, in the end, for me ... Kristin always reminds me. My wife always reminds me of this. This is supposed to be fun. So when it stops being fun, we need to figure out why and make a change. So as long as I'm still enjoying it, then I'm going to keep doing it. You've got to work sometimes to keep it that way.
Abi Sivakumar:
Yeah, because that's why you got into this to begin with, into content creation, to make people laugh. It was fun for you. So I hope it continues to be that way.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Thank you.
Abi Sivakumar: I'm going to pass it back on to Philip to ask one last question before the lightning round.
Philip De Souza: I didn't know you were going to Australia. So you could even do some content there. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: I usually bring a few pairs of glasses and a couple hats or something, just in case something strikes me. Yes.
Philip De Souza: See? Well, now that we got the inside scoop that you're going tomorrow, we'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see what you produce. Well, it's very clear to Abi and I that your family means a lot to you. So in the beginning, when we started talking to you today, you talked about how you were doing some standup, and then you made this pivot to medicine. I'm laughing because it's like, "Oh." I'm just picturing me telling my mom, "Oh, yeah. I'm doing standup, but actually, I'm going to be applying to med school."
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah. Right?
Philip De Souza: So I guess in that moment, it struck me as, "Oh, what did your parents say?" On top of that, I know how much your wife means you and your family, but was there someone in your childhood, a parent, a grandparent, a, I don't know, cousin, a brother, I don't know who, a sister who really helped you on this journey and got you to where you are today?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: I've had a lot of support over the years, and from a comedy standpoint, that pivot from comedy, because I did briefly think, "Should I do comedy as a career?," because no one's really good at standup comedy when they first get started. But I had a little bit of talent. I was just naturally a funny person. With anything in life, the more you do it, the better you're going to get at it. So I was slowly improving. But honestly, I was looking around at people who were in their forties, fifties, still trying to make it in comedy, and I was like, "Oh, this seems really hard. Let me do something much easier." So I went to med school, which, looking back, obviously, was not quite as easy as I thought it would be.
So I had always really been interested in math and science and stuff. So I thought about med school, going to medicine pretty early. In junior high, I remember thinking about it. There was no doctors in the family, so I was the first one. But I always just viewed the comedy thing as a hobby. It wasn't really something I very seriously considered as a career. My parents, I didn't tell them I was going to comedy clubs and doing comedy.
Philip De Souza: You went rogue.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: It was me and it was a friend of mine, who I'm still friends with. He was the best man at my wedding. He's a year older than me, and he told me he was going to do open mics in Houston. I was like, "Oh, that sounds fun. I want to do it." So he's the one that got me into it. When you asked about influences or people that have helped me along the way, he was the first person that came to mind, because I still to this day run jokes by him. He helps me with some of my content as well. I'm like, "Hey, I'm trying to think of something about neurosurgeons. Can you help me out or something?" So yeah, we're been friends for 20 years. So from a comedy standpoint ... Also, he's not in medicine. I really encourage anybody who's in healthcare to have people outside of healthcare that you talk to regularly, because that's just a good perspective to have.
Philip De Souza: Absolutely.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: So yeah, he's been a big part of my life.
Philip De Souza: Oh, that's nice. What's his name?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Joseph.
Philip De Souza: Joseph. Shout-out to Joseph.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah. Funny. So oh my God, just effortlessly funny. The things he says, it's like, "Man, I wish I thought it." That happens so often when I talk to him. So he's just, oh, such a funny guy.
Philip De Souza: Very cool. That's good to have a good network. It sounds like you definitely have that. Now we made it to the end of our podcast with a quick lightning round. So Abi and I are going to ask you a few questions, and you just say the first thing that comes to your mind. It could be short or long. If you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Don't have a cardiac arrest.
Philip De Souza: That's a good one. Yes. What's the best gift you've been given?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Probably a picture drawn by my children.
Philip De Souza: Aw.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: They like to draw, and they will draw pictures for me sometimes. It's not cute. Sometimes I'm really hideous, but that's okay. At least the effort is what counts.
Philip De Souza: This is a side question, but speaking of your children, what do they think about Dr. Glaucomflecken?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: They love it. Oh, they still think I'm funny. They're not old enough to think I'm super lame or anything, although the oldest, she's getting there. But yeah, they love watching the videos. We always watch them together.
Philip De Souza: I was going to say, obviously, I know they're not teenagers, because you're quite young.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: They're not yet. Not yet.
Philip De Souza: Teenagers would have been like, "What? You're recording what?"
Dr. Glaucomflecken: No, they've got a little bit of time before teenage years.
Philip De Souza: Okay, good. Abi?
Abi Sivakumar: What's your dance like no one's watching song?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Honestly, lately, I've been dancing a lot with what my children are playing. So it's Katie Perry and Taylor Swift.
Philip De Souza: All good stuff
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Yeah, yeah. I know the song. I don't know the names of the songs, unfortunately, but everybody can just imagine me dancing with my children to Taylor Swift.
Abi Sivakumar: Do you live by any piece of advice or motto?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Don't use Visine or sleep in your contacts. Is that too narrow? Did you want something a little bit broader? I'm sorry. Take care of your eyeballs, please, everyone.
Abi Sivakumar: If that's what you live by, we'll take it. Last question. What is your proudest achievement?
Dr. Glaucomflecken: My proudest achievement is probably being in my thirties and being able to learn a new social media platform. So I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to pick up TikTok, even though I'm not a very technical person. In fact, Kristin helps me a lot with computer stuff. I'm really bad, really bad. You wouldn't know it, but I'm terrible at it. So I am very proud of myself that I've learned very basic cinematography and how to edit videos and how to navigate all these social media platforms, because it's been a lot harder than it seems.
Abi Sivakumar: Yeah, I could never tell that a content creator's bad at technology. So you're good at hiding that. That was our last question. So that's all we have for you today. Thank you so much, Dr. G, for joining us on Healthcare Change Makers. It was really a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for your thoughtful, honest answers, really.
Dr. Glaucomflecken: Thank you so much for having me. This was a blast.
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