Meet Dr. Fraser Horn, ASCO President

Meet Dr. Fraser Horn, ASCO President

A Short Conversation with Dr. Fraser Horn, ASCO President

During ASCO’s Annual Business meeting in June, ASCO swears in a new President for the upcoming 12 months. This year, Dr. Fraser Horn was sworn in as ASCO’s President.

Dr. Horn is the Dean of the College of Optometry at Pacific College of Optometry. He also has taught in the Sports and Recreational Vision, Ocular Disease I, Applied Ocular Therapeutics, Biomedical Ethics and Ocular Emergencies courses. 

Dr. Horn chatted with ASCO’s Communications intern, Jannah Said, to talk about the upcoming year.

ASCO: Dr. Horn, congratulations on becoming ASCO President. How is 2024 treating you far? Do you have any upcoming plans or goals for these next several months?

Dr. Fraser Horn: So far, knock on wood, it’s been busy, but good. Personally, I’ve told myself I was going to do more self-care this year, but that has not gone to plan. We have been busy with accreditation for Pacific University, the role of President for ASCO, and the typical day-to-day work. In addition, we have two sons and so we have been busy outside of work, too. My main goal for this year is to continue to work alongside our colleagues to promote ASCO’s public awareness campaign, Optometry Gives Me Life. In addition, a personal goal is to set aside more time to be with family and friends. 

ASCO: I understand you have a specialized background in sports vision. Is that true? What sparked your interest in sports vision and how has that impacted your perspective on the field and practice of optometry? 

FH: My interest got sparked when I was a senior in high school. Then in undergrad at Pacific, I was involved with some research, where I realized how much fun it is to look at the visual skills for anybody who is performing in a sport or activity, and figure out, “how can we maximize those? How can we enhance those?” It’s a little bit of a different view when it comes to optometry. It’s so much fun. I’ve been able to work with individuals who have been told all their lives, “You have amazing vision. You can’t see any better.” We look and we go, “ah, we have an opportunity here, and we might even be able to make you faster or have quicker reaction times,” and take them to the next level. I feel very fortunate with having support from my family as well as my colleagues to be able to do some fun, crazy things. I consulted for Nike for a while. I continue to do sports vision today with our team here. Anybody in our chair is an athlete, whether you’re a competitive basketball player or if you do competitive cross-stitching at the nursing home, my job is to maximize your vision.

ASCO: You also completed a residency in primary care and ocular disease. How did your residency add to your education?

FH: I think the beauty of the residency was that it really enhanced my ocular disease and systemic disease knowledge base. I was at the Perry Point VA, so I was able to see patients who had advanced disease and also help those at the beginning of the disease. It also really helped me with communication. You can be the best diagnostician, but if you cannot communicate with your patients, you cannot do anything for them. Once I was done with my residency, I had way more confidence. Just like confidence helps an athlete in their performance, a confident doc is able to better help patients.

ASCO: Thank you. Let’s talk a little about ASCO. What are you looking forward to most as president of ASCO? What will be some of your top priorities this year?

FH: The staff is amazing at ASCO, and it’s been an honor to follow Dr. Colip, who was a wonderful president. I’m looking forward to working with the team and being able to represent so many administrators, faculty, and staff throughout ASCO and all our schools and colleges of optometry. I’m looking forward to being able to help ASCO continue building on our success of Optometry Gives Me Life. We saw some amazing growth this past year, and I hope we will continue to see that throughout this year. Hopefully we can deepen our partnerships. For example, National Optometric Association is looking at recruitment within Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and we would love to discuss ways we can collaborate and make it a synergistic relationship. In addition, we want to continue to work with all of our other partners to make sure we are supporting the profession of optometry.

Making sure that we are maximizing our relationships with other organizations, letting them know that we are here to help the profession, and making sure that we continue to grow with our future colleagues.

The other piece I’m excited about is our task force that is looking to update the document that describes the attributes of our graduates from optometry schools and colleges. Their work will help to elevate the goals that we have within optometric education and will help to promote the important work and the qualifications of our graduates. 

ASCO: Let’s get to know you on a personal level better. Why did you choose the career of optometry? Tell me more about your path to you becoming the Dean of Pacific College of Optometry. What did you find most appealing about the field of optometry, particularly academia?

FH: My brother and sister-in-law are both optometrists, and when they were optometry students, they used to practice some basic skills on me. I was curious, and that’s kind of what got me into optometry. I realized pretty early on the variety of opportunities that optometry provides. During my first year after residency, I had wonderful experiences in academia, research, and private practice. All of these really shaped my future. When I was working with students, I realized how fun it is. They will ask me questions that no patient will ask. They will make me a better doctor. In addition, to see us as a team at Pacific, similar with any optometry program, educate students who will be our colleagues is a very rewarding experience. If I was in private practice, I would help a community. Now, I help multiple communities in educating the future providers for their area.

In addition, life doesn’t stop when students are in optometry school and there are some major life events that occur. I have been honored to work with students who are going through challenging times, both academically and/or personally. To see those who were struggling work hard and become successful is a true honor for me to be even a small part of that. I’m so proud of knowing that they persevered. It’s so awesome.

I’m where I am because of everybody else I work with. It’s nothing amazing I’ve done as much as just listening and working alongside everyone. Hard work and teamwork have been the key for our success.

ASCO: As a pre-optometry student myself, I’m curious to know how you would describe the academics and culture at Pacific. What can applicants look for from Pacific, and what is Pacific Optometry looking for in applicants?

FH: I love this. We can talk for a long time about what’s so awesome about Pacific, as I am sure that all leaders can spend ample time to promote their own program. We provide a very well-rounded education, so we want you to be able to help anybody who’s sitting in your chair after graduation. It doesn’t mean you’re going to manage every single case, but it means that you know who you’re referring to and what they’re doing so you can communicate that with your patient. We have faculty that truly care. By a few weeks, they know when a student is missing class and can check in. They’re here for your success. Students become really good friends with faculty, staff and with each other. What we’re looking for in students is that they’re well rounded, can communicate, and care about their community. It shows with how many of our students do outreach within local communities and global communities. We’re looking for individuals who are willing to go do a little bit extra for their community. A 4.0 GPA and great OAT scores are awesome; but we are also looking for someone who is going to make a great impact on their community.

ASCO: Thank you. Speaking of Oregon and the Pacific Coast, what are some of your favorite places to go? What would you recommend people visit when they are in town?

FH: If you have not been out here, you’ve got to come out here. Pacific University is really close to the heart of wine country. Within an hour and a half, you can be in multiple different ecosystems. An hour west is the coast, we love going to a town called Pacific City, a small town near Tillamook, which has famous cheese and ice cream. Our coasts are completely different than other coasts, so don’t expect it to be similar to California, Florida, or Hawaii. Further south, you will be in wine country, and if you keep going, you will travel through the Willamette Valley. If you go east, you get to the mountains, great for outdoor activities year-round, including hiking, skiing, snowboarding, and more. Just past that is high desert country where you can visit some amazing places like Bend, Oregon. Due east of Portland is the Columbia River Gorge, which is just spectacular. A lot of hiking, waterfalls, breweries, wind- and kite-surfing, a good arts scene, and a lot of really cool things to do. We encourage our students to get out and about. The Pacific Northwest is such a gorgeous place.

ASCO: We like to ask everyone we speak with to say something about the field of optometry that people may not know. What would you say to me, as a budding OD, or someone who didn’t know much about the field?

FH: The beauty of optometry is that you can make an impact in so many ways, from the medical aspect, where you might be the first person to discover that a patient has diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, or even possibly Alzheimer’s. There are people doing minor surgical procedures, injections, lasers, which is fantastic. Then there’s the other world of contact lenses, where you can give the gift of sight, help with myopia control, and make a difference with dry eyes. Vision therapy and vision rehab, where you help people in the classrooms or those who have had a stroke or concussion. We’ve seen children go from really introverted to the most outgoing person after helping their vision. You have changed the trajectory of their life. Whatever your passion is, you can find an aspect of optometry where you can help people. The work-life balance can be great and many are able to enjoy their passions alongside the amazing (and hard) work they are doing in clinics. 

Eyecare is more needed than it ever has been in the past, and it’s a great field to know you really made a difference in the community and that you’re having fun. If more days are fun than not, you’re doing pretty well.

Thank you for your time Dr. Horn! We look forward to having a very productive year ahead!