Gregory Ogawa '89M (MD)
Dr. Gregory Ogawa is an ophthalmologist at Eye Associates of New Mexico, specializing in problems involving intraocular lenses, irises, cataracts, and corneas. In New Mexico and surrounding states, he regularly serves as the last and best hope for patients who have not been able to find solutions elsewhere. Dr. Ogawa manages complex patient cases, often for the underserved, routinely treating monocular patients and infants and children with cataracts as well as performing ocular reconstructive procedures for eyes that have experienced a range of injuries. At Eye Associates of New Mexico, he serves as the medical administrative officer in addition to his patient care activities. His activities at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine have shifted to volunteer as assistant clinical professor of Ophthalmology, teaching both medical students and ophthalmology residents.
Dr. Ogawa earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1985. He then received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1989 and finished his ophthalmology residency training at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in 1993. Dr. Ogawa also completed the prestigious Wilmer Cornea Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 1994 before joining the faculty at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In 1998, he expanded his work beyond the University to also include Eye Associates of New Mexico, which is now a practice with 14 clinical locations and a staff of over 50 ophthalmologists and optometrists.
Dr. Ogawa’s professional activities extend beyond patient care, administration, and teaching. He has designed multiple surgical instruments with the goal of making eye surgery safer and more effective. Dr. Ogawa has also developed, presented, and published new surgical techniques in the area of iris reconstruction and suture fixation of intraocular lens implants. He helped advance and disseminate new surgeries such as endothelial keratoplasty—implantation of miniature telescopes for patients with macular degeneration—and soon, the implantation of custom artificial irises.
A beloved educator, Dr. Ogawa travels nationally to major eye surgery meetings such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and The Cornea Society where he teaches eye surgery in labs and didactic sessions to residents, fellows, and experienced practitioners.
Dr. Ogawa’s humanitarian spirit is exemplified by his work in the community. Seeing a need years ago for engagement of young adults in philanthropy, he and his wife, Diane, started the “Future Fund” through the Albuquerque Community Foundation to encourage individuals to begin giving back to the community early in their adult lives. The couple also endowed a fund for Student Leadership and Volunteerism at the Albuquerque Academy. For over two decades, Dr. Ogawa has been a medical director at the New Mexico Lions Eye Bank, enabling the harvesting of tissue in the state with dissemination locally, nationally, and internationally. As a stem cell recipient himself, he has been active in outreach and registration with the Marrow Registry for increasing available bone marrow and stem cell transplant donors, as well as with the United Blood services for expanding blood product donations.
Dr. Ogawa is a 14th generation physician down a line starting about 1590 in Japan. That legacy has continued on to a 15th generation with his older daughter, Katie, a University of New Mexico MD graduate and now Family Practice Resident at that same University. His younger daughter, Allison, recently received her white coat as a member of the newest University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry MD class with every intention to join her sister as part of the 15th generation.