Andrew Gore, O.D.

Dr. Gore grew up in Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate degree (in music and historical musicology) from UCLA, and began graduate school in musicology at UCLA when he was inspired by an eye exam to change his career goal to optometry. He then received the equivalent of a second bachelor's degree in biology and following this, attended graduate school at the Southern California College of Optometry, where he graduated in 1999.

Because optometrists have gained so much responsibility with relation to ocular disease, Dr. Gore felt it necessary to pursue an optometry residency. (Only about 10% of U.S. optometry graduates complete residency training.) The residency was a wonderful and exciting learning experience. It took place at the Standing Rock Indian Hospital Eye Clinic in Fort Yates, North Dakota, which is on a reservation 70 miles outside of Bismarck, North Dakota. During that one year on the reservation, Dr. Gore was exposed to a tremendous amount of ocular disease management in conjunction with a very experienced optometrist and an ophthalmologist. Upon his return to Southern California, Dr. Gore worked for a short time in a laser eye center and in corporate optometry and then accepted a position with ophthalmology groups in Santa Cruz.

Those four years in ophthalmology were also a time of great learning. During that time, Dr. Gore co-managed thousands of cataract surgery patients and learned to care for geriatric patients and
specialty contact lens patients.

In September 2005, he purchased this Pasadena practice, which has been in the Citibank building since 1964. We are not sure exactly how old the practice is, but we know that the original founding doctor was licensed to practice in 1938!

Dr. Gore is looking forward to meeting you, helping you see better and taking care of your eye health.

Andrew Liu, O.D.

Dr. Liu, who graduated from the Illinois College of Optometry, was born and raised in Southern California. At age 14, he was inspired by an ESPN feature about San Diego Padres player Greg Vaughn utilizing Sports Vision Training as a tool to improve how his eyes process visual information. Since then, Dr. Liu has been privileged to work with and learn from many optometrists specializing not only in sports vision training, but also ocular disease and contact lens. He has gained invaluable experience about diseases such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and hypertensive retinopathy, working in places such as the Lebanon VA Hospital in Pennsylvania. In addition, he also fulfilled his dream of working with pro baseball players in the past year. These players include three of the starting position players of the San Diego Padres and one of the starting position players of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In his free time, Dr. Liu enjoys running and watching sports teams such as the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, and San Diego Padres.

Retinal Camera

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE that we have a new retinal camera that will greatly enhance our ability to detect retinal problems. The retina is the inner surface of the eye and it is responsible for taking an image of what you see and converting it to an electro-chemical message that goes to your brain. Retinal photography is not invasive and just takes a few minutes. In most cases, it is possible to take retinal photographs without dilating your eyes. Please note that retinal photography is not a substitute for dilation. These are some reasons why retinal photos are helpful:

                   1. Screening photographs for all patients. When a doctor looks inside your eyes and scans around with a very bright light, it is possible to miss a problem, especially if it is a small problem. This is because (a) the doctor must work very quickly, as the light can be very painful to you, (b) patients tend to move around a lot, (c) the magnification of the eye’s inner structures is very small, and (d) the doctor is human. A retinal photograph allows the doctor to take his time and look at a very magnified image of the retina, making it easier to detect a problem. In the first month we used the camera, we found two patients with ocular disease that may have been missed during normal exam procedures.

                   2. Documenting anything unusual on the retina noticed during the exam (for example, unusual pigmentation, optic nerve structural changes, or diabetic changes). It is good to take a photograph so that we may compare the current appearance with its appearance in the future.