Dr. Richard B. Foulkes, MD

Richard B. Foulkes, MD, is a refractive and anterior segment ophthalmologist who has performed more than 20,000 refractive surgery procedures. Dr. Foulkes founded Foulkes Vision Institute in 1999, where his goal is to make LASIK surgery a safer and more accurate procedure.

Dr. Foulkes began his LASIK training in 1997 under the tutelage of two leaders in the field of vision correction surgery, Drs. Jeff Machat of Toronto and Steve Slade of Houston Texas. Starting a research center within his own practice in 2000, he has since been heavily involved in additional studies designed to push vision correction treatments to the next tier of excellence. Dr. Foulkes has developed various techniques for studying the efficacy of microkeratomes and has patented several devices used to improve eye surgery and patient safety. An example is a tool designed to keep fluid away from the corneal treatment surface where it can degrade the laser effect. Other innovations which demonstrate his commitment to refractive surgical outcomes are a method for scanning treatment surface before the treatment and his work using the arc scanning imaging device, called Artemis, which is unique to only a few centers in the world. His images have been shown around the world demonstrating important features of the laser vision procedure.

More About Richard B. Foulkes, MD

Richard B. Foulkes, MD, is a proud veteran of the Vietnam conflict, where he served with the Navy and Marines as a corpsman and surgical technician. He graduated cum laude from Tufts University, receiving his Bachelor of Science in Biology before earning his Doctorate of Medicine from Rush Medical College in Chicago, where he graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. Following medical school, Dr. Foulkes participated in a select internship program in internal medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. He later completed his ophthalmology training at Catholic Medical Center through Cornell University, where he served as Chief Resident in Ophthalmology. Dr. Foulkes is currently completing a textbook on the techniques and devices available for studying and creating microkeratomes.

In addition to running his own private practice, Dr. Foulkes serves as an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois Eye & Ear Infirmary. He is also an active member in a number of charitable organizations, including Medecins Sans Frontieres, Amnesty International, the Nature Conservancy, the Chinese AIDS Society and the Guardian Angel Home in Joliet. Dr. Foulkes is affiliated with a number of professional medical societies: the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the International Society of Refractive Surgery.