It Was Love at First Sight
New Roseburg eye specialist, Dr. Alex Willoughby, knew a good thing when he saw it, committing to practice here on his first visit.
Story by Dick Baltus Photo by Thomas Boyd
Dr. Alex Willoughby’s decision to move to Roseburg last summer to establish his first eye-care practice is testament to the value of the first impression.
Nearing the end of his residency training at University of California, Davis, Dr. Willoughby received a call from Roseburg ophthalmologist Dr. Brad Seeley with an invitation to visit the area and discuss a practice opportunity with Umpqua Valley Eye Associates. Given their desire to find a new practice site that checks all of their professional and lifestyle boxes, many physicians will accept similar invitations from several communities until they find the right fit.
But for Dr. Willoughby and his wife, Sally, Roseburg fit like a glove.
“Over the phone, Dr. Seeley told me this was a beautiful community,that the medical community was great and that he loved having a career here,” he says. “That was enough to convince us to visit.”
When the Willoughbys arrived, the outdoors lovers were treated to a tour of the community and a guided — and highly successful— shad-fishing trip.
“Afterwards, Sally and I talked and determined right then this was the exact kind of setting we wanted,” Dr. Willoughby says.
He canceled all his other scheduled job interviews, signed a contract on the spot and was seeing patients Aug. 3. In between, the Willoughbys and their beagle, Boone, spent five weeks on a road trip to national parks throughout the Northwest in a van he had converted to a camper during his residency.
Dr. Willoughby didn’t need any time to get acclimated to small-town living. He grew up in Hettinger, N.D., whose population hovered around 1,000. “I went to a school where kindergarten through high school classes were all in a single building,” he says.
With an internist father and pediatrician mother, Dr. Willoughby spent much of his youth around the local hospital. A career in medicine wasn’t necessarily a given, but the influence was undeniable.
He left town to attend the University of Montana, then medical school at Duke University in North Carolina before heading backwest to complete his specialty training at UC Davis.
“I chose ophthalmology because it’s a specialty in which you can perform a really short procedure and change a patient’s quality of life forever,” Dr. Willoughby says. “For example, I can do a cataract surgery in 10 minutes that helps a person for the rest of their life.”
In his practice, Dr. Willoughby provides comprehensive general ophthalmology care, including preventive care, such as routine annual and diabetic exams, and medical and surgical treatment for conditions such as macular degeneration, cataracts and glaucoma.
He brings to the community specialized training in micro-invasive glaucoma surgeries (called MIGS), which are performed to help patients with mild to moderate glaucoma slow the disease’s progression and decrease their use of medicated drops to relieve eye pressure.
When not in his practice, Dr. Willoughby and Sally plan to spend as much time as possible in Roseburg’s great outdoors.
Appointments with Dr. Alex Willoughby can be made by calling 541.672.8288.
