William Schlichtemeier purchased the practice from Dr. Vickery in 1980. He named the corporation Cornea Associates, established office space near Clarkson Hospital, and began practice as one of the first cornea specialists in the region. He began to offer services that were previously unavailable in the region, including lens implant surgery and refractive surgery such as radial keratotomy, keratomeliusis, epikeratophakia, and laser refractive surgery.
During this time Dr. Schlichtemeier had the honor of learning the techniques of microkeratomes, the devices used to make flaps in the cornea for corrective surgery, from Dr. Barraquer of Colombia, South America. Dr. Barraquer is considered the father of this technology, and learning from him in the early years allowed Dr. Schlichtemeier to establish himself as one of the first true refractive surgeons in the country.
In 2000 the office moved to West Omaha, and provided a more spacious area in which new technology could be housed.
After completing residency training in 2004, Lance Kugler, MD entered private practice in the Omaha area. After 4 years of practice he decided to specialize in refractive surgery and refractive-cataract surgery and completed a year of fellowship training in refractive surgery in Nashville, Tennessee. There he studied under Ming Wang, MD, PhD, one of the few refractive surgeons in the world who is also a laser physicist. Upon completion of his fellowship, he returned to his native Omaha to join Dr. Schlichtemeier.
Dr. Schlichtemeier and Dr. Kugler continue to work together to remain on the forefront of technology and surgical technique and provide state-of-the-art treatments to the region.
