“About 80 percent of our knowledge comes through our eyes,” says ophthalmologist Malcom McCannel, MD, for whom vision has been both a calling and a means of appreciating the wonders of life. McCannel is best known as a pioneer in cataract surgery and the use of intraocular lenses. (He developed the McCannel suture.) He is also known for his wit and his care and compassion for patients.
McCannel did his pre-med studies at the University of Minnesota and received a doctor of medicine from
Temple University. He completed his internship at St. Paul’s Ancker Hospital and a fellowship in
ophthalmology under Dr. Frank E. Burch at the University of Minnesota. He also earned a master’s
degree in ophthalmology from the University of Minnesota
McCannel credits his father, an ophthalmologist who practiced in Minot, North Dakota, with being a model of the caring, compassionate physician. “I always knew I would go into ophthalmology,” he told a Minnesota Medical Foundation interviewer. “It provides the opportunity to treat all age groups, both sexes, to experience cognitive and analytical medical decision making, and it allows for a very satisfactory surgical life. Vision is also interrelated with many internal medicine disorders, such as diabetes, neurologic disorders, brain tumors, and many others.”
McCannel began his practice of ophthalmology at the McCannel Clinic in 1946. He moved to Minneapolis in 1949, where he practiced until the early 1990s and served as a clinical professor at the University of Minnesota.
McCannel has received numerous awards including the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor and Humanitarian Awards, the Charles B. Bolles-Rogers Award, and the Diehl Award from the University of
Minnesota Medical School. His humanitarian work has taken him to Pakistan, Indonesia, Peru, Algeria, Guinea, Central America, Ceylon, England, and France for Project Hope and Orbis.
McCannel has published more than 35 ophthalmologic articles, textbooks, and book chapters. He is now retired and lives in Minneapolis.
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