Eye Health from Brookside Optometric

Dr. Josephine Laurel is an optometrist and partner at Brookside Optometric Group. Patient care is her highest priority, and getting to know her patients well helps her find the pair of glasses or contact lenses that will fit their needs.

Developing long-term relationships with patients is one of her favorite aspects of the job. She engages with her patients, working to improve both their eye health and overall lifestyle. She enjoys catching up with returning patients and learning about their professions and hobbies, as well as meeting new patients and addressing their eye health and vision needs.

I have been in practice at Brookside for more than 30 years, along with my husband and partner Dr. Kurt Skinner. The most meaningful part of my work are the relationships I have developed with my patients throughout my practice.

I am most excited by the variety of general practice, never knowing who will walk through the door to my exam room next. It's so interesting to work with people of different ages, occupations, ethnicities, and interests—I learn new things from my patients every single day! On one of my favorite mornings, I examined a 93-year-old patient followed by a 3-year-old patient, both ends of the spectrum of life!

I really enjoy working with children and their parents, and the opportunity to help them understand what their child’s vision is like and what the future can hold for them. It’s important for me to get the parents to realize the visual process and why it’s important to have the child wear their glasses or follow my instructions for the best long-term outcome (and what the possible outcomes can be if they don’t!).

The most rewarding part of my practice is helping people who are new to glasses. I’m passionate about primary eye care, and it is exciting to see people get their first pair of glasses and see clearly for the first time, or see clearly for the first time in years.

The two areas of practice that I especially enjoy are pediatric eye exams and specialty contact lens fittings for patients who have limited vision even with glasses.

As an eye doctor, you realize that children with uncorrected vision conditions perform poorly in academics. What surprised me was how many children who are underperforming in school have underlying vision problems! These could be easily diagnosed with a comprehensive eye exam by your optometrist. Working with young kids has the potential to change their academic potential and much more.

In the summer between 6th and 7th grade, my parents enrolled me in a summer school class where I was bored to tears. My mother suggested that I help the teacher, who was my 6th grade teacher, with some of the students in the class instead of being bored. That was the start of my life long involvement with volunteerism and community service.

When I was in my early 40s and my sons were in high school, I began to feel like it was time to give back. When I was a youth, my father was asked by the local parish priest to build a small church in a remote area to serve people who could not make it to the city on Sundays. He would take us there on the weekends, and we would do the clean up work.

My wife and I came to Stockton in 1982 when Dr Hisaka and Dr Prima asked us to become partners in their practice. We moved here with all of our belongings in the back of an open-air truck along with our hopes and dreams of starting our professional life together.

We quickly learned what extraordinary people lived in Stockton. Our practice quickly grew and Stockton became home to us. One value we were both raised with is that it is important to give back whenever and wherever you can.

As the Founding Partner of Brookside Optometric Group and clinical professor at UC Berkeley School of Optometry for 40 years, the story of my practice and teaching begins with a commitment to the art of optometry.

I opened the practice 40 years ago and within six months of opening, the practice went viral due to my philosophy, brand, and goals. The backlog of patients has remained four to six weeks for 38 years. John Iacopi, CPA created a completely new and innovative business model designed to give my former optometry students a direct pathway to partnership.

My area of specialty is pediatrics. I love working with children! During my rotations in Optometry School, I discovered that it takes different skills and techniques to work effectively with children. Working with kids felt natural to me, and I felt I could make a difference by providing the highest quality vision care for children.

The most rewarding part of my job is getting to know families, providing them with clear eyesight, and being able to offer education on how to maintain good eye health. I enjoy building relationships and being able to watch as families grow over the years.

My involvement in optometry has always expanded beyond direct patient care, most significantly in the area of teaching and education. For eight years, I was a clinical instructor at UC Berkeley School of Optometry in the methods lab, primary care clinic, and contact lens clinic. Since moving to the valley, I continue to be involved as a guest lecturer for Dr. Craig Hisaka’s practice management course. I give three lectures to second and third year students: “Career Choices in Optometry,” “Managed Vision Care” and “The Future of Optometry.”

My wife and Partner at Brookside Optometric Group, Dr. Linda Hsu, are celebrating our 30th year in practice living here in Stockton. Through the help and support of my fellow Doctors of Optometry at Brookside, I have developed a bit of a specialty in fitting contact lenses on scarred or irregular eyes—corneas with surface irregularities that are unable to provide a good refracting surface to focus vision, even with glasses.

By providing these specialty-type of contact lenses, patients can often stay functional in driving, continue working, and lead a much more fulfilling life. The reward of assisting someone with more clear and comfortable vision is a feeling I am fortunate to experience every day.

Dr. Rosemary Melrose is an optometrist and partner at Brookside Optometric Group. Known around the office as Dr. Rosie, she has practiced optometry with her husband, Dr. Bob Melrose, since 1982. The most rewarding aspect of her job is the opportunity to educate patients about their eyes and vision so that they can make the best possible choices for their overall health.

During a typical day at the office, she enjoys seeing a variety of patients of all ages and different cultures, and learning from their unique life experiences. Dr. Rosie strives to create an atmosphere of trust when caring for her patients and is committed to their best interest, whether that means treating their vision problems herself, or referring them to a specialist.

Dr. Richard Vanover is an optometrist at Brookside Optometric Group. The most rewarding aspect of his job is the opportunity to explain a process or condition to a patient in a way that brings them greater clarity and understanding of the situation. One meaningful experience at the office was when he met a patient who came in for an exam solely because she wanted a new pair of glasses. She was in good health, yet during the exam, Dr. Vanover discovered something concerning in her eyes. He used the Optomap retinal scanner to show her the findings, and referred her back to her primary physician for further evaluation.

Dr. Vikram Girn is an optometrist at Brookside Optometric Group. He enjoys working with patients to help improve their vision and comfort, from helping a patient who thought they would never be glasses-free to finally see with LASIK or multifocal soft contact lenses, to fitting a patient with workstation-glasses to help them work comfortably behind a computer screen all day long. The most rewarding aspect of his job is the opportunity to see his patients thrive.

While each day at the office is unique, Dr. Girn typically has a combination of complete eye health evaluations, custom contact lens fittings, and examinations to treat and manage dry eyes, glaucoma, and various eye infections. He enjoys meeting a variety of patients, from toddlers to seniors, and everyone in between. He also works part time at Central Valley Eye Medical Group in Stockton.

Dr. John Fujii is an optometrist at Brookside Optometric Group. He enjoys working in a unique career that gives him the opportunity to build relationships with his patients while addressing their visual needs and making a positive impact on their overall health. The most rewarding aspect of his job is delivering personal and professional care to his patients while working alongside a great team of skilled doctors and staff.

Dr. Fujii has worked in three different ophthalmology offices and was formerly the Laser Center Director for Pacific Laser Eye Center. Working for ophthalmologists gave him greater experience with post-surgical care and complications, and his work at the laser center gave him the opportunity to work with, learn alongside, and train other optometrists and ophthalmologists.

Dr. Linda Hsu is an optometrist at Brookside Optometric Group. In practice for more than 25 years, she enjoys building relationships with her patients and the opportunity to diagnose and solve their vision problems. With an extremely high myopic correction, Dr. Hsu understands firsthand how blurry the world can appear. When she received her first pair of glasses at age eight, she was excited that she could finally see “the leaves on the trees!”

Today, many of her younger patients come back to the Brookside office after receiving their first pair of glasses, and share that they too can now see the leaves on the trees. Those experiences take her back to why she became an optometrist in the first place - to help people see the world more clearly and not miss out on all that life has to show them.

Dr. Leila Chow joined Brookside Optometric Group as an optometrist in 2002. Her favorite aspect of the job is the opportunity to help patients receive the highest level of optometric vision care, and she enjoys seeing her pediatric patients mature and grow up.

Dr. Chow studied zoology as an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley and graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Optometry in 1990. She began her career in private practice in Antioch, but was curious about the more practical side of the optometry business. She sold part of her practice and returned to school at California State University Hayward, where she graduated with her MBA in 2001.

Dr. Kurt Skinner is a partner at Brookside Optometric Group. The most rewarding aspect of his job is the opportunity to create positive outcomes for his patients. Whether he can provide sharper vision, ease eyestrain from blue light screen exposure, or recognize a disease process and take proactive steps toward treatment, he appreciates the opportunity to help his patients.

During a typical day at Brookside, Dr. Skinner provides comfortable prescriptions for poor or strained visual conditions, including glasses for computer demands and contact lenses for sports. He also offers guidance with laser vision correction or cataract surgery. The advanced instrumentation at Brookside allows him to detect eye disease processes and ocular side effects from systemic diseases.

Dr. Bob Melrose remembers sitting in his pediatrician’s office one day as a child and deciding that he wanted to become a doctor. After graduating from high school in the Bay Area, he completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA and UC Berkeley before beginning his optometry training in 1978 at Cal’s School of Optometry. 

As luck would have it, he met another student in his class, Rosemary Rodic. The two of them fell in love and were married in 1981. After graduation they joined Dr. Craig Hisaka as partners in private practice here in Stockton.

In addition to their practice, Dr. Bob and Dr. Rosie both become assistant clinical professors at Cal’s School of Optometry. They taught there until the early 1990s when the birth of their twin boys, Brian and Kevin, changed their lives forever. Dr. Rosie ended her teaching career to raise their children while continuing to practice at their office. Dr. Bob continued to teach but left in 1994 when an exciting new opportunity came his way.

Dr. Craig Hisaka is the Founding Partner of Brookside Optometric Group. Born and raised in Stockton, he received his BA, BS and Doctorate at UC Berkeley and went on to earn a master’s degree in Public Health. His daughter, Alexis Hisaka, attended Lincoln High in Stockton, college at UC Davis and the University of San Francisco and now works for LinkedIn. His wife, Julie Hisaka, passed away 3 years ago after 41 years of marriage. She was a popular, innovative and effective administrator at Lincoln Unified School District.

After Dr. Jim Winnick completed his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his doctorate degree at the State University of New York in Manhattan, he came to the west to complete his residency training in Portland, OR. He came down to California to work with an Ophthalmologist in Truckee, CA, but soon moved to the Bay area where he was a partner in large multi-doctor practice for 14 years.

A Professor, Doctor, Optometrist, and Mom, Dr. Yolanda Scheer joined us here at Brookside Optometric Group in September of 2014. A Northern California native, Dr. Scheer has served as an assistant clinical professor at UC Berkeley School of Optometry for the past 7 years, while the same time working as an associate doctor with an Optometric Group in Lafayette for the past 11 years.