RiverBend Medical Group Establishes New Ophthalmology Practice

SPRINGFIELD — RiverBend Medical Group, the largest private multi-specialty medical group in Western Mass., recently announced the start-up of its new ophthalmology practice, located within RiverBend’s Springfield Office at 305 Bicentennial Highway.
This is the first time that on-site ophthalmology services will be available to patients since RiverBend became an independent private medical group in 1999. A portion of the current office at 305 Bicentennial Highway has been redesigned and dedicated to the start-up of these services.

Ophthalmology services will initially be provided by Kailenn Tsao, M.D. Tsao is a board-certified ophthalmologist and retina specialist. He is relocating to the Springfield area from Boston where he was employed at Boston University School of Medicine.

Tsao completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, earned his medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and received residency training in ophthalmology at the University of South Carolina. He also completed a surgical fellowship in Retina and Vitreous at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard School of Medicine.

Early in 2004, Tsao will be joined by Susan Batlan, M.D., a board-certified ophthalmologist who is coming to RiverBend from a private practice in Ithaca, New York. Batlan completed her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and went on to Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she earned a doctor of medicine. After finishing her ophthalmology residency at Maryland General Hospital, Friedenwald Eye Institute, she completed a fellowship in anterior segment surgery at Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital.

Tsao and Batlan will provide general eye care as well as retina and vitreous service, corneal disease treatment, neuro-ophthalmology, adult strabismus and general pediatric ophthalmology. They will work closely with the dedicated medical staff of RiverBend Medical Group to offer patients the best possible health care solutions.

According to Robert Lounsbury, M.D., President of RiverBend and a practicing internist, having an ophthalmology department is more convenient for patients and allows more efficient communication among a patient’s physicians.