Mark E. Jacobson, MD

I was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota. My family was musically and educationally driven with everyone learning to play at least two instruments and that college was an expectation, not an option.

After graduating from Fargo North High, I went to the University of Iowa where I completed my undergraduate degree and then graduated from The University of Iowa College of Medicine. As an undergraduate, I swam on the University swim team and in medical school was active in the AKK medical fraternity.

Upon graduation, I moved back to Fargo for my internship, which was a wonderful time for me to develop my relationship with my father who has since passed away. After my intern year I moved to Buffalo, New York and started my Ophthalmology training at the SUNY of Buffalo.

After two years in Buffalo I had the opportunity to continue and complete my Ophthalmology training at the Eye Institute affiliated with the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. During this training I realized that although I enjoyed all of Ophthalmology it was dealing with children and the analysis of crossed eye problems that gave me joy and energy. With that in mind, I did a year fellowship focusing on Pediatric Ophthalmology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. From there I was recruited to join a private practice in Santa Rosa, California. Before starting in this practice, I did a second fellowship at the Smith-Kettelwell Institute studying with Art Jampolsky, M.D. and Alan Scott, M.D. learning more of the nuances of strabismus surgery and the use of Botox. Upon completion of my fellowship I had the opportunity to attend surgery with Dr. Jampolsky for the next ten years until his retirement, continuing to hone my strabismus knowledge. During this time and up until the present, I have taught residents in their clinics at either CPMC or UCSF in San Francisco trying to give back some of what I had learned.

I feel blessed that after twenty years of practicing Pediatric Ophthalmology in Sonoma County, I was given the opportunity to join Kaiser Permanente.

My Pediatric and Strabismus practice is once more growing as I greet new and former patients, recreating the joy and energy that my specialty gives me. Although all Ophthalmologists spend some time training in children's eye problems, I have taken time to do additional training allowing me a broader understanding of these problems and how to treat them.

As a Pediatric Ophthalmologist I focus on the developing visual system in children which does not mature until around puberty, trying to maximize both the visual acuity as well as the binocularity or teaming of both eyes. Occasionally, the eye alignment is off and requires intervention to correct. I use both Botox as well as strabismus surgery to achieve this goal. Eye misalignment however, does not occur solely in children. Adults may also have a strabismus problem and require an intervention to align their eyes. No one is ever too old to have their eyes aligned and studies have shown people of all ages can benefit in an improvement of binocular function as well as eliminating the stigmata of misaligned eyes and the pyscho-social problems that they create.

Of course I also do general Ophthalmology and can examine adult's eyes for age related problems. In addition to strabismus surgery I perform surgery to correct functional problems on upper and lower eyelids.