Harvey A Fishman, MD, PhD

Fabulous Dr. I have been trying for 2 years to get a prescription for glasses that worked for me. Went to Dr. Fishman because he was highly recommended by a friend. Besides setting me up with the best prescription I’ve had in 2 years, he is personable, explains things clearly and is thorough. I might have a mild dry eye problem. The fish oil supplement and the 10 minutes a day with a heated «rice sock» he recommended seems to be working. 100% satisfied. Highly recommend him.

THIS GUY GET’s IT!
This review is for Dr. Fishman, who is a great guy, and a phenomenal doctor.
Specifically, this review will help those suffering from Dry Eye Syndrome, which many eye doctors just don’t understand, underestimate it’s impact on your life, lack the proper tools to diagnosis it, and will send you on your merry way telling you to buy over the counter artificial tears.
Dr. Fishman, on the other hand, is the dry eye Guru, and instantly was able to tell what type of dry eye syndrome I had (there are multiple types).
I was prescribed restasis and a regimen of lots of Omega 3’s and an eye warmer thingy (hard to describe but check it out its called EyeGiene and helps a lot) and ~3 weeks in I feel SO much better. Still have a little bit of struggles but I’m confident with time and Dr. Fishman’s care I’ll get this thing dealt with!
If you are struggling with dry eye (or any other eye issues) do’t hesitate to go with Dr. Fishman.
**Staff is all great too!

Dr. Fishman is an amazing doctor. He goes above and beyond for his patients including meeting me after his office had closed to address a concern. I also have to commend his awesome interactions with kids – I took my 7 year old daughter to him after she failed her school vision test and she absolutely adored him. Would recommend him 100%

Excellent ophthalmologist. My eye was misdiagnosed by two other doctors, he came up with the correct diagnosis in literally 10 seconds. He gives a surprising amount of personal attention via his mobile app, so I was getting feedback on my condition on a daily basis. Highly recommended.

Super smart and very personable! Both my sons and I see him regularly. In addition to seeing patients, performing surgery, Dr. Fishman also dabbles in technology and has a few patents in the ophthalmology area. His practice seems to be exploding as word in Palo Alto has spread.

Took my 93 year old Mom in. Reception didn’t have why we were there. I explained again.
Front desk was poorly trained and disorganized.
We waited 30 minutes. He came in and then went out for something else. It felt rushed. He spent most of the time entering info in the computer, then told her to wear lower magnification. We bought two for to try. Neither one could she read from. I went back in the office to set another appointment. Didn’t seem to know what to do. The other one didn’t ask, but assumed why, and I told her no, that wasn’t why were coming back. I left feeling uncomfortable and cancelled the appointment. Sorry, but I cannot recommend this place.

I found the review by Patrick S. very unsettling, noting it was in sharp contrast to the other ratings about Dr. Fishman. As is obvious, I agree with the other 16 reviews and encourage others who evaluate the reviews to note that perhaps Patrick S. is an outlier with some unique personal issue.
Dr. Fishman is that rare health care provider who can offer patients both a superior level of clinical, scientific, and up to date competence and also personalized, compassionate humanistic care. I strongly recommend him to any person seeking superior vision care.

Harvey is an outstanding ophthalmologist. He improved my eye sight by figuring out that I had been wearing the wrong prescription. He’s also a really great guy.

I was referred to Dr. Fishman by another doctor. I had a pterygium on my eye that was bothering me. My local eye doctor gave me drops and told me to wait until it impairs my vision. Dr. Fishman said he’d remove it. I was nervous about having it done but he made me feel comfortable enough to have it done. I’m happy to say its gone and looks great. My eye feels so much better. Much better than before. He always sees me promptly when I make appointments. I even refered a friend. It’s over an hour drive to Dr. Fishman’s office from my house but he’s worth it.

I waited a long time, over a year, before writing this review to
consider and organize all the information and experiences I had with
Dr. Fishman and to be fair. My case spanned over the course
of almost a year and in that time I got familiar with Dr. Fishman’s
competence and his manner both of which I found lacking.
I went to Dr. Fishman to get a presciption and order a new type
of glasses called SuperFocals. These glasses are adjustable
by a mechanism that allows them to adjust from infinity to just
inches away from your eye. I thought it would be fantastic to
have a pair of glasses that does that — if they work. These
eyeglasses were extremely expensive, but I concluded that if
they worked they would be worth the expense just to be able to
see and get rid of all my other reading and computer glasses.
The first order of business was to get a new prescription and an
updated eye test.
In my eye test Dr. Fishman neglected to give me a peripheral vision
test. In the time I worked with him I mentioned that to him and
still never did he ever complete that. Something I have gotten at
every eye doctor I have ever been to so my eye test was never really
completed. But I was charged full price. I was also given eye drops
and told to take fish oil?
In his office, Dr. Fishman seemed like he was always doing multiple
things at once, darting in and out of my examination to do talk to
someone else or do something else. I was patient since he was
busy and I wanted these glasses but I never seemed to have his
complete attention.
When I got my SuperFocals the distance vision part worked OK, but
the far-​sighted, close-​up component did not work. I had to wait many
months to get my Superfocal glasses ordered, and when they first
came in, there was a lens that was totally wrong. I had to wait
months again for that lens to be replaced. The next set was wrong
as well. Again I waited 2 more months — SuperFocal’s fault.
The doctor tried to re-​do the prescription, but that did not help.
Finally, after the third try the lens prescription was better, but
still it did not work as advertised and the adjustor mechanism was
sticky. I finally gave up and returned the glasses after taking them
for a 30 day trial period. This took altogether almost 9 months.
Impressed by Dr. Fishman’s credentials I assumed this was a
case of the SuperFocal products not being ready for prime
time or my eyes being difficult to correct. Some issues with
SuperFocals were not Dr. Fishman’s fault, but not all.
Dr. Fishman’s manner seemed unfocused and did not fully engage
in the troubleshooting of my vision problem. I kept thinking there
must be something extremely challenging about my case or that
I was being unreasonable in my expectations, after all he was the
doctor, and he the diplomas and certifications, research and he
appeared to be accomplished and successful.
Recently I tried again with a new prescription, mandatory after two
years. I went to SuperFocus and asked them to refer to me another
doctor in the area and tried again. I got a full eye exam with all
the latest equipment. The prescription was perfect, and the doctor
had a full set of lenses available in-​house so I could test that
prescription immediately. I got all the tests, and the peripheral
vision test as well.
I explained to my new doctor the problem I had with my first try at
SuperFocals and after thinking about it and examining my eyes my
new doctor mentioned that labs and doctors sometimes use different
formats, akin to using a plus or minus when prescribing the astigmatism
component of the lens. We think this got reversed.
This was confirmed When I got my new SuperFocals back, this time in
just days, and the prescription and vision was perfect. Dr. Fishman’s
oversight and lack of focus in troubleshooting made caused me and
SuperFocus to go round and around and ended in a sad waste of time
for all involved, but Dr Fishman got paid. This should have been his
area of expertise, so I wonder what happened.
I felt I had to come back and write this review, because I was unhappy
in my interactions with Dr. Fishman, who charges premium prices here
in Palo Alto, and at least for me delivered below-​par care.
When something went wrong, or go to the point it did, Dr. Fishman should
have sat down and troubleshooted his procedure to find the mistake
instead of claiming that was the best he could do or my expectations
to see with what is a relatively weak correction were too high.
Finally, some time later, I wanted to be sure about some charges
Dr. Fishman billed me. I called his office and everyone now in the
office was new, and they could not find my records. Whatever this
looks like, however many creditials or diplomas someone has, if
they are not concentrating or cannot run an office you will have
a problem. Quite disappointing — ¹⁄₅. I would not return to Dr. Fishman.

Dr Fishman took the time to squeeze me in on short notice on a Sunday morning for a potentially emergent issue. He is very passionate about his field (particularly corneas!), and stays on the cutting edge, maintaining the best possible diagnostic equipment and understanding the latest eye related advancements. A great guy, too.

Dr. Fishman is truly exceptional, both as a doctor and as a person. I recently got a pretty severe corneal abrasion on a weekend, and was supposed to fly to New York Monday morning for something that really could not be postponed.
Dr. Fishman came in to see me on a Sunday afternoon, gave me medication that almost immediately solved the problem, and checked in with me using the AppVisit iPhone app he created to monitor my progress while I was out of town.
In addition to being a leader in his field, he really cares about his patients and is a pleasure to know.

Dr Fishman is a highly competent, knowledgeable and thorough surgeon. But more than that he is the among the most personable and caring doctors I have ever met. The man has a great heart.
I had an eye infection that developed into a Chalazion last year. Went to see multiple doctors in different local medical establishments and was given the run around. I was given different dianogstics and wrong treatment options that dragged the problem on and on for four months. It got worst and worst until I realized a surgical removal was inevitable. But I had no confidence in any of the opthalmologists that treated me to no effect so far. Finally I found Dr. Fishman on Unilocal.The waiting was a month long but worthy. Within minutes meeting him, I was given the correct dianogstics. He confidently told me that any treatment other than surgical removal was wishful thinking. But I didn’t feel any jitters as I already knew I was in good hands.
Come the day of the removal, he showed incredible bed side manner. He was even telling jokes to ease my nerve. Before I stopped laughing the whole thing was done in a matter of seconds. What a pair of hands!
In a few days my life went back to normal and a year later I have had no recurrences whatsoever. I am very grateful to him. Oh, did I mention his team of wonderful staff also?

Dr. Fishman is the real deal. All 5 star reviews for a reason — he simply is the absolute best at helping people and making them feel comfortably and involved in the process.
I’ve been dealing with an eye condition since I was a child, but have never been diagnosed until recently. I went to see a few other people and I was told I could do a patching solution (eye-​patch) or surgery. Eye patches won’t work for me, I work in Social Media and I need to be presentable. I know, but it’s my job and I just can’t wear an eye patch for a year or so. So I was resigned to surgery, taking time off and dealing with any potential issues that might arise. My last hope was Dr. Fishman and BOY AM I GLAD I SAW HIM!
One visit. That’s all it took. He knew what was wrong with me and then came up with a solution that was cheaper than surgery, less invasive and not only fixed the issue with the muscles in my eye, but my motion sickness AND headaches as well. He cured three problems with one special pair of glasses. Even better, Ellen in his office made sure those glasses were super cute.
So I’m stylish, I can see and I don’t get sick in cars or boats anymore. Oh, and I don’t need to take frequent breaks to rub my temples.
All this and he is funny and warm and just an awesome doctor. He’s like the kind of doctors from back in the day… the kind you want to have in your family for life.

Meeting Dr. Harvey Fishman was one of the luckiest days of my life. I came to him with much concern over a glacoma reading of 30 and now have had two absolutely pain-​free Laser procedures in his office and have a very healthy 15 reading! I never met a doctor who is so knowledgeable yet down to earth, supremely happy in his work and so able to make me feel so at home. His new office is technologically the latest and the décor and atmosphere is light and attractive. His staff is perfect.
I am so sold on the professional and personal qualities of Dr. Fishman that wherever I go and suspect someone has an eye problem I can’t resist saying, «You ought to see Dr. Fishman, like I did». I truly believe there’s only one like Dr. Fishman!

Executive Summary:
From the moment I checked in, to the moment I left, my experience could not have been better. Dr. Fishman is one of the best doctors I have ever seen.
Color Commentary:
My wife made my appointment for me after weeks of her hearing me complain about the vision in my left eye. We just moved to the area, so she used Unilocal to find a doctor that had great reviews. Knowing that I am a bit of a doctor snob (more on later), finding the right doctor that can meet my standards is very unlikely, if not impossible. It’s not that I am that picky, I just expect a doctor to:
1) treat my time as if it is just important as theirs (in other words, be on time)
2) be personable
3) have a sense of humor and not take themselves so seriously
4) know their craft and diagnose me correctly (after all, I am not there just to socialize)
5) get to know me and address my concerns (in other words, don’t be so fast to kick me out)
I’ve been to many doctors over the years and not one of them has ever come close to having the full package. Dr. Fishman blew me away. From him going out of his way to introduce himself to me as I stood in the lobby, to him taking the extra time to examine my eyes thoroughly, to making me feel at home, Dr. Fishman is first class.
Speaking of feeling at home, his office looks like one. I suspect it was converted from a residential home as it sits in a very nice neighborhood. The inside is extremely nice and doesn’t feel like a stuffy Doctor’s office. It feels more like hanging out at a friend’s house… there is just no beer in the fridge. Then again, maybe there is… who knows… that could explain why everyone was in such a great mood.
Thanks Dr. Fishman for setting the bar so high. You are one of the Best Doctors in the Bay Area!

I had cataract surgery on both eyes with Dr. Fishman. I cannot imagine having anyone else working on my eyes. He is an outstanding surgeon with amazing attention to detail. He has a personal investment in the outcome of every one of his patients. I really believe he was even happier with my excellent eyesight than I was! I have amazing distance vision now, and only wish I had done it sooner. I never have to wait in the office for more than five minutes, his staff is professional and competent. I always felt like I was in excellent hands. I cannot say enough good things about him and would recommend him to anyone.

I just had cataract surgery yesterday by Dr. Fishman at his Santa Cruz office. It was quick and painless and the doctor did an incredible job of making you feel at ease. Today the eye patch was removed and I can see ²⁰⁄₁₅! It’s unbelievable the difference in what I can see. I didn’t realize I had been in a cloud for so long. My husband was in the waiting room and said he had never been in a medical office with so many happy people. Everyone was sharing their stories of how wonderful they were doing with their new eyes. I highly recommend him!

I was referred to Dr. Fishman’s Santa Cruz office by my Acupuncturist for an eyelid problem that was not getting better. I had almost given up on this ever getting better as I had seen a different Ophthalmologist Surgeon who made the experience incredibly painful with no improvement.
Dr. Fishman is incredibly professional. Even though he has a full schedule he gave me ample amount of time to answer my questions, get to know me and understand my concerns. His surgery was flawless and painless.
I returned to Dr. Fishman when it became evident I had a cataract growing quickly. I had previous cataract surgery five years ago on my other eye by a different Doctor. In comparison, not only did Dr. Fishman provide a better outcome, he put my needs above his own. He provided excellent advise in choosing a lens replacement, one that was less expensive than the first Dr recommended.
My vision is far better than it was before the cataract.
I highly recommend Dr. Fishman. He is down to earth, very skilled and highly educated.

Dr. Fishman is a true gem of a doctor. Knows his stuff inside and out, even the obscure aspects of his specialty. I take a number of prescriptions that could effect my eyes and he knew about them inside and out. Most opthamologists don’t take the time to keep up on the latest interactions, or listen to a patient when they ask about them.
In addition, very kind and likable. Seems to enjoy his job and life.