Robert L. Phillips, M.D.
Doctor Phillips is a native of Holly Springs, Mississippi and grew up in a small town in northwest Tennessee, north of Memphis. He received both a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Mississippi, where he was a member of the University Scholars Program. Doctor Phillips was awarded an M.D. degree from the University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1968 and then completed a medical internship at the University of Tennessee Hospitals in Memphis. Doctor Phillips then served in the United States Air Force, obtaining the rank of Major as a general medical officer stationed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. His residency in Ophthalmology was completed at the University of Alabama in 1976.
Doctor Phillips pursued additional postgraduate fellowship training in Cornea and External Disease at the Duke University Eye Center and completed his fellowship during the years 1976-1977. Upon returning to Birmingham, he entered into private practice and joined the clinical faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition, he held the position of Chief of Ophthalmology at Cooper Green Hospital for 31 years, a title he relinquished in 2008. In 1983, Alabama Ophthalmology Associates was formed, where he continues his private practice and also his teaching duties with the UAB Department of Ophthalmology as an Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology.
Doctor Phillips has served as the Medical Director of the Alabama Eye Bank for 10 years, and has just completed a 6-year term as Chairman of the Board of the Alabama Eye Bank, which has been a Top 10 Eye Bank in the United States for the past 10 years. He served as Chairman of the Surgery Committee at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital. He has also served as President of the Medical Staff at the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital and is currently serving as Vice-President of the Medical Staff.
Doctor Phillips has been named to the Best Doctors in America each year since 2001. He is board-certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. He is an active member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a former board member of the Alabama Academy of Ophthalmology, a member of the National Cornea Society, and a founding member of the International Ocular Surface Society.
Doctor Phillips has authored papers published in peer review journals, completed book chapters, and wrote his first book on Pterygium Surgery, published by Slack Publishing Company in 2002 with co-authors Doctors Lucio Buratto and Giuseppe Carito, both of whom are from Italy.
He received the Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology for his over 20 years of teaching courses, posters, and platform presentations at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Special interests include corneal transplant surgery, management of extreme trauma cases with his retina colleagues, cataract and implant surgery, surgery of primary and recurrent pterygia, dryness of the eyes, treatment of corneal ulcers, and ocular cancer.
Doctor Phillips met his wife, Pam, while she was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and he was a Fellow at the Duke University Eye Center. He has three children: David, who is currently in graduate school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Michael, who is an investment banker with Morgan Keegan in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jennifer, who is teaching the second grade in the Mississippi Delta at Coahoma County School, under the auspices of Teach for America. He currently has no grandchildren, but remains hopeful.