Forty Under 40: Chad Betts

Growing up in a rural, medically underserved community in the tip of the Oklahoma panhandle, Chad Betts knew he wanted to be a physician.

With an eye on becoming a primary-care physician, he was attending medical school at the University of Oklahoma when a family friend and eye doctor helped Betts see the light of ophthalmology.

After completing post-grad training in Kansas City, Betts joined MEA in 2006.

Today, he owns the business that is considered a national leader in vision correction.

Betts also directs the Arkansas Outpatient Eye Surgery Center, which is attached to the clinic.

He said clinic visits and surgery volume are both up about 5 percent to 7 percent this year.

The immediate gratification of LASIK and cataract surgeries, Betts noted, provides him with his greatest successes.

“To take someone who has been [visually impaired] for so long, and in a lot of cases they see an improvement within a day … I’m humbled to be able to do that.”

The salutatorian in a graduating class of 16, Betts ran cross country at Southwestern Oklahoma State, graduating from pharmacy school in 1998.

Betts, married with three children, is involved with several community organizations, including the Peace at Home Family Shelter.

“You don’t have to cross the world to help somebody out,” he said. “You can do it in your community.”