Trudi Grin, Pediatric Eye Care

Sometimes the conditions are complicated and the patient is scared, doesn’t understand what’s wrong and can’t even communicate with the doctor. That’s life in a pediatric field, and Trudi Grin encounters it frequently with her Overland Park-based private practice, Pediatric Eye Care. But you learn a few things over the course of three decades in that field.

“Not being able to get the information you wish you could have” can be a challenge, Grin said. “You have to wait it out sometimes, until they’re a little older or ready. But you get the information you can based on their age. If they’re scared or crying, that makes it hard, but for the most part, I get the information I need.” That leads to successful outcomes—and not just for the patient. “With pediatric ophthalmology, you’re not just treating the child; it’s the whole family, and the reward is making a positive impact on someone’s life,” she says. “If a patient has eyes that are badly misaligned and you can make them look more normal, it’s very rewarding.”

A native of St. Louis, Grin started her practice in 1986, after stops at Saint Luke’s Hospital, the Eye Foundation of Kansas City and Harvard Medical School. For 12 years, she was a clinical assistant professor at both Children’s Mercy Hospital and UMKC’s School of Medicine.

In an era of medical-care consolidation, she’s a private-practice physician working with just a full-time optometrist. “They are a dying breed,” Grin says, but “I love the ability to run the practice the way I want, to be able to take care of patients the way I want.”

She’s had opportunities to join bigger organizations, but the entrepreneur in her says no. That control allows her to get involved in medical mission work—she’s been on 14 around the world, providing care that would be unattainable for the impoverished. And she’s been heavily involved with board work at the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired.

“I love my job,” says this mother of three, whose husband, Milton, is also an ophthalmologist. “I think I’ve got the greatest job—taking care of kids and their families.”

Chuck Moylan, Pediatric Associates

It hit, says Chuck Moylan, like a brick, when he was on a pediatric rotation as a medical student: “Pediatrics was what I wanted to do.” He had toyed with the idea of pulmonary medicine, but the opportunity to work from a prevention perspective, he said—as opposed to retroactively dealing with cases involving decades of smoking, for example—was too strong to resist.

Moylan is president of Pediatric Associates, something of a rarity in medicine today as an independent practice. But it is closely affiliated with Saint Luke’s Hospital and its larger health system. He’s one of four medical staff officers at Saint Luke’s, and also serves as vice chairman of the hospital’s women’s and children’s health unit, as treasurer of the medical staff, and as chairman of bylaws there. He also chairs the pediatric evidence-based practice team for the Saint Luke’s system.

Born in Kansas City, he graduated from Rockhurst High School and earned his medical degree at Mizzou, where he also did his pediatric residency. He and wife, Melinda, live in Lee’s Summit and have four sons. His biggest challenge as a pediatrician, he says, is helping other parents feel comfortable about the decisions they have to make for their children. “It’s sometimes difficult to convince a parent that they are doing a great job,” he says. But when that connection is made, it’s nearly as rewarding as the interactions he has with the young patients themselves: “It’s like spending each day in a comedy club!” he beams. “I think kids are hilarious, and they rarely know it. You can pick up a lot of humor, even from a 2-year-old.”

Moments like that balance out the tougher calls, like a case he recalls from his residency. He had to counsel the parents of a very ill child through a decision involving a risky procedure—but they put their trust in Moylan and the child recovered. “I think that’s the first time that I really felt like a physician,” he says. “I also learned to appreciate that medicine sometimes requires taking a chance, but may not always result in a good outcome.”

When his career and family time steering his sons through Boy Scouts allows, Moylan returns to what takes—hands-down—the all-time Top Doctors award for unusual hobbies: “I collect old glass telegraph insulators,” he says, somewhat sheepishly. “Weird hobby, I know, but I’ve been doing it since I was 14.”