Reay Hugh Brown, MD

Reay H. Brown, M.D. is a board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in glaucoma and cataract surgery. He has been in practice in the Atlanta area since 1988. He has served since 2018 as the Chief Medical Officer of Sight Sciences, Inc., an ophthalmic device company.

Dr. Brown earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College cum laude and completed medical school at the University of Michigan. He trained in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He then completed a glaucoma fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and returned to Johns Hopkins as Chief Resident.

Dr. Brown was selected as the first Pamela Firman Professor of Ophthalmology at the Emory Eye Center. Mrs. Firman made the donation for the professorship in gratitude of Dr. Brown’s care for her eyes. He served as Director of the Glaucoma Service at Emory for eleven years prior to entering private practice and founding Atlanta Ophthalmology Associates in 1999.

Dr. Brown has published nearly 100 peer reviewed articles on glaucoma and cataract surgery. He has served as chairman of the ASCRS Glaucoma Committee and is currently on the Glaucoma Editorial Board of EyeWorld magazine. He received the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is one of only a few ophthalmologists in Georgia to receive this prestigious award. He received the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University (Wilmer Eye Institute) and the 2014 Innovator Award from the American Glaucoma Society. He has given many named lectures all over the world including the Obstbaum Lecture at the 2011 and the 2021 ASCRS Glaucoma Day. Dr. Brown received the Dr. Charles Kelman Innovator Award from ASCRS in 2017.

Dr. Brown and his wife, Dr. Mary G. Lynch – a Professor at Emory – have been awarded 40 patents for new devices and instruments to improve glaucoma and cataract surgery. Their patents on trabecular bypass are the fundamental patents for several innovative devices implanted into the outflow channel of the eye. Dr. Brown has been selected by his peers to be listed each year in the Best Doctors in America and by a separate peer survey in the Atlanta Magazine as one of the best ophthalmologists in Atlanta. He received the “Healthcare Hero” award for innovations in medicine from the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2019.

Drs. Brown and Lynch have two daughters, Veronica and Annie. Rounding out their household are their dogs, Tara and Scarlett. Dr. Brown is an avid runner, enjoys playing tennis and traveling with his family.