Ria S. Patel, OD, is an optometrist with the Springfield Clinic's Eye Institute.

Dr. Patel earned her Doctor of Optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago.

A career in health care started with Dr. Patel's own care experience with Springfield Clinic's Dr. Kim Krager. "As a kid, I was always going to Dr. Krager and she learned about my interests and offered to let me shadow her in her practice," she says.

Dr. Patel's practice in addition to general optometric care will also include treating diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, glaucoma and other common eye diseases. 

Dr. Patel wants patients to know that she will treat them like she would her own family. "I would want any person in that chair to be treated as I would want my parents to be treated," she says.

Dr. Patel has always appreciated the close community at Springfield Clinic that her father (Dr. Samir Patel) experienced as a pulmonologist at the Clinic and is glad to be a part of it herself now.

In her free time, Dr. Patel enjoys volunteering, biking, trail walking, playing the piano and spending time with family.