SEQUOIA EYE GROUP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Education & Training
- Ophthalmologist
- Research
- Specialist
Dr. Philip Ngai is an ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained cataract and glaucoma specialist in Redwood City, CA serving the Peninsula and the greater Bay Area.
Dr. Philip Ngai is the only fellowship-train ed glaucoma and cataract specialist in Redwood City, and one of the few the in the Bay Area Peninsula. He completed his fellowship training in glaucoma, at the Hamilton Glaucoma Center, a glaucoma center for excellence, at the Shiley Eye Institute in the University of California at San Diego.
Dr. Ngai is highly trained in the latest minimally invasive glaucoma surgery modalities, laser glaucoma surgery, and traditional incisional glaucoma surgery.
Dr. Philip Ngai completed his residency training at one of the top residencies for cataract surgery, the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at University of California at Irvine, led by the late, esteemed Roger F. Steinert. Completing this rigorous cataract training program ranked within the top 90th percentile of ophthalmology residencies nationwide, Dr. Philip Ngai has gained extensive experience in laser-assisted cataract surgery, refractive cataract surgery, astigmatism correction, presbyopia correction, and complex cataract surgery.
Dr. Philip Ngai is a fellowship-trained cataract and glaucoma subspecialist in Redwood City and the Bay Area Peninsula. He also practices as a comprehensive ophthalmologist, and treats most common diseases of the eyes.
Dr. Ngai was born and raised in San Francisco, CA, and is one of two sons of immigrant parents. He is the first in his family to become a physician (his brother is a pediatric dentist).
Since Dr. Ngai was a child, his lifelong dream has always been to utilize his scientific interests, strong work ethic, and positive personality to create a lasting legacy and improve the lives of others.
He first discovered ophthalmology and eye surgery when his father suddenly became struck with glaucoma, and required emergency vision-saving surgery. The high precision, and more importantly, the high human impact of saving someone's vision, made ophthalmology the one and only career choice for Dr. Ngai.
Among Dr. Ngai's many outside interests are his desire to understand human behavior and what motivates people. He loves to experience different cultures and backgrounds not only while working as a physician with patients, but also though world travel.
Dr. Ngai combines his career and personal interests through volunteering in free clinics in Mexico, Santa Ana, CA, and downtown San Diego. He also spends time as a clinical instructor, and enjoys teaching new eye surgeons the art of medicine and surgery. When he is not travelling abroad, he is experiencing different cultures locally through food.
In order to keep his food interests physically sustainable, Dr. Ngai is also interested in fitness. He ran cross country and was a volleyball outside hitter in high school. He also rowed crew competitively both in high school and in college. These days, however, Dr. Ngai spends more time with resistance training inside a gym than on the waters rowing a boat.
Dr. Ngai is a tinkerer, creator, and "lifehacker" by nature. He is also an Eagle Scout (ask him about his knot tying ability!). He loves spending time in his workshop building and upgrading things. He has built dozens of custom computers for himself and his family and friends. One of his recent projects has been to automate his entire house with voice-controlled lighting and security. He has an ultimate goal of one day getting off the electrical grid and powering his future home entirely though solar power.
Philip Ngai, MD, MBA, MS is a comprehensive ophthalmologist and a fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist who has subspecialty training in the medical and surgical management of glaucoma. He is experienced in traditional incisional glaucoma surgery (trabeculectomy, Ahmed glaucoma drainage device implantation, Baerveldt glaucoma drainage device implantation), laser treatment of glaucoma (including Selective Laser Trabeculopasty, Laser Peripheral Iridotomy, and Diode Cyclophotocoagulation, and Micropulse cyclophotocoagulation), as well as novel minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS, including OMNI Canaloplasty and Goniotomy, XEN Gel Stent, Hydrus Stent, iStent, Trabectome, GATT, Kahook Dual Blade, and others).
Dr. Philip Ngai is also a cataract specialist, specializing in refractive, suture-less, microincisional, laser-assisted, and drop-less cataract surgery. He has extensive experience in implementation of Advanced Technology Intraocular Lenses including implantation of astigmatism-correcting (toric) intraocular lenses, and presbyopia-correcting (multifocal and extended depth of focus) intraocular lenses.
opened doors to the practice in the early 1950s, in Redwood City, CA. In 1964, Dr. Sibley was joined by Dr. Edward A. Novak III, who eventually took over. In 1975, Dr. L. Scott Feiler joined, and in 2021, Dr. Philip Ngai joined Dr. Feiler.
Job Titles:
- Ret. ) Ophthalmologist, Emeritus
While Dr. Feiler was not a member of our team, we would like to honor him and his 30+ years of practice at this location with the honorary title of Ophthalmologist Emeritus.