Guest speakers

Current concepts | Cataract | Cornea | Glaucoma | International and public health ophthalmology | Neuro-ophthalmology | Oculoplastics | Pathology | Pediatrics | Retina | Uveitis | Vision rehabilitation

CURRENT CONCEPTS

Richard L. Abbott, MD

Dr. Abbott is the Thomas W. Boyden Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California San Francisco. He is currently the president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and serves on the academy's Global Alliances Secretariat. Dr Abbott is chair for guidelines development and a board member of the International Council of Ophthalmology and immediate past- chairman of the Board of Directors for the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC), immediate past-president of the Pan American Association of Ophthalmology and past-president of the Pan American Ophthalmological Foundation.

Dr. Abbott has received many awards including: the AAO Lifetime Achievement Award, the Distinguished Lecturer Scholarship from Singapore, the International Distinguished Service Award from the Chinese Academy of Ophthalmology, and the International Jose Rizal Medal from the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a member of Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and the American Ophthalmological Society and is listed in Who's Who in America and the World. He has authored or co-authored 88 peer reviewed publications and 34 book chapters and has delivered over 600 invited lectures and 17 named lectures.

CATARACT

Boris Malyugin, MD, PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology
S. Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex, Moscow, Russia

Boris Malyugin is professor of ophthalmology, head of the Cataract and Implant Surgery Department and deputy director general (R&D) of the S. Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex State Institution in Moscow, Russia.

He is chair of the Cataract and Refractive Surgery Committee of the Russian Society of Ophthalmologists and a member of the ESCRS Board Committee and the International Intraocular Implant Club.

Professor Malyugin is a chief medical editor of EuroTimes (Russian edition) and associate editor of the Russian journals Ophthalmosurgery and News in Ophthalmology. He sits on the editorial boards of EuroTimes (international edition), Annals of Ophthalmology, Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today (Europe), Ocular Surgery News, Journal of the Intraocular Implant & Refractive Society (India), Delhi Journal of Ophthalmology and Eye and Brain.

Professor Malyugin has received multiple international awards and has been invited to deliver lectures and conduct live surgery sessions at national and international meetings.

His research is focused on cataract and corneal diseases. Professor Malyugin has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to multiple books.

J. Bradley Randleman, MD

Dr. Randleman is an associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Emory University. He received his BA degree from Columbia University in New York City, his MD degree from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and then completed his residency training at Emory University. Dr. Randleman completed a fellowship in Cornea/External disease and refractive surgery at Emory University. He was awarded the prestigious Claes Dohlman Society Award. He now serves as director of the Emory Corneal Fellowship program.

Dr. Randleman's was awarded the Secretariat Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology for special contributions to the field of ophthalmology in 2007. In 2010, Dr. Randleman was awarded the first Binkhorst Young Ophthalmologist Award from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Dr. Randleman was recently named as one of the inaugural premier surgeon P250 members and identified as a leading innovator in the field of premium IOL implant surgery.

He is associate editor for both the Journal of Refractive Surgery and the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and has authored more than 60 publications in leading ophthalmology journals and more than 10 book chapters on LASIK evaluation and management of complications.

Bonnie An Henderson, MD
Boston Eye Surgery & Laser Center

Bonnie An Henderson completed her residency at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Her undergraduate and medical degrees are from Dartmouth, where she graduated with high honours. She is currently a partner at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston. Prior to joining OCB, she was the director of the Comprehensive Ophthalmology and Cataract Consultation Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. She serves on the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, and on committees for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Dr. Henderson is also founder and president of a non-profit organization, Women Ophthalmologists of New England.

She has published two textbooks on cataract surgery, over 60 articles in peer and non-peer reviewed journals, and given over 200 invited lectures nationally and internationally. Her main research focus is on education and is currently creating the Virtual Mentor cataract surgery computer program with a TATRIC grant from the Department of Defense. Dr. Henderson has received awards from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery for her research poster and films and has been awarded an Achievement Award and Secretariat's Award by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. She has received several teaching awards including the Harvard Medical School Teacher of the Year. She lives with her husband and three children and enjoys competing in triathlons.

CORNEA

Parag A. Majmudar, MD

Parag A. Majmudar, MD, is an associate professor of ophthalmology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and a partner at Chicago Cornea Consultants. Raised primarily in New Jersey, Dr. Majmudar graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as part of an honours program in medical education. While at Lehigh University, Dr. Majmudar was elected as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society. After receiving his degree at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was a member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, Dr. Majmudar completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Chicago, serving as chief resident in the Department of Ophthalmology.

He followed his residency with a subspecialty fellowship in cornea and external diseases and refractive surgery at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.

An active participant in clinical research activities, Dr. Majmudar is a highly regarded lecturer and instructor on the subjects of corneal and refractive surgery, and has delivered numerous presentations at national and international conferences.

Dr. Majmudar is an active member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery as well as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and he recently received the Academy's Achievement Award. He has been the chairman of the AAO's Annual Meeting Program Committee for Refractive Surgery for the past several years. He is an International Council Representative from the United States for the International Society of Refractive Surgery.

Professor Donald T.H. Tan, MD, FRCSE, FRCSG, FRCOphth, FAMS

Professor Donald Tan is the medical director of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), chair of the Singapore Eye Research Institute and professor of ophthalmology at the National University of Singapore. He heads the SNEC Cornea and Refractive Services and is also medical director of the Singapore Eye Bank.

A corneal and refractive surgeon by training, his research contributions lie in new forms of selective lamellar keratoplasty, femtosecond corneal and refractive surgery, and osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis. He has published 230 peer-reviewed articles, contributed 18 book chapters and holds several patents in stem-cell culture, refractive corneal implants and novel inserters for DSAEK surgery. He has also trained 22 corneal fellows from 13 countries.

Professor Tan was awarded the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology De Ocampo Award in 2001, the AAO Distinguished Achievement Award in 2006, the ISRS/AAO Casebeer Award in 2009, and the Saudi Ophthalmological Society Gold Medal in 2010. He is currently president elect of the Cornea Society, and president of the Asia Cornea Society and of the Association of Eye Banks of Asia.

GLAUCOMA

Eytan Blumenthal, MD

Eytan Blumenthal MD, a graduate of the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School, continued on to do his residency in Ophthalmology at the Hadassah Hospital. At the end of the last century he completed his training with a glaucoma fellowship at UCSD, under the guidance of Robert Weinreb, MD. Prof. Blumenthal heads the glaucoma Service at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. More can be learned at the www.glaucoma.org.il website.

Dale Heuer, MD

Dr. Heuer received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a two-year National Research Service Award-funded glaucoma fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine. Dr. Heuer has published extensively on the use of conventional filtering procedures with wound-healing modulation and aqueous shunting procedures for the management of glaucomas with poor surgical prognoses. He has participated in several glaucoma clinical trials, including the Fluorouracil Filtering Surgery Study, the Collaborative Normal-Tension Glaucoma Study, and the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Study; he was also one of the three Vice Chairs of the National Eye Institute-sponsored Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study.

Dr. Heuer currently serves as one of the three Co-Chairs of the Tube Versus Trabeculectomy Study, a member of the Safety and Data Monitoring Committees of the Ahmed-Baerveldt Comparison Study and Primary Tube Versus Trabeculectomy Study, and a consulting member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Ophthalmic Device Panel. He is Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he is also the Director of the Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin Eye Institute.

INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH OPHTHALMOLOGY

Colin Cook, MD

Colin Cook is professor and chair of ophthalmology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the medical director of CBM (formerly Christian Blind Mission International). He completed his undergraduate medical training in 1977 and his postgraduate ophthalmology training in 1987, both at UCT. He previously worked in KwaZulu-Natal for 17 years, where he was responsible for the clinical service provision at Edendale Hospital and for the management of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial blindness prevention programme. As the medical director of CBM, Colin is privileged to assist with the coordination of CBM's eye medical work in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Colin is married to Myrna. They have a son and daughter who are both grown up. They also have a dog who shows no signs of ever growing up!

NEURO-OPHTHALMOLOGY

Julie Falardeau, MD

Dr. Falardeau received her medical degree from University of Montreal and completed her ophthalmology residency at the same institution. She subsequently did a fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. She returned to the University of Montreal for 2 years as an assistant professor of ophthalmology and then moved to Portland, Oregon where she is now. She is currently an assistant professor of ophthalmology and is the head of the neuro-ophthalmology department at Casey Eye Institute and Devers Eye Institute.

Dr. Falardeau is a board-certified ophthalmologist who has been actively involved in instructional courses at the American Academy of Ophthalmology. She is dedicated to teaching and received two resident teaching Awards over the past few years. Her current research interests include novel therapy for clinically isolated optic neuritis as well as idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Tim Matthews, MD

OCULOPLASTICS

Steven C. Dresner, MD

Dr. Steven C. Dresner earned his MD from the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed an internship in general surgery at the University of California at San Francisco. He was a resident in ophthalmology at Louisiana State University at New Orleans. He subsequently served as a fellow in Neuro-ophthalmology and Orbital Surgery under John S. Kennerdell, MD at the University of Pittsburgh. Following that, he received his fellowship training in Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at McGill University in Montreal with Francois Codere, MD. Dr. Dresner is a fellow of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, (ASOPRS). He is the director of the fellowship in Oculo-facial and Cosmetic Surgery at Eyesthetica sponsored by ASOPRS.

He is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. He is the recipient of the honor award and senior honor award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has published over thirty peer reviewed articles in major journals and numerous book chapters in Oculplastic text books. He lectures nationally and internationally. Dr. Dresner is the developer of the Medpor MCOI implant and the co-developer of the Medpor SST implant. Dr. Dresner is married to Dixie Richards, MD, a dermatologist and they have three children.

PATHOLOGY

Diva Regina Salomão, MD

Dr. Salomão received her medical degree from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil in 1985. After completing her training in Anatomical Pathology at the National Cancer Institute in Rio de Janeiro, she moved to United States in 1991. She finished her residency in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology and fellowship in Surgical Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she was introduced to Ophthalmic Pathology by Dr. R. Jean Campbell.

During her fellowship year in cytopathology at the University of Iowa, she had the opportunity to work as a visiting fellow in the F.C. Blodi Eye Pathology Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Folberg.

In 1998, Dr. Salomão joined the staff at the Mayo Clinic, where she practices as a surgical pathologist, ophthalmic pathologist, cytopathologist and is also the program director for the surgical pathology fellowship. She is actively involved in education and research in ophthalmic pathology, with a number of publications in this area. Her most recent work has been in orbital involvement in IgG4 systemic disease.

PEDIATRICS

Jan-Tjeerd H.N. de Faber, MD

Psychology and Medicine KUN Nijmegen and EUR Rotterdam 1974-1982
Post Doctoral Fellow Visual Sciences University Texas, Houston USA 1984-1986
Ophthalmology residency Oogziekenhuis Rotterdam 1986-1990
Fellowship Pediatric Ophthalmology with Gunther K.von Noorden at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston USA 1990-1991
Head Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Oogziekenhuis Rotterdam since 1991.
President Donders Society for Strabismology 1994-1998.
Vice President and Editor of ESA (European Strabismological Society) 1997-2005
Editor of ISA (International Strabismological Society) 1998-2006.
President of the NOG (Dutch Ophthalmology Society) 2006-2009.
Chair medical staff of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital since 2009.
Ophthalmic Consultant and Surgeon of the Rotterdam Zoo Blijdorp.

RETINA

Neil M. Bressler, MD
The James P. Gills Professor of Ophthalmology
Chief - Retina Division, Wilmer Eye Institute (Department of Ophthalmology), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Dr. Neil Bressler graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1982, followed by an ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1986. He returned to join the faculty at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988, where he is currently Chief of the Retina Division and has an endowed chair as the inaugural James P. Gills Professor of Ophthalmology.

His main research interests have been collaborative efforts in clinical trials of common retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, having chaired several NIH-sponsored and industry-sponsored multicentre randomized clinical trials and authored over 265 peer reviewed publications. He currently chairs the NIH-sponsored Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network as Principal Investigator of the Network’s Operations Center, responsible for guidelines, policies, protocol development as well as implementation, and facilitating Network operations in a way that maintains academic integrity and optimal clinical trial performance. He also chairs the National Eye Institute’s Data and Safety Monitoring Committee for intramural clinical trials, and chairs the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel.

He has won numerous awards in ophthalmology, including the Macula Society’s J. Donald M. Gass Medal, the Society of Heed Fellows Award, the American Society of Retina Specialists Gertrude Pyron Award, the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Secretariat Award, and is a Gold Fellow in ARVO. Beyond ophthalmology, he provides leadership regarding management of outside interests (including financial conflicts of interests) of physicians and other scientists as Chair of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Dean’s Committee on Outside Interests, and chairs the Office of Funded Programs for Continuing Medical Education Advisory Board at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As a member of the Board of Trustees for the Interlochen Center for the Arts, he also shares responsibility for an entity which engages and inspires people worldwide through excellence in educational, artistic and cultural programs in the arts.

Philip Rosenfeld, MD

Philip Rosenfeld is a vitreoretinal specialist and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. His primary clinical and research interests are in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). He has been the principal investigator and study chairman for numerous AMD clinical trials. He was lead investigator in the Phase I/II/III Lucentis™ (Genentech) trials, and he pioneered the use Avastin in neovascular AMD, first by performing a study investigating systemic, intravenous Avastin and then by using Avastin as an intravitreal injection. Dr. Rosenfeld performed the PrONTO Study, which successfully explored the use of OCT-guided, as-needed treatment as an alternative to monthly dosing with Lucentis. Dr. Rosenfeld is involved in the development of novel spectral domain (Fourier domain) OCT algorithms for use in characterizing the anatomic features of AMD. His research team has developed several new clinical trial anatomic endpoints, which are now being used in ongoing investigations exploring novel therapies for dry AMD.

UVEITIS

Jennifer E. Thorne, MD, PhD

Jennifer E. Thorne is an associate professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology and the director of the Division of Ocular Immunology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. An internationally recognized and board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Thorne is an expert in the evaluation and management of patients with uveitis and other related immune-mediated disorders. Dr. Thorne also directs the Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid clinic, a multi disciplinary specialty clinic designed to evaluate and treat patients with mucous membrane pemphigoid and other cicatrizing conjunctival diseases. She is Deputy Director of the Coordinating Center of the Studies of Ocular Complication of AIDS, Medical Officer for the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment Trial, and part of the Executive Committee of the Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature Working Group.

Dr. Thorne's research interests include clinical research into white dot syndromes including birdshot chorioretinitis, multifocal choroiditis and punctate inner choroiditis. She also studies juvenile idiopathic arthritis-related uveitis and treatment outcomes of immunosuppressive drug therapy.

Dr. Thorne received her medical degree at the University of Virginia, and completed her ophthalmology residency at the Scheie Eye Institute. She did her uveitis fellowship at Wilmer and completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

VISION REHABILITATION

Donald C. Fletcher, MD

Donald C. Fletcher MD is a clinician and researcher in the field of low vision rehabilitation. He is a medical doctor and ophthalmologist who has completed fellowship training in both retinal diseases and in low vision rehabilitation but has devoted his practice exclusively to rehabilitation. His research interests have been centered on clinically relevant methods to improve low vision rehab outcomes. He has a special interest in the implications of macular scotomas on reading. For the last 25 years he has personally cared for over 20,000 low vision patients and taught many others how to perform this work. He directs the Frank Stein and Paul S. May Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation in San Francisco and is an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas, Dept. of Ophthalmology in Kansas City.