Illinois
EyeNews
Winter 2019
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Dr. Miller Receives the AAO 2019
Laureate Recognition Award
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The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) presented their highest honor - the Laureate Recognition Award - to
Marilyn T. Miller, MD
at this year's meeting in San Francisco. The Laureate Recognition Award is given to physicians "who have made exceptional contributions to the betterment of eye care, leading to the prevention of blindness and restoration of sight worldwide."
Bruce E. Spivey, MD, MS, MEd introduced Dr. Miller and spoke about her esteemed career in pediatric ophthalmology and teratology and her compassionate touch in both patient care and mentorship. Dr. Miller received a long standing ovation from the crowd before she received the award.
The IEEI is immeasurably proud of Dr. Miller's lifelong dedication to preventing blindness and visual impairment around the globe. Congratulations Dr. Miller on this richly deserved honor.
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The Ain Shams
University
KPro team, including Dr. Cortina (front row, center) and Dr. Karas (back row, 2nd from right)
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First KPro Program in Egypt
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On March 28, 2019,
M. Soledad Cortina, MD
launched the inaugural
Boston Type I Keratoprosthesis (KPro)
program in Cairo, Egypt by performing the first KPro artificial cornea transplant on a patient in Egypt. The surgery was a success and the patient is seeing well.
For the past two years. Dr. Cortina has been training her international fellow, Dr. Faris Karas, to develop the clinical and surgical skills necessary to perform the KPro procedure.
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Drs. Cortina, Chau, Vajaranant, and Setabutr.
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Novel Technique to Combat Glaucoma in Eyes with Artificial Cornea
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This summer,
Felix Chau, MD,
M. Soledad Cortina, MD, Pete Setabutr, MD and Thasarat Vajaranant, MD
completed a novel surgical technique to combat glaucoma in a KPro recipient. T
his modified technique helped maintain functioning sight in the patient's only-seeing eye.
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Chicago Sun-Times Feature
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Two IEEI physicians were featured in a Chicago Sun-Times article on glaucoma screening and prevention.
Thasarat Vajaranant, MD
, Director of the IEEI's Glaucoma Service, and
Ahmad Aref, MD, MBA,
Director of the Residency Training Program, spoke about the importance of eye screenings in early glaucoma detection.
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Dr. Lim Receives Three Prestigious Honors
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Jennifer Lim, MD,
Director of the Retina Service at the IEEI, was honored at last year's American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting as a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for her many contributions to the Academy.
In May 2019, Dr. Lim received the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's (ARVO) Gold Fellow Award.
Also, in April of this year, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School inducted alumna Dr. Jennifer Lim into the McAuley Hall of Honor.
Congratulations to Dr. Lim on these achievements.
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Dr. Chan Named AAO Secretary of Global Alliances
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R.V. Paul Chan, MD, MSc, MBA, FACS
has been named as the Secretary for Global Alliances of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). AAO Committee Secretaries are involved in the management and planning of meeting programs. Dr. Chan has been appointed for a 3-year term, and will continue to serve as the Secretary of Global Alliances until December 2021. The IEEI congratulates Dr. Chan on this appointment and thanks him for his service to the profession.
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Dr. Edward Honored at ARVO-IERG
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Deepak P. Edward MD, FACS, FARVO,
UIC Professor of Ophthalmology and Chief Research & Training Officer at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia, was honored at the ARVO Indian Eye Research Group Meeting in July. Dr. Edward delivered the Prof. Dorairajan Balasubramanian Oration, with a talk titled "Primary Congenital Glaucoma - The KKESH Experience - Back to the Future". Congratulations Dr. Edward!
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Resident Recognized with Department of Ophthalmology and UIC College of Medicine Awards
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In May, third year IEEI resident
Talisa de Carlo, MD
received the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science's Norman P. Blair Resident Research Award.
Dr. de Carlo was also honored in August with the UIC Hospital 2019 Resident of the Year Award. Dr. de Carlo is shown here receiving the hospital's award surrounded by her family members and UIC Hospital leadership. The IEEI is proud of Dr. de Carlo's impressive work and commitment to exemplary ophthalmologic care.
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- Ophthalmology and Bioengineering PhD student, Ghasem Yazdanpanah, received the Qais Farjo, MD Memorial Travel Grant from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He traveled to the 2019 ARVO meeting Vancouver, Canada this April to present his research. Read more about Ghasem's award here.
- The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) selected third year IEEI resident Priyanka Chhadva, MD, as one of its 2019 Resident Excellence Award recipients. Award winners received travel grants to attend and present at the 2019 ASCRS ASOA Annual Meeting in San Diego.
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Inaugural
Artificial Intelligence - Ophthalmology Symposium
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Joelle Hallak, PhD
, Director of the Ophthalmic Data Science Laboratory and the Ophthalmic
Clinical Trials and Translational Center
, organized the IEEI's first symposium addressing Artificial Intelligence as applied to the field of Ophthalmology. The Artificial Intelligence - Ophthalmology Symposium (AI-O) was held November 6th, and featured industry and academic leaders, including speakers from Genentech, IDx Technologies, and Google's Verily Life Sciences. In addition to ten invited speakers, nine IEEI faculty members presented throughout the day. After each session, speakers and attendees participated in moderated discussions, which were well received by all. Thank you to Dr. Hallak for putting together such an engaging and successful first meeting.
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4th Biennial
Chronic GVHD Symposium
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Sandeep Jain, MD,
Director of the UIC Cornea Translational Biology Laboratory along with
Damiano Rondelli, MD
, Chief of Hematoloty/Oncology, hosted their 4th biennial symposium - Chronic GVHD: Intersecting Aspects in Systemic and Ocular Disease, on October 25 and 26. Topics during the symposium included Clinical Trials in Ocular GVHD, Biomarkers and Microbiome, and Immunological Cells in Chronic GHVD. See the full program
h
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e.
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Vision Research Symposium
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On May 31, 2019, a Spring Vision Research Symposium was held at the UIC Student Center.
Jason McAnany, PhD
organized the event, which was the first such symposium held in many years. Both local experts and international leaders presented groundbreaking research, including Dr. Cheryl Mae Craft (University of Southern California), Dr. Karsten Gronert (University of California, Berkeley), and Dr. Haohua Qian (National Eye Institute). In addition to 12 invited lectures, over 30 scientific poster presentations were delivered. A special section of the program honored the work of the late David Pepperberg, PhD. During this session, Dr. John Dowling of Harvard Medical School (pictured at left) delivered the Four Fathers Lecture that included a retrospective of his work with Dr. Pepperberg.
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Drs. Chan, Vajaranant, Wilensky, and Dean Rosenblatt at the Glaucoma Symposium. See more photos
here
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Spring Glaucoma Symposium Honoring Dr. Wilensky
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The 2019 Glaucoma Symposium was a celebration of the 45th anniversary of
Jacob T. Wilensky, MD
at the IEEI. The event was organized by former Wilensky fellow and director of the glaucoma service,
Thasarat Vajaranant, MD
. At the invitation of Dr. Vajaranant, former IEEI residents and glaucoma fellows came from all over the country to speak at the symposium and honor Dr. Wilensky's remarkable career as a clinician and educator. The Schoenberg-Wilensky Lecture Series featured five guest speakers: Carla Siegfried, MD, Teresa Chen, MD, Jeffrey Kammer, MD, Anjali Bhorade, MD, MS. and Manishi Desai, MD.
This special day concluded with a formal dinner and a very personal and heartfelt tribute to Dr. Wilensky.
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Dr. Packo (Cless Lecturer) with Dr. Lim (Course Director)
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12th Annual Retina Symposium
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J
ennifer Lim, MD
organized UIC's 12th Annual Retina Symposium, held April 5 in the IEEI Auditorium. This year's symposium featured talks on Retinal Medical and Surgical Advances that Improve Patient Care.
The annual Gerhard Cless Lecture was given by
Kirk H. Packo, MD, C
hair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Rush Medical College
. Dr. Packo's talk on "Managing the Ocular Injuries of the Professional and Amateur Athlete" kept the audience very engrossed.
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IEEI International Fellow
Carmen Somavilla Bueno, MD
(right), presents at ARVO with Sneha Bontu, a UIC medical student.
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The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences made an excellent showing at the annual ARVO meeting held in Vancouver, British Columbia from April 28 – May 2, 2019. A total of 112 sessions were presented by IEEI faculty, residents, fellows, postdocs and students. The presentations represented a wide array of original, unpublished findings related to specific ocular diseases and featured multidisciplinary projects. Click below for a complete list of IEEI presentations.
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SOL Ojos Study receives $9.7 million in NEI funding
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The National Eye Institute (NEI) has awarded $9.7 million in funding to the HCHS/SOL Eye Study (SOL Ojos).
Charlotte Joslin, OD, PhD, FAAO,
Director of the UIC Contact Lens Service, is co-principal investigator of the study that will investigate the impact of chronic eye disease among Latinos.
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Drs. de la Cruz and Hallak: Clinical Data Collaborations
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The Ophthalmic Clinical Trials and Translational Center (OCTTC) at UIC has contributed to two large-scale international KPro outcome studies, with
Jose de la Cruz, MD
and
Joelle Hallak, PhD
leading UIC's efforts to analyze the data. The PanKPro Study: The Latin America Multicenter Collaborative Study Report of Boston Type I Keratoprosthesis, is a multi-site retrospective review of cases that is evaluating indications and outcomes of eyes in Latin America after Boston type1 KPro implantation. The P3KPRO Study: Multicenter Study of Keratoprosthesis as a Primary Penetrating Procedure is a global study on keratoprosthesis as a primary procedure.
Drs. de la Cruz and Hallak are also partnering on two ophthalmologic studies dealing with laser-assisted cataract surgery (LACS). The first, Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery Outcomes, is a study to collect and analyze clinical and imaging data to predict laser-assisted cataract surgery outcomes. The second study will explore the impact of teaching LACS techniques to residents at the start of their training.
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- Vinay Aakalu, MD, MPH, Novel Treatments for Ocular Disease. An R01 funded by NIH/NEI.
- Danilo Erricolo, PhD, Mark I. Rosenblatt, MD, PhD, MBA, Pai-Yen Chen, MS, PhD, Victor H. Guaiquil, PhD, and Deepak Shukla, PhD, Smart Contact Lens for Wireless Detection of Infectious Eye Diseases. UIC DPI Cycle 2 Seed Funding Program Award.
- Victor Guaiquil, PhD, Role of axon guidance proteins in the injured cornea. Eversight Center for Vision and Eye Banking Research Award Grant.
- Joelle Hallak, PhD, A novel Approach to Personalized Prediction of Age-related Macular Degeneration. A grant funded by BrightFocus Foundation.
- Charlotte Joslin, OD, PhD, FAAO, ‘SOL Ojos’, an ancillary study to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). SOL Ojos is a UG1 funded by NIH/NEI.
- Andrius Kazlauskas, PhD, Biomarkers of anti-VEGF’s therapeutic efficacy. A research grant from the JDRF.
- Yueru Li, PhD, Setting the Stage to Improve Care of Patients with Neovascular Age–related Macular Degeneration. A research grant from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness.
- Jason McAnany, PhD, Diagnosing Glaucoma in the Peripheral Retina. A BrightFocus Foundation Award.
- Jason McAnany, PhD, Uncovering the genetic basis for a cryptic pan-sensory disorder. A Chicago Biomedical Consortium Award.
- Xincheng Yao, PhD, and R.V. Paul Chan, MD, MSc, MBA, FACS, Nonmydriatic ultra-widefield fundus potography employing trans-pars-planar illumination. $1.87 million research grant from the National Eye Institute.
- Ivy Zhu, MD, A Study Investigating Aqueous Humor as a Prognostic Mediator in Uveal Melanoma. A research grant from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness and funding from the VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation.
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The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences is excited to announce the launch of an ambitious historical record project.
The Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary History Project
will aim to create an interactive digital hub detailing the storied history of the Infirmary. We have begun to collect oral and written stories from our alumni and faculty, and we will need your help! Look for a message in the new year about the many ways you can participate. In the meantime, watch the project preview here.
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Dr. Hoang with members of the Lunde family.
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The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences held its annual Alumni Resident Day on Friday June 21, 2019. Many esteemed guests spoke throughout the day, including
Quan V. Hoang, MD, PhD, who gave
the inaugural Mark W. Lunde, MD Memorial Lecture.
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Mario J. Gumino
1960 - 2019
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Mario J. Gumino, Executive Director of the Lions of Illinois Foundation, passed away early Monday morning on December 2nd.
For more than 40 years the Lions of Illinois Foundation has been a true collaborator and partner of the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary and Lion Mario Gumino was instrumental throughout much of that partnership. Mario became a Lion in 1980 and dedicated his life to the Lions of Illinois Foundation for the past 39 years.
We would like to extend our most sincere condolences and sympathy to his wife Lion Karen, his son Brian, and to Mario’s extended family.
Mario's obituary and ways to donate in his memory can be found
here
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Proud Community Partner of the
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