I/O - Innovation in Ophthalmology

On this episode, I had the honour of hosting Dr. Claes Dohlman for a discussion on his legacy in cornea innovation, and how the future generations of ophthalmologists can integrate similar focuses on innovation in their own careers. 

Dr. Claes H. Dohlman is considered the father of modern corneal science, and his seminal work has led to the development of the cornea subspecialty..  His research is recognized worldwide and laid the foundations of corneal physiology.  He first graduated in medicine from the University of Lund (1957). In 1958, he left to work at the Boston Retina Institute. In 1964, he was given the mission of setting up a care and research service relating to the cornea at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI).

Combining positions at Harvard Medical School, he was also appointed head of the department of ophthalmology of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.  A talented clinician researcher in the field of corneal pathology, Dr. Dohlman is also the inventor of the Boston Keratoprosthesis, the most successful artificial cornea in the world. Dr. Dohlman has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, and Harvard Medical School has established a research chair in his name.

In 2019, the Universite de Montreal awarded him an honorary doctorate for his decades of commitment and dedication to the field of corneal science.  In 2022, he shared the Champalimaud Vision Award for his incredible career in the development of the artificial cornea. Considered the “Nobel Prize of Vision,” the Champalimaud Vision Award, presented by the Portugal-based Champalimaud Foundation, is the highest distinction bestowed in ophthalmology and vision science, carrying one of the largest prizes in scientific research. 

His work with the Boston KPro has led to the publication of over 500 research papers in the field. Most importantly however, the Boston KPro has been implanted in over 16,000 patients globally. He is truly a legend in the field of ophthalmology, and it is an honour to have the chance to speak with him today.

Today, we speak with Dr. Sanjay Sharma of MEDSKL and Queen's University on the value of innovating in medical education.

Dr. Sharma, is the founder of MEDSKL, a free open access medical education initiative, which provides students and physicians with modules on the fundamentals of clinical medicine. MEDSKL is used by learners worldwide and has modules made by over 200 medical professors globally. All modules are peer-reviewed for quality, and cover all medical topics from cardiology to vascular surgery. He is also the founder of Optocase, which upskills 22,000 plus eye doctors.

He is a professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology at Queen’s University, has authored over 200 research articles and three books including the American Medical Association’s Evidence-based to Value Based Medicine. His research in macular degeneration, health economics and medical education has been cited in the scientific literature over 6,000 times. Dr. Sharma, who has received a number of grants and prestigious awards – including those from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation – completed his medical education at Harvard University.

In this episode, we discuss tele-medicine in ophthalmology (tele-ophthalmology) with Dr. Delan Jinapriya, a glaucoma specialist and the founder of Euclid Telehealth. 

Dr. Delan Jinapriya is an Assistant Professor at Queen's University, in the Department of Ophthalmology specializing in Comprehensive Glaucoma. He is the Medical Director of the Galen Eye Centre, which is a multi doctor facility specializing in glaucoma. He feels that educating physicians is a powerful means by which to improve health care for Canadians. He is the Co-Director of the Queen's Glaucoma Fellowship Program, is a clinical and surgical mentor in the Queen's Ophthalmology Residency Program. 

He is also an advocate for tele-ophthalmology and the founder of Euclid Telehealth, a company that is developing tele-ophthalmology solutions, to make expert eye care accessible to all Canadians.

In this interview, we speak with Dr. Hady Saheb on his path to integrating MIGS into his career early on, and where he sees the future of innovation in glaucoma going.

Dr. Hady Saheb is an ophthalmologist and glaucoma surgeon based in Montreal, Canada. He is an Associate Professor and Director of the Complex Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery Fellowship at McGill University’s Department of Ophthalmology and is on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Ophthalmological Society.

Dr. Saheb earned his medical degree and completed his residency at McGill. He was then a glaucoma fellow at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami and completed a second fellowship in Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery with Dr. Ike Ahmed at the University of Toronto. He also completed a Master's in Public Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, with a specific focus on Clinical Trials and Health Leadership.

In our second episode of I/O, we speak with three leaders in ocular genetics about the burgeoning future of gene therapies, challenges the field faces, how to promote innovation amongst learners, and the value of ocular genetics to patients and their families.

Dr. Ian MacDonald is an ophthalmologist and clinical geneticist at the University of Alberta. He began his career as an Ontario Ministry of Health career Scientist, and then moved to the University of Alberta where he served four terms as the Dept. Chair of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences. He then served as the Branch Chief of Ophthalmic Genetics and Visual Function at the National Eye Institute of the NIH before returning for a fourth term as Department Chair. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists, and was invited by the International Society for Genetic Eye Disease and Retinoblastoma to give the Franceschetti Lecture in 2021.  His primary research interests are in heritable ocular disorders, particularly in the immune mechanisms that are triggered in viral vector-mediated gene therapies and in gene therapies for choiroideremia. The two main projects currently being worked on are antisense oligonucleotide suppression and a synonymous variant in the CHM gene that has variable effects in two siblings. 

Dr. Elise Héon is an ophthalmologist and was previously the inaugural holder of the Mira Godard Chair in Vision Research and Chief of Ophthalmology at The Hospital for Sick Children. She is the Henry Brent Chair in Innovative Pediatric Ophthalmology at SickKids, a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto, and the Director of the Ocular Genetics Program at SickKids.  She and her research group are renowned worldwide for her expertise in inherited retinal disorders. In particular, her research group has been particularly successful in using genome sequencing to detect disease-causing variants in IRDs. Her group also has an interest in identifying small molecules that may improve patient outcomes. 

Dr. Brian Ballios is a staff ophthalmologist at Sunnybrook, and an assistant professor at the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. He completed a clinical fellowship in Inherited Retinal Diseases at Mass Eye and Ear, and completed his MD/PhD at the University of Toronto in the lab of Dr. Derek van der Kooy. His doctoral work focused on the transplantation of stem cells for the treatment of retinal degeneration. His research involves combining his cross-disciplinary interests in stem cell biology and tissue engineering to treat retinal disease.

In this first episode of I/O, we sit down with the father of MIGS and one of the most significant ophthalmologists of our generation, Dr. Ike Ahmed. We discuss how his journey to innovating in ophthalmology came to be, and importantly, how he feels young trainees can integrate innovation into their own careers. Dr. Ike Ahmed is synonymous with the term MIGS, or “Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery.”