VISIoN - Duke Health

D U K E
U N I V E R S I T Y
E Y E
C E N T E R
VISIoN
V O L U M E
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N U M B E R
T R E A T M E N T
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F A L L / W I N T E R
R E S E A R C H
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E D U C A T I O N
Respected Practitioner, Teacher Retires
Colleagues, Students, and Friends Bid Dr. Calvin Mitchell a Fond Farewell
A
mid much fanfare and celebration, and a few tears, the
Duke Department of Ophthalmology
sent Dr. Calvin Mitchell into a joyful
and well-deserved retirement in July
with a series of tributes fitting for a
man who has touched the lives of so
many. There was an ice cream social,
a luncheon, and a formal dinner.
There was a video celebrating his life
achievements and his 40-year career
battling eye disease in the clinic, the
operating room, and through educating ophthalmology residents. His
younger son even flew in to surprise
Dr. Mitchell as his last patient.
Dr. Mitchell, a 1958 graduate
of the Duke School of Medicine
who also completed his residency
here, joined the Duke Ophthalmology faculty in 1985 after nearly a
quarter-century as partner in a thriving ophthalmology practice in Tampa,
Florida. Duke University had
recently decided to offer all of its
employees the benefit of general eye
care, and the Department of Ophthalmology was looking for a general
ophthalmologist to take care of these
patients. For Dr. Mitchell, it was an
opportunity to teach and practice in
an academic medical center—an
opportunity too good to pass up.
For 18 years, as assistant clinical
professor of ophthalmology on the
Comprehensive Ophthalmology Service, Dr. Mitchell saw current and
retired Duke employees for their
basic eye care needs. He also served
as medical director of the Contact
Lens Service and was involved in
many of the Eye Center’s research
studies, often making sure that
patients had no ocular side effects
from drugs used in these studies.
But the part of his job Dr.
Mitchell cherished most was teaching the residents and medical students who rotated through the Comprehensive Ophthalmology Service.
Mitchell lectured weekly on general
ophthalmology topics and attended
the ophthalmology resident conference every weekday morning at 7
a.m. It wasn’t something he had to
do; it was something he loved to do.
“I like to be a part of that teaching endeavor,” he once said. “It’s just
stimulating to be around smart people, and the teacher always learns
more than the student!”
In recognition of his commitment
to teaching, in 1999, Duke ophthalmology residents presented Dr.
Mitchell with a plaque: a Special
Education Award in grateful recognition of his outstanding and dedicated
service to the residents of Duke Eye
Center. The award—the only one
ever given out—hung prominently
in Dr. Mitchell’s office.
In retirement, Dr. Mitchell is
Continued on page 3
In This Issue
Chairman’s Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
New Faculty Profile—Christine Speer, MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Custom LASIK Brings High Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
New Major Gifts Officer—Sterrin Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Duke Eye Center’s Rising Star in Raleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Managing the Eye Center’s Research Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
NC Lions Endowment Earns AERI Namesake . . . . . . . . . . .26
Volunteers Make It a Place Like No Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
VISIoN
2
C H A I R M A N ’ S
C O R N E R
“You can dream, create, design, and build the most
wonderful place in the world, but it requires people
to make the dream a reality.”
~ Walt Disney
he year 2003 has been an exciting one for the Duke University Eye Center—a year of
making dreams come true. Our journey to build a world-class eye research institute began
several years ago with the generous philanthropic giving of the Wannamaker family, the Herrings, Evelyn Hunter-Longdon, and countless others. In 2002, Ruth and Herman Albert made our dreams
a reality with their historic $8 million gift to build the Albert Eye Research Institute (AERI). We now
are able to watch with pride and amazement as our AERI has taken shape—floor-by-floor—before our
very eyes.
Just over $19 million has been received toward our goal of raising the needed $25 million for AERI.
While we thus have made great strides towards realizing our aspirations to build a future free of blinding
eye disease, we must remain focused if we are to achieve our goals and achieve the completion of our
new AERI. We have dared to dream, create, design, and build this most wonderful Institute, but in the
words of Walt Disney “it requires people to make the dream a reality.” Before his passing in June 2002,
Herman “Hy” Albert challenged each of us to “recognize that life is good and that we must each fulfill
our own responsibility for giving back to improve humanity.” I urge you to heed Hy’s call and help us
all achieve our dreams.
As we reach the end of another remarkable year for the Duke Eye Center, I want to express how truly
grateful I am to lead such an amazing institution of clinicians, researchers, and staff, and how deeply
thankful I am to our many generous supporters. I wish you a safe and happy holiday season and look
forward to a special new year when we hopefully celebrate the completion of our new Albert Eye
Research Institute.
VISIoN
3
Respected Practitioner,
Teacher Retires
continued from page 1
enjoying the opportunity to devote
more time to restoring the 200-yearold farm in Chatham County that
was built by his wife’s—Lin
Mitchell, a professor at Duke’s
Fuqua School of Business—ancestors. The log cabin and the cow
barn are now fully restored, and Dr.
Mitchell is working with two retired
carpenters on several outbuildings.
The Mitchells also head to Key West
with their kids and grandkids several
times a year to go lobster diving and
fishing.
Dr. Mitchell was always proud
of being accepted to the Duke
School of Medicine and, later, to
be invited back to the Duke faculty.
Even in retirement, he remains
closely linked to the Eye Center and
to Duke University. He continues to
attend weekly rounds for the retina,
glaucoma, and cornea services, providing his insight and historical perspective. And he recently participated in the University’s annual
Founders Day celebration as a
professor emeritus. He also remains
active in medicine, assisting in
surgery at the Veterans Administration Hospitals in Asheville and
Durham.
Staying involved in medicine
on a part-time basis is a way to
make the transition to retirement
less stressful, he believes. And for
the Duke Eye Center, it’s a way to
continue to benefit from the wisdom
of one of its most valuable and
respected family members.
Memorable Moments
Continued on page 7
4
VISIoN
The Albert Eye Re
Building a Future Free of Eye Disease
A
lot has been happening lately at
the Duke University Eye Center.
Construction of the much-anticipated Ruth
and Herman Albert Eye Research Institute is
well underway. See for yourself what all the
excitement is about.
For more information about the Albert
Eye Research Institute or to learn how you
can contribute to the building campaign,
please contact the Eye Center Planning
& Development Office at 919-684-3182.
The Eye Center is seeking community
and corporate support through June 2004.
Naming opportunities for each floor of
the new Institute are still available.
VISIoN
5
Research Institute
The future of the
Albert Eye Research
Institute is looking
bright. We’ve
raised $19 million
toward our goal of
$25 million!
VISIoN
6
NEW FACULTY PROFILE
Christine Speer, MD
Providing comprehensive
eye care for patients in
the community
I
f you are like most of her
patients, you will wonder if
Dr. Christine Speer is old enough
to be your doctor. Rest assured, the
newest member of the Duke University Eye Center’s Comprehensive
Ophthalmology Service faculty is
older than she looks. She is also
fully trained, qualified, and ready
to help her patients at Duke keep
and restore their eye health.
Speer joined the Duke Department of Ophthalmology in October
as an assistant clinical professor.
Her main focus is on providing
comprehensive ophthalmologic care
to patients at the Eye Center, offering everything from general eye
examinations to medical treatment
for glaucoma and corneal disease
to eye care for patients with diabetes and cataract surgery. She also
helps teach Duke ophthalmology
residents who rotate through the
Comprehensive Service.
“We are delighted to have Dr.
Speer join the Comprehensive Ophthalmology Service at the Duke
University Eye Center,” says Service Chief Dr. Robin Vann. “Our
patients will welcome her skill,
compassion, and warmth.”
Dr. Speer joined the Eye Center
faculty right after her wedding and
Hawaiian honeymoon with husband
Dr. Lawrence Buono, a neuro-ophthalmologist who is also on the
Duke faculty. After she completed
her ophthalmology residency at
Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia
this past June, the marriage and Dr.
Buono’s position at Duke narrowed
down the area for her job search.
Looking around North Carolina’s Triangle region for opportunities in ophthalmology, Dr. Speer
quickly decided that Duke was the
“Even though my
parents wanted me to
explore all the different
options that I had, I grew
up around medicine and
just felt that was the
natural course for
me to take in life.”
~ Christine Speer, MD
right fit. “What brought me to Duke
was the strong academic reputation,” she says. “The Eye Center
faculty is a close-knit group of people who are easy to work with, and
I knew I’d be working with very
strong, world-class doctors here.
Because I recently completed my
residency, it is nice to be part of an
academic institution with so many
continuing education opportunities
that will allow me to keep up with
medical and surgical advances.”
Born and raised outside Little
Rock, Arkansas, Dr. Speer is the
only child of two physicians. Her
mother is a radiologist; her father
a family practitioner. Both are now
retired. Speer knew early on that
she would go into “the family
business.”
“Even though my parents
wanted me to explore all the different options that I had, I grew up
around medicine and just felt that
was the natural course for me to
take in life. I enjoyed helping and
taking care of people (and always
had a scientifically oriented mind),
so it seemed to be a natural fit.”
After completing her bachelor’s
degree in chemistry and Spanish at
Vanderbilt University in 1995,
Dr. Speer returned to Little Rock
to earn her medical degree at the
University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences. When she was in her third
year of medical school, she looked
into various medical disciplines
and weighed what she wanted in
a career and what she enjoyed in
medicine—and the field of ophthalmology came into sharp focus.
“I liked that ophthalmic care
is both clinical and surgical. With
cataract surgery, you can make a
dramatic difference in someone’s
life, so it seemed like it would be
a very rewarding field to go into,”
she says.
“It’s also a very visual field,
not just for the patient, but for the
doctor. We make our diagnoses by
looking at the eye. I enjoy being
able to see the disease processes,
rather than using some of the other
forms of physical examination. The
best part about doing comprehensive ophthalmology is that you can
tailor it to what you want to do.
VISIoN
Every patient is different, with
problems ranging from the eyelids
to the retina.”
After a medical internship at
Georgetown University, Dr. Speer
headed to Wills Eye Hospital for
her ophthalmology residency, where
she met her future husband who
was there for his neuro-ophthalmology fellowship. Dr. Speer spent
much of this past summer moving
and planning the wedding, which
7
took place September 27th in Little
Rock.
The fall will continue to be
busy for Dr. Speer as she begins her
career at Duke Eye Center, but she
says that the opportunity to live in
Durham feels like a good fit, particularly with her love of the outdoors.
“As a southerner, it has been a very
easy transition. I’m very happy to
be here, and I’m happy to be back
down South—that’s where I feel the
most comfortable. I’m hoping to get
out in this area to explore some of
the outdoor activities like hiking
and canoeing.”
Professionally, Dr. Speer says,
“I’m looking forward to the atmosphere at the Duke Eye Center and
taking care of patients in the community.” Not to mention, fielding
all those questions about her age.
Respected Practitioner, Teacher Retires
continued from page 3
Colleagues and Residents on Dr. Mitchell
“I have known Calvin longer than anyone else at the Duke Eye
Center because we were residents in ophthalmology together a
long time ago. What has impressed me all of these years is the
very high professional standards that Calvin has maintained. I
have always been sure that his decisions and actions are on the
basis of what is good for the patient, rather than what was good
for him. It has been a pleasure to be professionally associated
with Calvin. It is bittersweet not to have him down the hall anymore, but I hope from him to have a real model on an excellent
retirement!”
—Dr. Banks Anderson Jr., Duke Professor of Ophthalmology
“Calvin Mitchell has been a uniquely talented and dedicated faculty member in the Duke Department of Ophthalmology. He is
the ophthalmologist of choice for many of the faculty of Duke
and has represented us so well. But to me, it is his role in resident education that has been truly unique and remarkable. He has
been a wonderful teacher and mentor to our residents and, most
importantly, he has been an advocate for our residency program.
He really has helped improve the quality of our residency and
helped make many different careers possible. Calvin represents
the very best of what Duke Ophthalmology has to offer.”
—Dr. David Epstein, Chair, Duke Department of Ophthalmology
“The Comprehensive Ophthalmology Service, the residents of the
Duke Eye Center, and our community are indebted to the years
of unwavering dedication that Dr. Mitchell has shown to his profession. Throughout his tenure here, he has been a strong advocate for resident education and patient access to medical care.
He has helped foster my career growth as well as that of numerous residents who have graduated from our program. We will
truly miss him on the service and wish him the best of luck and
success in his retirement.”
—Dr. Robin Vann, Chief of the Comprehensive Service
“We all profited by an expert like Calvin coming in and letting
[us] know that [we] were getting the best eye care that any place
could offer. He has been one of the humanizing factors that
allows the Duke Eye Center to put out not only good research
people, but people who understand the problems of elderly
people and the problems of people with failing vision. He was
a great person with which to work.”
—Dr. Eugene Stead, Chair Emeritus, Duke Department of Medicine
“I had the pleasure to complete my residency while Dr. Mitchell
was here at Duke. Beginning when I was a first-year, he was
always there for us—in morning rounds, smiling, giving us all
those ideas, stories, and experiences. And he continued every
day to be there for rounds and to be available to us whenever
we needed him.”
—Dr. Tamer Mahmoud, Retina Fellow
“Dr. Mitchell exemplifies what it means to be a southern gentleman. He is wise, sincere, compassionate, kind, and above all,
an excellent teacher. His devotion to resident training goes
unmatched. Dr. Mitchell has spent his entire career advancing
the education of other physicians.”
—Michelle Evans, Residency Program Coordinator
VISIoN
8
Custom LASIK Brings
High Definition to Laser Vision
Correction Surgery at Duke
F
or years vision correction
surgeons using LASIK laser
technology have been able to
replicate the vision you’d get by
wearing glasses or contact lenses.
Now Custom LASIK—the state-ofthe-art in laser vision correction
technology, available at the Duke
Center for Vision Correction—
takes vision correction to a new
level with results that can actually
exceed those of glasses or contact
lenses.
That’s because standard LASIK
and corrective lenses improve
vision by correcting near- or farsightedness and general astigmatism. But the reality is, those are
only two of the variables—albeit
the most important—that affect
vision. There are actually dozens
of other variables, including an
imperfection called spherical aberration, which occurs when the
pupils expand past a certain point
at night and light is scattered,
resulting in night “halos,” for
instance. If you could correct each
of these imperfections, you’d get
even better vision. Until now,
though, there was no way to diagnose and treat these imperfections
with standard testing or treatment.
With Custom LASIK, all that
has changed.
Using revolutionary wavefront
technology—which has been
around for decades but only
recently applied to the eye—Duke
refractive surgeons can now
capture and analyze more than a
dozen previously elusive variables,
or “higher-order aberrations,” in
addition to assessing near- or farsightedness and astigmatism. The
surgeons can then treat these aberrations, resulting in vision that can
be even better than the patient had
previously received wearing glasses
or contact lenses or after standard
LASIK.
At Duke, all candidates for
LASIK treatment go through a
comprehensive eye exam, which
now includes analysis using
VISX’s sophisticated WaveScan
WaveFront® System. The WaveScan shines more than 200 light
rays into as many different points
in the eye, then records how each
light wave is bent, or “refracted,”
as it travels through the pupil. This
L-R: Durham LASIK experts
Drs. Carlson, Kim, and Afshari
information is then fed into the
computer and analyzed using
VISX’s CustomVue™ software.
Within minutes, a color printout
provides a complex analysis and
diagrams of the entire pupil, showing specific levels of aberrations
at each of the 200-plus points on
the pupil. The analysis details the
specific level of each high-order
aberration and calculates the portion of incremental vision that
could be gained by correcting
those aberrations.
After the analysis is complete,
a Duke refractive surgeon sits
down with the patient to explain
the results, and together they determine whether Custom LASIK or
standard LASIK will yield the best
outcome in this particular situation.
Custom LASIK, which is FDA-
VISIoN
“This is such exciting
technology that we have
to offer. Custom LASIK
allows us to gather much
more accurate and
detailed data on the
refractive error, or optical
aberrations, in each
individual eye. No two
eyes are exactly alike.
This technology is
almost like taking a
‘fingerprint’ of each eye,
allowing us to design a
unique treatment that
addresses each eye’s
unique features.”
~ Alan Carlson, MD
approved, may be especially beneficial for patients who have problems with vision while driving at
night, who have very large pupils,
or who have significant levels of
high-order aberrations such as
irregular types of astigmatism.
At Duke, the Custom LASIK
procedure, like standard LASIK,
is performed on the ultra-precise
VISX S4, the newest version of the
laser. This new equipment automatically centers the treatment on the
pupil and tracks the eye in case
there is any movement. For Custom
LASIK, laser pulses are directed to
hundreds of points on the cornea
to treat each spot in accordance
with the data from WaveScan.
Some points receive more treatment, others less.
9
“This is such exciting technology that we have to offer,” says
Dr. Alan Carlson, chief of the Eye
Center’s Corneal and Refractive
Surgery Service. “Custom LASIK
allows us to gather much more
accurate and detailed data on the
refractive error, or optical aberrations, in each individual eye. No
two eyes are exactly alike. This
technology is almost like taking a
‘fingerprint’ of each eye, allowing
us to design a unique treatment
that addresses each eye’s unique
features.”
“With this new technology, we
are able to offer patients the ability
to correct abnormalities that distort
vision that have not been correctable with glasses or contacts.
Even the best pair of glasses can
leave you with from three to twenty
percent of your vision uncorrected—now we’re able to correct
much of that remaining amount,”
says Duke Refractive Surgeon
Dr. Natalie Afshari.
“Duke is always on the forefront of new technology in every
subspecialty, and for refractive
surgery, wavefront technology represents the next frontier in vision
correction. This new technology
will provide us with a more complete picture of a patient’s refractive error, and therefore, enable us
to measure and treat refractive
errors in an innovative and more
individualized fashion,” according
to Duke Surgeon Dr. Terry Kim.
Because Duke must pay an
additional royalty fee each time it
uses the CustomVue equipment,
the fee for Custom LASIK is a bit
higher than for standard LASIK.
However, Carlson notes, Duke’s
$400 additional fee per eye is less
than the national average. Carlson
says, “Custom LASIK can be compared to the difference between
buying a standard television and a
high-definition TV. For some people, the difference in clarity and
picture quality is well worth that
extra cost.”
The Duke Center for Vision
Correction is one of the few treatment centers in the area that uses
wavefront technology for both
analysis and treatment, having
invested in both the WaveScan
analysis equipment and its links
to our VISX S4 lasers. The entire
Duke Refractive Surgery Team—
Drs. Terry Kim, Natalie Afshari,
and Alan Carlson in Durham, and
Dr. Terry Semchyshyn in WinstonSalem—perform Custom LASIK
using wavefront technology.
“Custom LASIK is part of the
future of vision correction surgery,”
Carlson notes. “At the Duke Center
for Vision Correction, we have
always strived to treat our patients
on an individual basis. This technology gives us an important tool
that allows us to customize our services to each client’s needs to a far
greater degree than ever before. It’s
very exciting.”
For more information on Custom
LASIK or to schedule a personal consultation, call the Duke Center for
Vision Correction at 919-681-4089.
Winston-Salem LASIK expert
Dr. Terry Semchyshyn
VISIoN
10
Donors Establish
Two Named Chairs
in Ophthalmology
L
ast spring, the Duke
University Board of Trustees
announced the recipients of two
newly established endowed chairs
in the Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Brooks McCuen II
became the first Robert Machemer
Professor of Ophthalmology, and
Dr. Paul Lee the first James Pitzer
Gills, III, M.D. and Joy Gills Professor of Ophthalmology in the
School of Medicine.
Endowed chairs are established
by generous donors to provide
support, in perpetuity, for distinguished faculty members. Dr.
Machemer’s former vitreoretinal
fellows, colleagues, grateful
patients, and friends established
The Robert Machemer Professor
of Ophthalmology to honor the
father of vitreoretinal surgery
and one of Duke University Eye
Center’s preeminent leaders.
A world-renowned clinicianscientist and master teacher, Dr.
Machemer chaired the Duke
Department of Ophthalmology
from 1978 to 1991 and helped
Duke build an international reputation in ophthalmology. As the
leading authority on vitrectomy
surgery, he pioneered a procedure
that has restored sight to people
worldwide and invented surgical
instruments and techniques to
treat vitreoretinal diseases, diabetic
retinopathy, and retinal detachments. Dr. Machemer retired from
Duke in 1998.
Dr. Machemer calls it “a won-
derful appreciation of
my colleagues that they
donated money for a
L-R: Dr. and Mrs. Brooks McCuen II with
professorship to honor
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Machemer
me and to
support the
that bears the
Departname of the
ment. I am
man who
very proud
helped train
to have Dr.
him and
McCuen
brought him
become the
to Duke. As
first recipithe Machemer
ent because
Professor, Dr.
he is an
McCuen will
outstanding
have valuable
clinician
Dr. Paul Lee (middle) with Dr. and
resources to
Mrs. David L. Epstein
and
enable him to
researcher.”
carry on his mentor’s legacy. “This
Dr. McCuen, who is chief of
chair allows me to free up some
the Eye Center’s Vitreoretinal
time from my patient care and surService, is proud to hold a chair
gical activities each week to pursue some of my research interests
vitreoretinal arena.”
“Endowed chairs such as in the
The James Pitzer Gills, III,
these are critical to the
M.D. and Joy Gills Professor of
Ophthalmology was established by
Department’s ability to
Dr. James Gill Jr., a 1959 graduate
recruit and retain world- of the Duke School of Medicine,
in honor of his son, a 1997 graduclass medical scholars
of Duke’s medical school, and
who are leaders in their ate
his daughter-in-law. The senior Dr.
Gills is a world-renowned cataract
field and to fulfill our
Father and son work
mission of excellence in surgeon.
together in private practice in
patient care, research,
Florida.
“We appreciate the good work
and education.”
that everybody at the Duke Eye
~ David L. Epstein, MD
Center is doing and wanted to pay
Continued on page 35
VISIoN
11
New Major Gifts Officer
Joins Duke Eye Center
Sterrin Bird Makes a Life Out of Helping Others
F
rom raising funds for nonprofits, healthcare systems,
schools, and cultural organizations
to spending six weeks as an American Red Cross volunteer at Ground
Zero following the tragic events of
9/11, Sterrin Bird is one of those
special individuals who works diligently to make a difference in the
lives of others. In fact, she’s made a
career of it.
The newest member of the Duke
Eye Center development team, Bird
was recruited from San Francisco
where she led development programs at several large non-profits.
“Sterrin not only brings more than
11 years of fundraising experience
to her new position as director of
major gifts for the Eye Center, but
also a wealth of compassion, energy,
and heritage,” says Duke Eye Center Business Director Charles Mansfield.
As a young girl growing up in
California, Bird learned early on the
importance of philanthropy. “I grew
up in the kind of family where you
just helped others and participated
in the community. My grandmother
was a major fundraiser in our town,
and she was just as gracious to the
person bringing in a single loaf of
bread as she was to the one who
owned the bread manufacturing
company,” says Bird.
From those important childhood
lessons, Bird developed a deep passion for philanthropy as a way of
life as well as her own personal
approach—one based totally on
relationships.
“I’m a firm believer that successful fundraising is based on successful relationships,” says Bird. It’s
obviously a formula that has worked
well for her. During her tenure as
director of development for the Bay
Area Red Cross, Sterrin raised more
than $13 million in annual unrestricted operating support. It was
also in that role that she volunteered
at Ground Zero where she served
food and offered compassion to the
numerous families of victims and
those working at the site. “It was
one of the most amazing and
rewarding experiences of my life,”
adds Bird.
“I’m a firm believer that
successful fundraising is
based on successful
relationships.”
~ Sterrin Bird
According to Bird, all fundraising should be donor-centered. “Giving away money is a very personal
decision. It is important to be a
good listener and to understand
every individual’s unique needs.
There’s a big misconception in my
field that just because someone has
money that they will be willing to
donate it.”
Bird clearly understands the
importance of building lasting relationships with potential donors as
well as Eye Center physicians and
staff who can help make major
donations a possibility. When asked
to describe fundraising and express
her approach to it, Bird says,
“strategic, professional, realistic,
thoughtful, and above all else,
compassionate.”
According to Mansfield, the
same words can be used to describe
Bird. And Duke Eye Center Chairman Dr. David Epstein couldn’t
agree more. “We‘re delighted Sterrin has joined our Eye Center development team. She has a solid track
record evidenced by her numerous
accomplishments throughout her
career,” says Dr. Epstein. “She’s a
natural who truly will be an asset to
the Eye Center and to our ability to
aspire to new heights as we secure
critical funding for facility expansion and ongoing research.”
Only on the job now for a few
months, Bird is already working in
close collaboration with Eye Center
Stewardship Officer Renee Wallace
and Duke Medical Center Development staff on several initiatives. One
of her first objectives is to assist in
meeting the $25 million goal set to
see the Albert Eye Research Institute become a reality. To date, $19
million has been raised, and Bird is
Continued on page 15
VISIoN
12
Successful Business
Built Upon Skills of
Visually Impaired
Workers
M
ost employees of LC
Industries (LCI) have
never even seen the products that
they make. That’s because more
than 75 percent of the nonprofit
company’s workforce is legally
blind. In fact, LCI, headquartered
in Durham, North Carolina, is the
largest employer of the visually
impaired in the United States.
Started by a Durham civic club
in 1936 to provide gainful employment to people who are visually
impaired, the business took off two
years later when Congress passed
the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act,
which offered preferential consideration on the federal government’s
business to companies that
employed large numbers of visually
impaired workers. The Durhambased project began producing mattresses for the U.S. military and
gradually grew into a full-fledged
business, finally incorporating as
a private, nonprofit organization.
Martha Scott labels boxes to be used
in the file folder department.
Jesse Casterlow, Jr. installs two-prong
fasteners in tri-fold folders. Jesse has
had a successful cornea transplant at
Duke Eye Center thanks to Drs.
Herndon, Postel, and Kim.
Today, in addition to making
mattresses, LCI manufactures more
than 85 types of file and presentation folders for government and
commercial use, as well as paper
towels, facial tissue, paper plates,
and napkins. The company assembles paper shredders in partnership
with Fellowes and is launching a
line of document protectors under
a co-brand with Avery. LCI distributes Lysol products to government
agencies across the U.S. and is the
largest producer of sponge mops in
the nation. In fact, Wal-Mart is
their biggest customer.
The U.S. military counts on
LCI as its largest supplier of plastic
eating utensils, and our forces in
Iraq are drinking out of more than
160,000 five-gallon plastic water
cans produced and shipped by LCI.
The military accounts for about
70 percent of LCI’s annual sales,
which continue to grow as the
company expands its markets and
products.
In addition to the manufacturing plant and distribution center in
Durham, LCI now has four plants
in Mississippi. In the mid-1990s,
the company expanded into retail
and now operates 26 base supply
centers in nine states to provide
hardware, office and safety products, and other supplies to military
personnel. LCI is the largest operator in a national network of these
centers operated by agencies providing employment for people who
are visually impaired.
The company currently employs
350 workers who meet the government’s definition of legally blind—
vision no greater than 20/200 with
corrective lenses or a peripheral
vision no greater than 20 degrees—
including 85 employees at the
Durham plant and three-quarters of
the staff at the base supply centers.
About 20 percent of LCI’s management is legally blind; many managers started on the factory floor
years ago. The company offers
competitive salaries and benefits
and has great, long-term employees,
LCI President Bill Hudson notes.
Louise Benge assembles boxes to
package document protectors for LC
Industries’ co-brand with Avery.
While running a company with
a primary visually impaired workforce is generally similar to running
any other business, Hudson, who is
not visually impaired and has been
with the company since 1968,
acknowledges that there are some
differences. For instance, when the
VISIoN
company decided to move its factory from downtown Durham to a
larger facility in Research Triangle
Park this past summer, the biggest
consideration was employee transportation to and from work.
Rachel Horne sorts plastic flatware.
“Transportation is one of the
most difficult things that a person
who is visually impaired has to
deal with,” Hudson notes. “In most
cases, they have to depend on a
bus, a family member, or a friend.
Everyone at LCI is basically
responsible for getting back and
forth to work, but our Human
Resources director spent a tremendous amount of time meeting with
every employee to find out where
they lived and how they got to
work. She mapped it all out, and
we went to the Durham Area Transportation Administration (DATA)
and worked with them to find the
best way to get everyone here.
DATA arranged for a special bus
that comes right to our door in the
morning and goes back to the main
terminal in the afternoon. They did
us a tremendous favor. If we hadn’t
gotten the transportation arranged,
we never could have moved here.”
Other than the transportation
issue, Hudson says, the modifications are few. The factory floor
and the equipment is the same as
at their competitors’ plants and
the safety training programs are
rigorous.
13
While LCI’s primary focus
continues to be on providing
employment opportunities for people who are visually impaired, a
few years ago the company saw an
opportunity to help others in the
community through a partnership
with Durham Health Partners.
Together the two now provide eye
screenings and care to children
throughout Durham City Schools.
When the program’s volunteer
screeners identify elementary
school students with visual problems, LCI covers the cost of examinations by local optometrists or
ophthalmologists, as well as the
cost of glasses or contact lenses.
Edith Justice, Myrtle Osborne, and
Eileen O’Neal are shown assembling
press board folders with two fasteners.
“There are untold numbers
of children in the Durham City
Schools who are wearing glasses
because of this program, and I
have to believe are doing much
better in school as a result,” Hudson says. “We’re very proud of our
involvement with this ongoing program, and it got us thinking about
other ways for us to get involved.”
This spring, LC Industries
made a $50,000 gift to the Needy
Children’s Fund at the Duke University Eye Center. “We love this
program,” Hudson says, “so we
decided we wanted to be a player
in it, and what better way to spend
our money than to put it with Duke
University Eye Center who is help-
Sripal Naini makes
red wallet file jackets.
ing the people we ultimately want
to help. As long as we make money
at LCI, we will make donations to
the Eye Center because it goes
along with what LCI is all about—
doing something for people who
are visually impaired.”
Duke Department of Ophthalmology Chairman Dr. David L.
Epstein says that gifts from the
Eye Center’s partners in business
are particularly important to fulfilling the Eye Center’s mission. “We
appreciate LCI’s dedication to
improving the lives of people of
all ages who face vision loss. We
are excited to have LCI as one of
our newest partners in the battle
against eye disease, particularly
to help our youngest patients overcome challenges to their vision.”
Bill Hudson, President of LC
Industries, and Dick Hutson,
Chairman of the Board, shown here
with some of LC Industries’ products.
14
Duke Eye Center’s
Rising Star in Raleigh
Dr. Eric Postel Helps Raleigh Patients Closer to Home
I
opportunity for the Duke Eye Cenn addition to his position as
ter to provide care in the Raleigh
Assistant Professor of Ophthalcommunity and help build a commology on the Vitreoretinal Service
prehensive retina service there,”
at Duke Eye Center, Dr. Eric Postel
explains Brett Moran, MHA, assohas traveled to Raleigh for a few
ciate busiyears now to
Dr.
Jeff
Taylor
(3rd
from
right)
ness manager
provide
with team for the Duke
expert retinal
Eye Center.
care in that
Drs. Poscommunity.
tel and TayDr. Poslor see
tel works at
patients at
the Taylor
the Center
Vitreoretinal
with all types
Center, an
of retinal disaffiliate pracease from
tice of the
diabetic
Duke Eye
retinopathy and macular degeneraCenter, to help deliver comprehention to traumatic eye disease and
sive retinal care in Raleigh and
retinal detachment, among others.
serve Duke Eye Center patients
closer to home. The Taylor Vitreoretinal Center is conveniently
located near Raleigh Community
Hospital at 1212 Cedarhurst Drive,
“The clinic is fully staffed
just off of Wake Forest Road.
Taylor Vitreoretinal was
and has the capability to
founded by Dr. Jeff Taylor nearly
perform advanced treattwo years ago to treat patients with
diseases of the retina, vitreous, and
ments such as flouresein
macula. Dr. Taylor has a long-standangiography, laser treating relationship with the Duke Eye
Center and currently serves as an
ment, and Photodynamic
assistant consulting professor in the
Therapy. We can also
Department of Ophthalmology. He
screen and even enter
also performs many of his surgeries
at Duke Eye Center.
patients into some of our
“Dr. Taylor’s close affiliation
retinal disease studies.”
with the Duke Eye Center, his
expertise in retinal care, and long~ Eric Postel, MD
time professional relationship with
Dr. Postel created an outstanding
VISIoN
According
to Dr. Postel, “The
clinic is
fully staffed
and has the
capability to
perform
advanced
treatments
Dr. Eric Postel
such as
flouresein
angiography, laser treatment, and
Photodynamic Therapy. We can
also screen and even enter patients
into some of our retinal disease
studies.”
According to Duke Eye Center
Vitreoretinal Service Chief, Dr.
Brooks McCuen, II, “When the
opportunity came to work with Dr.
Taylor, whom we’ve known for
years, we looked at it as a win-win.
It allowed us to team up with him
in Raleigh and see our patients
closer to their homes.”
McCuen, also a professor of
ophthalmology and vice chairman
of the Department of Ophthalmology, adds that Dr. Postel eagerly
pursued the chance to treat more
patients and help build the Raleigh
practice.
Dr. Postel, who has held his
current position with the Duke Eye
Center since 1997, provides stateof-the-art medical and surgical
retinal care, including the surgical
treatment of retinal detachment,
proliferative vitreoretinopathy,
diabetes, trauma, and macular disorders. He is involved in numerous
areas of research, including medical
and surgical studies of age-related
macular degeneration, as well as
diabetic retinopathy and ocular
trauma.
Dr. Postel is currently the head
clinician in a major study investi-
VISIoN
15
gating the genetics and epidemiology of age-related macular degeneration at the Eye Center. With his
ongoing research participation, Dr.
Postel and others at the Taylor Vitreoretinal Center are able to screen
and enroll patients for participation
in studies involving macular degeneration and other retina diseases.
“Drs. Taylor and Postel are a
great team that truly work well
together and respect each other,”
says Moran. “There’s no doubt they
will continue to build a dynamic
practice offering advanced retina
care to a broader base of the Triangle community.”
Drs. Taylor and Postel are
focused on growing the practice
and providing care to a greater
number of patients. “We still have
the capacity to grow and accept
new patients,” explains Dr. Postel.
“It’s a major focus for us right now,
and we want to get the word out
that we’re here and available.”
When he’s not caring for
patients or conducting research,
you can find Dr. Postel behind a
lecture podium—either in the class-
New Major Gifts Officer Joins
Duke Eye Center
losophy perfectly
complement our
own needs and
fundraising
approach. Dottie,
Lori, Culver, Ashlyn, and I couldn’t
be more excited
about working with
Sterrin to help the
L-R: Sue Khorasanee, Pam Evans,
Eye Center achieve Sterrin Bird, and Renee Wallace
its soaring aspirathe short time she’s been on staff,
tions for the future.”
has already made strong inroads
When Bird’s not in the office,
into the development community.
you’ll find her settling in from her
“I’m extremely happy to be here
West Coast relocation or planning
and have been very warmly
her fall 2004 wedding to fiancé
received,” says Bird. “I know the
Scott Gooch, an Engineering Manpotential to accomplish—in fact,
ager with Greensboro-based RF
exceed—our objectives is enorMicroDevices. And, when she
mous. There is tremendous talent
really has down time, Bird enjoys a
here and a deep, deep love for Duke
number of outdoor activities. She’s
as an Institution. I am honored to be
an avid mountain-biker, tennis
a part of the Duke Eye Center.”
player, and competitive sailor. As a
For more information on how
certified skipper, one of her favorite
you can support the Duke Eye
pastimes is to sail outside the
Center, please contact the PlanGolden Gate Bridge.
ning & Development Office at
Although the chaos of relocat919.684.3182.
ing has been stressful, Bird is
pleased with her decision and, in
continued from page 11
working hard to ensure the remaining $6 million is soon secured.
In addition, she’s developing a
strategic plan for the coming year
and is planning on launching a
number of internal campaigns. The
first, a faculty fundraising campaign, closed in mid-October. Bird
plans to kick-off the Eye Center’s
employee campaign after the first
of the year. Of course, as part of her
overall responsibilities, she’ll also
oversee ongoing development of
contributions from friends and
family of the Eye Center throughout
the year.
Vice Chancellor of Medical
Center Development Steve Rum
says, “Sterrin’s presence in the Eye
Center meets a deep and long-anticipated need. We have been working
closely with Dr. Epstein and
Charles for months now to help find
a candidate to fill this mission-critical role. We believe Sterrin’s experience, skills, and fundraising phi-
room or speaking to colleagues. He
teaches fellows and residents and
regularly lectures at local, national,
and international meetings.
“Dr. Postel is simply outstanding. He’s certainly a rising star in
the field of vitreoretinal surgery,”
says McCuen.
No doubt he’s a rising star in
Raleigh too, with his continued
dedication to patient care, research,
and community service.
To schedule an appointment
with Dr. Postel, please call 919684-6611 or 1-800-422-1575.
VISIoN
16
Faculty Update
Natalie Afshari, MD, Corneal and
Refractive
Surgery Services, received
the Research to
Prevent Blindness Career
Development
Award for the
next four years to further enhance
her studies of ocular disease. In April
seven of Dr. Afshari’s research projects were presented at the annual
meeting of the Association for
Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Florida. The presentations included a 30-year study of
Fuchs corneal dystrophy. In September Dr. Afshari was invited to teach
a course on LASIK following other
corneal surgeries at the European
Society of Cataract and Refractive
Surgery (ESCRS) in Munich, Germany. Dr. Afshari was also invited to
lecture about LASIK refractive
surgery during the annual American
Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
meeting in November. While there
she spoke about academic ophthalmology as a clinical committee
member of the American Society of
Cataract and Refractive Surgery
(ASCRS) and helped teach a course
on cataract surgery. Dr. Afshari continues to be Duke’s principal investigator (PI) for the FDA phase III clinical trial of Dehydrex for the treatment of recurrent
corneal erosion.
Rand Allingham, MD, Glaucoma Service,
received the
Research to Prevent Blindness
Physician-Scientist Award to conduct
a pilot project to identify the genetic
causes of glaucoma in the U.S. Hispanic population. The project will
involve collaboration among clinical
researchers at the Duke University
Eye Center (DUEC), Duke Center
for Human Genetics, and the University of Arizona in Tucson. At the
spring meeting of ARVO, Dr. Allingham will present research that has
identified specific regions in certain
chromosomes that harbor genes that
cause primary open angle glaucoma
(POAG). New analysis methods
have revealed that these genes are
particularly important in younger
patients with glaucoma. Drs. Leon
Herndon, Pratap Challa, and
Allingham have studied glaucoma
patients in Ghana, West Africa, for
the past four years to understand
how these genes affect patients from
different parts of the world. This fall
Drs. Herndon and Allingham
returned to Ghana to establish a
research team of Ghanaian ophthalmologists, nurses, and laboratory
staff to examine glaucoma patients
and obtain DNA samples year-round.
This team will greatly accelerate the
progress of this National Eye Institute- (NEI) funded project.
Sanjay Asrani, MD, Glaucoma Service, made a
presentation of
his research at
the International
Glaucoma meeting held in
Monte Carlo and
at the ESCRS
meeting held in September in
Munich. Dr. Asrani’s work on a new
technique for glaucoma surgery was
published in the Archives of Ophthalmology this fall. He presented his
work at the annual AAO meeting in
Anaheim, CA, in November and has
been invited to present at the annual
meeting of the Ocular Surgery News
Symposium in New York as well.
He lectured this past year at the
Duke Vision Symposium in May and
the Annual Duke Glaucoma Symposium in September. Dr. Asrani continues his work on early glaucoma
diagnosis (now in children as well)
in collaboration with Drs. Sharon
Freedman and Derek Hess. Working with Professor Joseph Izatt,
Duke Biomedical Engineering, he is
currently developing a new imaging
instrument for glaucoma diagnosis.
Alan Carlson, MD, Corneal and
Refractive
Surgery Services, was
recently interviewed on the
medical television talk show
Doctor On Call,
hosted by Dr. Hugh Hennis, where
he discussed recent advances in customized LASIK surgery. His interview included a surgical procedure
guided by Wavefront technology.
The interview will air on cable television and may be previewed online
at www.dukelasik.com.
Dr. Carlson was also invited to lecture this fall to the Indianapolis
Society of Ophthalmology and to
deliver Grand Rounds presentations to the Indiana University
Department of Ophthalmology. His
topics included, “Advances in
Laser Vision Correction Surgery
and the Prevention and Treatment
VISIoN
of LASIK Complications.” In
November he addressed the AAO
in Anaheim, CA. He spoke at the
pre-AAO Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day on the “Natural History of Myopia and Hyperopia.”
While there he also instructed the
skills transfer course, teaching phacoemulsification cataract surgery.
The November issue of Review of
Refractive Surgery featured Dr.
Carlson’s new classification
scheme for LASIK flap complications including diagnostic criteria,
treatment strategies, and preventive
measures. He also served as faculty
host to Dr. Liudmiela Marchanka,
visiting from Belarus, Russia to
learn corneal and anterior segment
surgery. Dr. Carlson spoke in Mexico and Chicago and will be teaching in several local and regional
continuing medical education
meetings in the near future. He
taught his 6th consecutive excimer
laser certification course, which is
delivered annually to residents and
fellows during an eight-hour
course. He continues to serve as
the faculty liaison to the DUEC
development office. Dr. Carlson
also actively serves on the editorial
boards for Review of Refractive
Surgery and Review of Ophthalmology.
Pratap Challa, MD, Glaucoma Service, received a
five-year NEI
grant to study
the “Molecular
Basis of Pseudoexfoliation
Syndrome,” one
of the major
causes of glaucoma worldwide. The
research will investigate the genetic
basis of the disease. Dr. Challa also
presented his research findings at the
17
spring 2003 ARVO meeting in
Florida.
Laura Enyedi, MD, Pediatric Service, spoke at the
Women in Ophthalmology conference in Santa
Fe, NM. Her
presentation was
entitled “Surgical
Management of
Torsion Following Full Macular
Translocation.” Dr. Enyedi also
spoke on “Pediatric Vision Assessment and Amblyopia” at the Duke
Eye Center of Cary Continuing
Medical Education Conference in
the spring.
Sharon Fekrat, MD, Vitreoretinal
Diseases and
Surgery Service,
was promoted to
associate professor of ophthalmology. Dr.
Fekrat was also
named by her
peers to the prestigious 2003 “Best
Doctors in America” database by Best
Doctors, Inc. She was selected to
receive a 2003 Secretariat Award from
the AAO. She co-chaired the 2003
Southeastern Ophthalmology Resident
Meeting of the Minds in Durham
along with Drs. Paul Kang and
Sherman Reeves. The meeting was
held in conjunction with the North
Carolina Society of Eye Physicians
and Surgeons (NCSEPS) and the
North Carolina Medical Society
(NCMS). Dr. Fekrat led the “Retinal
Vein Occlusion” table discussion at the
Breakfast with the Masters Symposium at the American Society of Retina
Specialists meeting in New York City.
She also co-chaired the Young Physicians’ Section of the meeting. She was
nominated to serve on the Clinical
Research Council for Duke University
Medical Center. She is also a scientific
reviewer for the American Journal of
Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, Retina, Ophthalmology, and
Investigative Ophthalmology and
Visual Science. She proctored the oral
board examination in Boston for the
American Board of Ophthalmology.
And she recently spoke to ophthalmologists about retinal vein occlusion at
the combined annual meetings of the
South Carolina Ophthalmological
Society and the NCSEPS, for which
she currently serves as vice president.
Dr. Fekrat is the PI at Duke for VisionCare Ophthalmic Technology’s
prospective multi-center clinical trial
of the “Implantable Miniature Telescope in Patients with Central Vision
Impairment due to AMD,” as well as
Genentech’s Phase III multi-center,
randomized and double-masked active
treatment-controlled study of the “Efficacy and Safety of rhuFab V2 Compared with Visudyne Photodynamic
Therapy in Subjects with Predominantly
Classic CNV due to AMD.”
Sharon Freedman, MD, Pediatric Ophthalmology Service,
was recently
promoted to
associate professor of ophthalmology with tenure. She served as
senior author for two manuscripts
that have recently been accepted for
publication in the American Journal
of Ophthalmology. The first paper,
involving the results of muscle
surgery for patients who have tilted
vision after macular translocation
surgery, is entitled “Management of
Ocular Torsion and Diplopia after
Macular Translocation for AgeContinued on next page
VISIoN
18
Faculty Update
continued from page 17
Related Macular Degeneration:
Prospective Clinical Study.” Sandra
Holgado, CO, and Drs. Laura
Enyedi and Cynthia Toth coauthored the paper. The second
paper co-authored by medical student Aerlyn Dawn and Drs. Laura
Enyedi and Paul Lee is entitled
“Parents’ Expectations Regarding
their Children’s Eye Care: Interview
Results.” Dr. Freedman continues on
the editorial board of the Journal of
American Association For Pediatric
Ophthalmology and Strabismus and
on the scientific advisory board of
the Pediatric Glaucoma and Cataract
Family Association. Dr. Freedman
continues as PI of the Duke-UNC
site for the multi-center NIH-sponsored “Early Treatment for
Retinopathy of Prematurity Study.”
She also continues to evaluate the
effects of glaucoma medications and
surgical treatments for children with
glaucoma. She works with Drs.
Cynthia Toth and Laura Enyedi
to improve the visual outcomes of
patients with macular degeneration
after macular translocation surgery.
Leon Herndon, MD, Glaucoma
Service, was
promoted to
associate professor of ophthalmology. He was
selected by his
peers to join the
AAO’s Ophthalmic Knowledge Base Panel for
Glaucoma. The purpose of the panel
is to develop a program to identify
and define areas of knowledge
important to the delivery of quality
eye care and to shape the examinations for the certification mainte-
nance process for ophthalmologists
in the U.S. Dr. Herndon was also
selected by his peers to serve on the
Strategic Planning Committee of the
American Glaucoma Society. Currently, he serves on the editorial
boards of the print journal Glaucoma Management News and the ejournal Glaucoma Today. Dr. Herndon has been invited to the Royal
Hawaiian Eye Meeting in Kauai, HI,
to deliver a glaucoma lecture in January 2004. In addition, Dr. Herndon
was course director of the recent 15th
Annual Duke Glaucoma Symposium. He was awarded a three-year
unrestricted educational grant from
Allergan, Inc. to continue his
research efforts in the area of “Resident Teaching and Community
Glaucoma Education.” He is first
author of a paper in Archives of
Ophthalmology, which is the first
paper to assess the effect of corneal
thickness on severity of glaucoma
damage.
Glenn Jaffe, M.D., Vitreoretinal
Diseases and
Surgery Service,
participated as
guest speaker at
the Sally Letson
Symposium on
“Ocular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Drug Delivery—From
Bench to Bedside” in Ottawa,
Ontario. The meeting, first held in
1967, attracts more than 500 attendees from all over the U.S. and
Canada. Dr. Jaffe delivered four different presentations on a variety of
topics related to intraocular drug
delivery and pharmacology. Dr.
Jaffe was the guest speaker at the
Florida Society of Ophthalmology
in Sarasota, Florida where he deliv-
ered a presentation entitled “Intraocular Drug Delivery for Ocular Disease.” He was invited to serve as
course faculty at the Pre-Academy
of Ophthalmology Subspecialty
Retina Meeting and Uveitis Meeting. These meetings provided practicing ophthalmologists with stateof-the-art information on diagnosis
and treatment of retinal diseases and
uveitis. The retina subspecialty
meeting was the world’s largest,
attended by participants from
around the globe. The uveitis subspecialty meeting was an inaugural
event. Course faculty were leading
national and international uveitis
experts. In addition, Dr. Jaffe presented at the AAO meeting this fall,
where he also helped teach a course
entitled “New and Emerging Techniques in the Management of Diabetic Macular Edema.” Dr. Jaffe
published an article entitled “American Journal of Ophthalmology Perspective: Optical Coherence Tomography to Detect and Manage Retinal
Disease and Glaucoma” in the
American Journal of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Jaffe also spoke at the Retina
Society meeting in Chicago, IL. His
presentation entitled “Fluocinolone
Acetonide Intravitreal Implant in
Patients with Uveitis Affecting the
Posterior Segment of the Eye: 34
Week Results of a Randomized,
Masked, Multi-center Clinical
Trial,” described preliminary results
of a large, multi-center randomized
clinical trial of the fluocinolone acetonide sustained drug delivery
implant to treat patients with severe
uveitis. This trial was based on preclinical research conducted by Dr.
Jaffe at DUEC in collaboration with
Control Delivery Systems Corporation as well as on a pilot clinical
study also conducted by Dr. Jaffe at
VISIoN
Duke. This landmark trial represented the first multi-center study to
test a non-biodegradable implant that
releases the drug fluocinolone (a
steroid medication) to treat patients
with severe ocular inflammation. Dr.
Jaffe was lead investigator for the
study, which included investigators
at 27 different clinical sites in the
U.S. and Asia.
Terry Kim, MD, associate professor
of ophthalmology, Corneal and
Refractive
Surgery Services,
was recently
named by his
peers to the prestigious 2003
“Best Doctors in America” database
by Best Doctors, Inc. He was invited
to lecture at the annual Virginia Society of Ophthalmology meeting as
well as the South Carolina Society of
Ophthalmology/ NCSEPS annual fall
meeting. At both meetings, he lectured on the management of complicated cataract cases and LASIK
infections, as well as on new cataract
surgery techniques. Dr. Kim also
served as Visiting Professor for
Grand Rounds at SUNY Brooklyn in
September, the Storm Eye Institute of
the Medical University of South Carolina in October, and the Mayo Clinic
of Jacksonville, Florida in December.
At the AAO meeting in November,
he participated on a course on LASIK
complications along with Drs. Ralph
Chu, Eric Donnenfeld, Kerry
Solomon, John Doane, and Ming
Wang. He was also recently invited
to join the prestigious Apex Corneal
Society, a select society of leading
cornea and refractive surgery specialists from around the country. With
this induction, he presented a paper at
the annual Apex dinner meeting
19
while at AAO. Dr. Kim continues his
collaborations in the field of novel
biodendrimer adhesives with Dr.
Mark Grinstaff who has now
accepted a promotion to associate
professor in the Department of
Chemistry at Boston University. Dr.
Kim is also implanting a new intraocular telescope device in patients with
age-related macular degeneration as
part of a clinical trial being led by Dr.
Sharon Fekrat of the Eye Center’s
Vitreoretinal Service.
tics to analyze the molecular details
of ocular function. Dr. Michon presented his research in computational
medicine at a Molecular Cardiology
Rounds of the Duke Department of
Medicine. Earlier this year, he gave
an update on medical and surgical
management of thyroid eye disease
at the Duke Vision Symposium.
Most recently, he was a guest lecturer in the Duke Department of
Pathology on the subject of “Bioinformatics in Pathology.”
Paul Lee, MD, JD, Glaucoma Service, presented
at the American
Glaucoma Society meeting on
“Patterns of
Glaucoma Care
Among Glaucoma Specialists
and Using Case Reports in Clinical
Care.” He also made a presentation
to ARVO in the spring on longitudinal patterns of eye care for chronic
disease. In addition, he worked with
medical student Aerlyn Dawn on
patient expectations for eye care. Dr.
Lee was awarded an RO-1 grant to
help improve diabetes eye care. He
also participated and presented at the
World Health Organization meeting
on “Global Opportunities to Prevent
Blindness” in Geneva.
Terry Semchyshyn, MD, Corneal
and Refractive
Surgery Services, lectured
on “Innovations
in Corneal
Transplantation
and LASEK” at
the Mckinley
Medical Conference in WinstonSalem. He also co-authored the
chapter on full thickness and lamellar corneal transplantation in the
Duane’s Ophthalmology textbook
along with Drs. Terry Kim and
Scott Blackmon. Dr. Semchyshyn
assisted Drs. Diane Miele and
Natalie Afshari in preparing a
poster for the spring 2003 ARVO
meeting in Florida. The poster
examined the use of corneal glue to
treat perforating conditions of the
cornea.
John Michon, MD, MS, Oculoplastic Service, was
awarded a prestigious K08 clinician-scientist
grant from the
NEI entitled “In
silico analysis of
ocular genes,
proteins and networks.” It will be
used to continue his research using
computers, mathematics, and statis-
Cynthia Toth, MD, Vitreoretinal
Diseases and
Surgery Service,
along with the
DUEC Biophysics Laboratory, directed
two Duke
Biomedical
Continued on page 30
VISIoN
20
Gifts for Sight
. . . given by those who support the Duke University Eye Center’s Mission
of vision research, treatment, and education.
Anderson Society
Named in honor of Banks Anderson, Sr., MD, the first ophthalmologist at Duke, this
society consists of donors whose cumulative giving has totaled $100,000 or more.
Adler Foundation
Ruth and Herman Albert
Alcon
Andrew Family Foundation
Euan and Angelica Baird
Richard and Kit Barkhouser
Mr. & Mrs. Alban K. Barrus, Jr.
Brown Foundation, Inc.
Kathleen and Joseph Bryan
James and Louise D. Calvin
Mr. and Mrs. John De Carlo, Esq.
Faculty of Duke University
Eye Center
Foundation Fighting Blindness
Carolyn and Bill Franck
Mrs. Martha Franck
Evelyn Gentry
Dr. and Mrs. James P. Gills Jr.
Estate of Polly Hanson
Margaret Milliken Hatch
Charitable Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Herring
Mr. and Mrs. James M. Hornaday
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
David and Susan Kahn
Eva M. and Laurance D.
Kirkland, Jr.
Kresge Foundation
Milton and Roslyn Lachman
Bea Lee
Morton and Bernice Lerner
Estate of George Levi, MD
Evelyn Hunter-Longdon
Robert Machemer, MD
Dr. and Mrs. Philip McKinley
Mebane Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. G. Allen Mebane
Nordling Family Foundation
North Carolina Lions Foundation
Emily Norwick
Noel and Evangeline Ravneberg
Estate of Jessie Rountree
Donald and Mary Hart Orr
Reach for Sight
Research to Prevent Blindness
Kate B. Reynolds Health Care
Trust
Winfield Reynolds
Romill Foundation
Helena Rubinstein Foundation
Dr. and Mrs. Kurt Sachs
M. Bruce Shields, MD
Dr. and Mrs. Robert M. Sinskey
Storz Instruments
Stanley and Doris Tanger
Edward and Louaine Taylor
Mr. and Mrs. Roy V. Titus
Unifi, Inc.
Dr. and Mrs. Harris Vernick
Mr. and Mrs. William H.
Wannamaker
Fulton Wong, PhD
Learn How You Can Support The Duke Eye Center
Contact Renee Wallace in the Office of Planning & Development, Duke University Eye Center
DUMC Box 3802, Durham, NC 27710 • (919) 684-3182 or 1-800-422-1575
As a philanthropic supporter, you are important to us at the Duke University Eye Center. The development staff
desires to continue assisting you during your visits to ensure your experience is optimal. On April 14, 2003, the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) went into effect. By law, we can no longer assess your health records
or scheduled appointments. If you wish to continue meeting with us during future visits, or if we can assist you in any way,
please contact us at 919-684-3182 or email us at [email protected].
VISIoN
21
Advisory Board members observe the progress of the Albert Eye
Research Institute construction at Duke Eye Center.
BEACON CLUB
Benefactors—$1,000 and above
Dr. Natalie Afshari
Drs. Rand Allingham and Anna Stout
Dr. and Mrs. W. Banks Anderson, Jr.
Dr. Andrew and Karen Antoszyk
Dr. Charles Baltimore
Norma Barringer
Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Bartley
Mrs. Helen Bengtson
Dr. William and Linda Benson
Dr. and Mrs. David P. Berry
Mr. and Mrs. Ray D. Berry
Nora Sterrin Bird
Marvin K. Blount, Jr.
M. L. and Rebecca Borum
Peggy A. Bridges
Dr. and Mrs. Edward Buckley
Dr. and Mrs. Helmut Buettner
Sarah S. Butler
Dr. Alan Carlson
Mr. Everett A. Carr
Dr. Richard P. Carroll
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Chadwick, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Pratap Challa
Dr. Jonathan Christenbury
Coy and Clara Clayton
John H. Clements
Gloria Cohan
Thomas Patrick and
Susan Carta Connors
Mrs. Amy Costner
Danville Lions Foundation
Drs. K. Alexander Dastgheib and
Bita A. Bagheri-Dastgheib
Dr. and Mrs. Eugene de Juan, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Kinsley van R. Dey
Ms. Edith Dickstein
Mr. and Mrs. B. Lewis Dozier
Elizabeth Dube
Dr. Alex Eaton
Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Eberly
Dr. Martin Ehrenberg
Dr. Laura and Mark Enyedi
Dr. David and Susan Epstein
Mr. and Mrs. Michael E. Fields
Drs. David and Paula Fischer
Philip and Sally Foster
Drs. Neil and Sharon Freedman
Dr. and Mrs. Michael H. Fronstin
Charles and Nancy Gaddy
Dr. Karen Gehrs
Mrs. Marie R. Gilbert
Mr. and Mrs. Gordon K. Gold
Dr. Pedro Gonzalez
Mrs. George C. Griffin, Jr.
Lucy Grier
Mrs. Vernon Grizzard
Mr. and Mrs. Herb Halbrecht
Dr. Cynthia A. Hampton
Mr. and Mrs. George P. Harris
John and Alice Haynes
Drs. Leon Herndon and Yolanda Scarlett
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hines
Dr. William M. Hull, Jr.
Dr. Edward K. Isbey, Jr.
Dr. Edward K. Isbey, III
Drs. Glenn J. Jaffe and Linda Van Le
Herbert L. Jay
Dr. Darrell Jervey
Dr. John R. Karickhoff
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Kent
Delmar and Helen Kentner
Drs. Terry and Ellie Kim
Dr. Stuart and Mary Banks Knechtle
Michael Krzyzewski
Mr. and Mrs. Don Lacefield
Mr. Gary Scott Lachman
Dr. Michael and Jennifer Lambert
Dr. Paul P. Lee
Dr. and Mrs. W. Hampton Lefler
Mrs. Shelli Lieberman
Mrs. Julie B. Logan
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Major
Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Mansfield
Dr. and Mrs. John B. McBeath
Dr. and Mrs. Brooks W. McCuen, II
Dr. and Mrs. Dean McCumber
Ms. Mary T. McGrath
Mr. T. Bragg McLeod
Mrs. Margaret Finney McPherson
Melvin & Selma Maisel
Family Foundation
Middle Creek Charitable Trust
Dr. and Mrs. James Murray Mitchell
Ms. Linda C. Mobley
Mr. Brett W. Moran
Edward W. Pou Moran
Mrs. Ruth W. Morrow
NY Foundation for Otologic Research
New World Medical, Inc.
Dr. Emanuel and Tina Newmark
Dr. Roger Novack
Dr. Patricia O’Connor
Mrs. Ruth E. Peck
Mrs. Dorothy W. Pemberton
Mr. Walter Scott Persons, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Leland R. Phelps
Mr. and Mrs. Sam L. Phillips, Jr.
Van and Sherry Phillips
Drs. Stephen and Laurie Pollock
Mr. and Mrs. Bob R. Pressley
Dr. Eric Postel and Lacey Chylack
Ms. Christina Powell
Dr. Mary E. Price
Mr. and Mrs. Ted Quantz
Dr. Norman Radtke
Mr. John R. Ragsdale, III
Dr. and Mrs. Vasantha P. Rao
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rendleman
Dr. and Mrs. Don Richman
Mr. Barney L. Rickenbacker
Drs. Dennis and Catherine
Bowes-Rickman
Mrs. Mozette Rollins
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Scarborough
Dr. and Mrs. Alan Scheer
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Scherich
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Sellers
Dr. and Mrs. Harold Shaw, Jr.
Dr. Jeffrey Singer
Dr. Mitchell Singleton
Ms. Maureen T. Smith
Ms. Beverly Sommer
Mr. John D. Stage
Dr. and Mrs. Herbert C. Stecker
Dr. Sandra Stinnett
Mrs. George T. Stronach
Dr. Gentaro Sugita
Paul and Mary Szabady
Mr. and Mrs. James T. Tanner
Drs. Cynthia Toth and David Katz
Dr. Robin Vann and Ann Winter Vann
Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Walker
Torin and Terri Walters
Bob and Janie Ward
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Weiler
Dr. Thomas Whitaker
Kirk H. Williams
Dr. Julie Woodward and Gary B. Gross
Bob and Betty Wooten
Mr. and Mrs. Homer Wright, Jr.
Charles E. Zeigler, Sr.
Mrs. Virginia H. Zeigler
Carol J. Ziel, MD and
Donald T. Kautz, PhD
Dr. John David Zilis
Patrons—$500
Dr. Thomas Aaberg
Mr. and Mrs. John Adams
Dr. and Mrs. Edward M. Arnett
Delores C. Atkins
Edward J. Bayone and
Lillian Kahn-Bayone
Mr. Adam W. Beck
Mr. and Mrs. Murray Bonder
Mrs. Anna Lou Cassell
Dr. and Mrs. Dale W. Caughey, Jr.
Dr. Helen Chandler
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Covington
Dr. Ashvani Bawa Dass and
Sunita Baruah Dass
Mr. Edwin Friedberg
Mr. Gay E. Goodwin
Dr. Frank T. Hannah
Ms. Olivia L. Hardin
Mr. and Mrs. W. Casper Holroyd, Jr.
Dr. Marjorie F. Jones
Mr. and Mrs. John I. Killian
Dr. Richard P. Kratz
Dr. Eun-Koo Lee
Dr. Joseph LoCascio, III
Dr. and Mrs. Julian Mason
Prof. Richard C. Maxwell
Dr. Pauline Merrill
Mr. James M. Montgomery
Mr. and Mrs. William Morrisette, Jr.
Ms. Mary T. Murray
Mr. Brendan J. O’Connell
Miss Nell Owings
Ms. Sarah Jane Oxendine
Pearl Vision Foundation
Priscilla B. Rogers
Carl Rowan, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Timothy D. Rowe
Dr. Andrew and Erica Sorenson
Culver Stapleton Scales
Mr. and Mrs. Dillard Teer
Dr. Cheryl Toth
Mr. George M. Trout
Mr. and Mrs. J. Lee Tyler
Mrs. Anna T. Webb
Mrs. Marlin M. Winn
Dr. and Mrs. Keye Wong
Wren Foundation
Mr. Robert Zucker
Sponsors—$100
Mel and Leigh Adam
Dr. Sameer Ahmad and Mrs. Faiza Alvi
Mrs. Cathie J. Alexander
Edith Aliberti
Dr. Bryan Allf
Mrs. Grace Anderson
Emily T. Anderson
Mr. and Mrs. W. Holt Anderson, II
Dr. Sanjay Asrani
Mr. and Mrs. Von Autry, Jr.
Frank H. Avent
Dr. and Mrs. Carl Awh
Dr. Steven Awner
Ricki and Jerri Baer
Neil H. and Shirley Bain
Dr. Bruce J. Ballon
Mrs. Barbara S. Bangser
Paul A. Barth
James R. Bartlett
John F. Barto
Mrs. Jacqueline D. Baxley
Dr. Tom Beardsley
Mr. I. Croom Beatty, IV
Mr. and Mrs. Koyeton H. Beavers, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence M. Bell
Ginger and Les Bethune
Mr. B. B. Bhattacharyya
Ms. Janis G. Bibee
Howard and Gaynelle Bigelow
Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Blizzard
Mr. C. Andrew Boor
Dr. John E. Bourgeois
Ms. Linda G. Brantner
Mr. and Mrs. Wiley T. Brooks
Dr. Thomas Brosnan
Dr. and Mrs. David J. Browning
Mr. David C. Bryan
Mr. and Mrs. William S. Buckley
Drs. Lawrence Buono and
Christine Speer
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Burgett
Mr. and Mrs. Harris B. Byrd
Ms. India Cain
Ms. Jean D. Caldwell
Mrs. Elaine D. Caraher
Linda and John Carden
Carolina Vision Consultants
Dr. William H. Cartwright
Mildred G. Cash Trust
Mr. George H. Chadwick, III
Harry and Shirley Chadwick
Elizabeth W. Channel
Dr. David Chesnutt
Carol B. Cheves
Mrs. Dolores M. Chittum
Continued on next page
VISIoN
22
Sponsors
continued from page 21
Annette Clark
Donnie Clark
Tyson and Gerri Clayton
Mr. W. N. Clement, Jr.
Ms. Elinor Clinton
Mr. Herman V. Coates
Roy M. Cole
Coman Publishing Company, Inc.
Mrs. Barbara M. Conley
Robert Conroy
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Cook, Jr.
Dennis H. Cooke, Jr.
J. C. Cooper, Jr.
James W. Corbett
Cornelius Lake Norman Lions Club
Joseph and Constance Costigan
James R. Coyle
Dr. J. Burns Creighton
David and Judy Crow
David S. Crow
Charles R. Daul
Ms. Julia G. Davidson
Mr. and Mrs. C.G. Dederick
Dr. Nancy M. DePalma
Dr. Don Arthur Dephouse
Daniel and Lydia Desmond
Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Diefenderfer
Kirk and Tamara Dittmar
Mrs. Maxine M. Dod
Ms. Mary L. Douglas
Mr. James Dowdall
Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Duff
Sadik T. Duda
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Durham
Mrs. Marjorie W. Dworak
Mr. and Mrs. Crawford M. Eakle
Marian Edwards
Dr. and Mrs. Robert N. Ellington
Mrs. Camille D. Epps
Sybil H. Erickson
David J. and Ellen Esses
Ms. Michelle M. Evans
Mr. and Mrs. Jack R. Farmer
John D. Farrington
Dr. and Mrs. Darwin J. Ferry, Jr.
Drs. Michael D. Fetters and
Sayoko E. Moroi
Mrs. Lucinda B. Findley
Dr. Robert M. Fineman
Mrs. Selma Fink
Betty Finkner
Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Fischer
Mrs. Mary Ancil Fisher
W. Hayes Foster
Ms. Rosalind Freedman
Catherine L. Fruit
Ms. Nita Fulbright
Dr. William Keith Funkhouser
Dan and Dora Gaba
Rodney Garner
Mrs. Gayle K. Garrison
Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Gaudreau
Willis T. Gehrke
Glenn T. Giles
Mr. Nicholas C. Gilles
Mr. and Mrs. Willis B. Glover
Mr. Denton M. Goodwin
Mrs. Lottie J. Gotcher
Otto Gotzsche
Helene Grazioso
Lois Gregory
Anne T. Griffith
Pickett M. Guthrie
Paul F. Haggerty
Dr. Moosa Hajisheikh
Mr. John H. Hall
Mr. and Mrs. James W. Hamilton
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hammett
Dr. Kattayoon Hashemi
Dr. Deborah Hatton
Charles S. Hazlett
Mrs. Thomas R. Hedges
Mr. and Mrs. Will Heiser
Dr. Warren Henderson
Mr. Nick Hernandez
Eric P. Herreid
Charles S. Hester
Mr. and Mrs. Dyson W. Hickingbotham
Mr. William D. Hicks
Dr. Tetsuo Hida
Mr. Robert E. Hill
Dr. Akito Hirakata
Dr. Peter M. Holland
William J. Holub, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Casper Holroyd, Jr.
Ms. Elizabeth Berry Horner
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Howard
Mr. and Mrs. James. E. Hopper
Dr. Herbert W. House
Ms. Linda S. Howard
Mr. William F. Hughes
Ms. Judy Hunt
Henry G. Hutaff
Ms. Susan M. Inagaki
Dr. Pedro J. Irigaray
Dr. Reginald Ishman
Dr. Arthur Jampolsky
Mr. Samuel W. Johnson
Mrs. Velma H. Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Johnston
Ms. Janie P. Jones
Mrs. Ruth B. Jones
Thomas W. Jones
Mr. Gene A. Joyner
Mr. Robert E. Kalina
Mrs. Mary L. Kearns
Ms. Betsy Keller
Mr. Herschel Bernie Kenney
Dr. and Mrs. Donald Kernodle
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kiefer
Dr. Charles E. King
Ms. Barbara J. Kislak
Dr. Emily M. Klein
Ms. Rachael P. Klein
Dr. Sidney and Dorothea Kohle
Kohler Enterprises Real Estate
Mr. Jimmy Kornegay
Mr. Sanford L. Korschun
Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Kosiba
Ms. Olga Kronmeyer
Dr. Cooper Kunkel
Mrs. Eleanor C. Lamarche
T. Alexi Ryan LaMazza
Debra LaRaia
Ms. Nelda Lay
Dr. Grace Lecara
Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Leonard
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lerner
Susan and Irwin Levy
Thomas and Mary Loftus
Mr. and Mrs. Brad M. Lohsen
Mr. Harold Lone
Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Looper
Dr. Robert F. Lorenzen
Ingrid and Gerry Low
Dr. Miguel Lugo
Mrs. Edith Lumpkin
M & J Foundation
Ms. Mazie S. Mangum
Mr. Richard C. Mansfield
Gerardo Maradiaga, MD
Nicholas Maroudas
Jon and Katherine Mauney
Drs. Pit Gills, Lawrence Buono, and Derek Hess at the spring 2003
alumni dinner at the Epstein farm.
Ms. Ruth Maxine McCall
Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. McCallum
Dr. Stuart McCracken and
Ms. Kathryn Ann Vokaty
Mr. William H. McCullough
Mrs. Barbara G. McDonald
Ms. Jan H. McGrath
Nell S. McIver
Mr. Robert McLaughlin
Mrs. Lisa McNeill
Dr. Bettina Meekins and Charles D.
Meekins
Dr. John Michon
Mrs. Marilyn T. Miller
Major and Mrs. Alan R. Miller
Mrs. Joe Morgan, Sr.
Mrs. Mary Lide Morris
Mrs. Nida D. Moseley
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Muncaster
Tom and Sara Munden
Dr. Frank Murchison
Mrs. Betty J. Murrell
Ms. Adele K. Nakdimen
Dr. Junji Nakatake
Mr. Gary Nance
Mr. William Nantz
Dr. and Mrs. Blaine S. Nashold, Jr.
Mr. John W. Naylor
Dr. Sigrid Nelius
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas V. Newlin
Ms. Doris Nichols
Mr. and Mrs. F. Guerrant Norman
Ms. Deborah L. Nowachek
Mrs. Irma B. Oliver
Dr. Karl R. Olsen
Mr. and Mrs. William S. Page, Sr.
Mr. S.Z. Painter
Byron L. and Dolores E.B. Parry
Mrs. Evelyn H. Pate
Mrs. Ruth Paul
Dr. and Mrs. Michael J. Paxhia
Ms. Florence W. Pearce
Ms. Norma Pellettier
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Pennington
Mr. and Mrs. Wade H. Penny, Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. D. Howard Phillips
Mr. J.N. Piazza
Mr. and Mrs. Ashmead P. Pipkin
Mr. and Mrs. John J. Piva, Jr.
Ms. Frances F. Pohlenz
Mr. and Mrs. L. Norris Post
Mr. Ian Potter
Elaine Woods Powell
Mrs. Helen Pratt
Mr. and Mrs. John R. Preston
Ms. Nan W. Price
Mr. and Mrs. Eldred E. Prince
Miss Helen G. Quigless
Dr. Alician V. Quinlan
Mr. Donald Ramage
Dr. William B. Rafferty
Miss Frances J. Ratcliff
Nelson K. Reid
Mr. and Mrs. Winfield Reynolds
Dr. Lawrence Richardson, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. James B. Richmond
Mr. Timothy Rich
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Richter
Mr. and Mrs. Irving Rimer
Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Rinehart
Mr. C. A. Robbins
Mr. W. R. Roberson, Jr.
Mr. Alfonso E. Soler Roca
Mr. Walter L. Rogers
Dr. Robert Rosenstein
Dr. George O.D. Rosenwasser
Drs. Michael and Heidi Rotberg
Mrs. Mary A. Routledge
John and Betty Row
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Ruegg
Dr. Samuel Santander
Mrs. Dawn A. Santoianni
Mrs. Alta T. Schambach
Ms. Maxine B. Schank
Mr. Anton F. Schreiner
Dr. Angela Scott
Mr. Thomas B. Scott
Dr. Judy Seaber
Mr. and Mrs. Welton O. Seal, Jr.
Herald and Peggy Siegler
Katherine W. Shaw
Ms. Anne F. Shearer
John and Flora Shedd
Dr. M. Bruce Shields
Don Shin
Walter Shivers
Dr. Robert Shorter
Mr. Ralph O. Shropshire
Ms. Susan Sikora
Ms. Deborah Sue Simpkins
Margaret Sims
Mr. and Mrs. D. J. Smith, Jr.
Mrs. Ellen M. Smith
Mrs. Lisa P. Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Granville Smith
Mr. and Mrs. J. Donald Sparks
Mrs. Brooks Speight
Mrs. Pamela T. Spellman
Dr. William H. Spencer
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Stancik
Mr. and Mrs. Maurice C. Stephens
Mr. Thomas W. Stephenson
VISIoN
Dr. Sara Ellen Stoneburner and
Mr. H. Gregg Strader
Mr. Robert J. Sukenik
Prof. Bruce A. Sullenger
Dr. Myrtle Thompson Swain
Dr. Ingeborg Talton
Dr. and Mrs. William S. Tasman
Mrs. Jerry D. Taylor
Mr. J.B. Temple
Mr. P. Winfield Thomson
Mr. William S. Thornton
Mrs. Ben W. Tillett
Mr. and Mrs. P. G. Tilley
Marjorie and Bob Tomlinson
Mr. J.O. Toms
Mr. Robert B. Toth
David Treshuk
Mrs. Marcella C. Triolo
Mr. George M. Trout
Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Turlington
Mr. and Mrs. Horace Turner
Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Tyson
Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Ujevich
Mr. Edward C. Van Buskirk
Mr. Dexter Vaughan
Don and Carolyn Vaughan
Dr. Thomas Verdin, III
Mrs. Sulou J. Wagstaff
Thurman Walker
Renee W. Wallace
James and Mildred Waller
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Walton
Ms. Marjorie F. Warden
Yolanda Warren
Mr. Harry Weingarten
Mr. and Mrs. J. Edmund Welch
Mr. Charles Whilden
Ms. Ruth T. White
Dr. and Mrs. William White, II
Dr. Robert Wiggins
Mr. and Mrs. Roland R. Wilkins
William Mangum Fine Art
Mr. Eddie Williams
Dr. George P. Williams, Jr.
Gordon D. Williams
Mr. Charles J. Williford
Ms. Helen W. Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Wilson
Mrs. Judy Wilson
Dr and Mrs. Robert S. Wilson
Mrs. Jane T. Wohlford
Mrs. Thelma G. Wolslagel
Ms. Judith I. Woodburn
Margaret C. Worth
Ms. Virginia L. Wu
Mrs. Jean E. Yancey
Mrs. Phyllis B. Yeasel
Dr. Brian R. Younge
Mr. Mark W. Zack
Mrs. Shirley Ziegelbein
GIFTS IN MEMORY OF
Charles Nicholas Chesnutt
David Chesnutt, M.D.
George C. Griffin, Jr. Memorial Gifts
Mr. and Mrs. W. N. Averette
Merle B. Baker
Mr. and Mrs. Russ Batchelor
Boyd Agency, Inc.
John and Jacqueline Boykin
Linwood T. Brown
Patricia A. Brown
Lee and Danette Carter
James and Peggy Cherry
Shelton and Lela Chesson
Lessie M. Choplin
Dr. L. Sidney and Betty Christian
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Coltrain, Jr.
23
Joe and Kathryn S. Coltrain
Sue H. Cowan
Lucille G. Cowen
Douglas and Kay Damren
Anne Davenport
Rankin and Susie Dowdy
W. Joey and Susan Dunlow
Mrs. R. S. Edmondson, Jr.
Mr. R. Sutton Edmondson, III
Wayland and Lois Elks
Mr. and Mrs. John L. Goff
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Goff
James and Kathy Griffin
Jerry and Kristy Griffin
J. T. and Margaret Griffin
Mamie Clyde Griffin
W. Fred & Barbara Griffin
Will and Renee Griffin
Rickie-Reba Grimes
Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hardison
Mrs. Fred Hardison
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Hardison, Jr.
Gladys Gray Harrison
Gregory and Teresa Harrison
George and Marlene James
Betty Lou Jones
J. Carroll and Gail B. Jones
Marvin Henry Leggett, Jr.
Benny and Polly Lilley
Jenette P. Low
Mary Lane (Davis) and Revill Mallory
Josephine H. Manning
Rachael E. Manning
Manning and Hardison Farms, Inc.
Molly B. Manning
Dr. and Mrs. David T. Marshburn
Miller’s Sports & Trophies
Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Miller, III
Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Miller
Robert and Vinnie Mills
Ms. Betty H. Mobley
Barbara Jean Morris
Diane and Phil Page
Bruce and Trula Peele
The Harry M. Peel, Sr. Family
James T. Perry
Nelson and Elizabeth Prince
Reddick Fumigants, Inc.
Carlotta P. Robinson
Harold Robinson, Jr.
Whit Ross
Christine H. Scurletis
Nancy C. Sexton
Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Skinner
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor Slade
Brenda and Danny Strong
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Thigpen
Mr. and Mrs. Roger Thrift
Ms. Ruby Thrower
Dolly G. Vopelak
J. Herbert and Cinda Ward
Brenda and Donnie White
Dalton A. Williams
Eugene Famulare
Eugene J. and Margaret M. Famulare
Catherine Smith
Margaret Jenkins Hunter Hoffman
Evelyn Hunter-Longdon
Michael and Teresa Malawski
Walter and Stephanie Emery
Margaret Murray
David and Helen Murray
Daniel Smith
Ms. Ellen Nisselson
Catherine Smith
Lillian Smith
Catherine Smith
Lucille Southern
Frank and Pat Strickland
Dr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Mills, Jr.
Isabel W. Mills
Barbara Stage
Ms. Marilyn Janulet Brody
John D. Stage
Erika Terry
Sandra C. and Patrick Altham
Van Wyck Hoke Webb
Mrs. Anna T. Webb
GIFTS IN HONOR OF
Ruth Albert
Michael and Linda Fields
Rand Allingham, M.D.
Dorothy W. Pemberton
Lloyd E. Neff
Sanjay Asrani, M.D.
John H. Clements
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Blocker’s 63rd
Anniversary
Amy Rubenstein
Edward Buckley, M.D.
Linda Mobley
Alan Carlson, M.D.
Bob and Patsy Pressley
Geneva and Jessica Crawley
Kirk H. Williams
Sharon Fekrat, M.D.
Edmund C. and Jean L. Glover
Sally Foster
Rev. and Mrs. David A. Fort
Eleanor J. Grice
Ruth D. Nobles
Terry Kim, M.D.
Elaine W. Powell
Gordon Klintworth, MD, Ph.D.
Natalie Afshari, M.D.
Milton and Roslyn Lachman’s
Anniversary
Anna Lou Cassell
Dr. Dennis Rickman
Lloyd E. Neff
DONORS (4/4/03 – 9/30/03)
Assn For Res. in Vision &
Ophthalmology
Boston Scientific Corporation
Ann Barlow
Mr. and Mrs. John B. Beasley
Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Benson
Mr. and Mrs. Richard B. Boyd, Jr.
Estate of Henry B. Burroughs, Sr.
Virginia Cissel Irrevocable Trust
Davidson Lions Club
Mr. Charles M. DeSantis
The Duke Endowment
Ms. Lois Duncan
Eden Lions Club
Mr. Lawrence Edgerton
Shirley Efroymson-Kahn
Ms. Jenny Elder
Dr. Sharon Fekrat
Mr. and Mrs. Herman B. Goldstein
Mr. Lewis C. Green
Ms. Becky Grisdale
Mr. Joseph A. Hardie, Jr.
Ms. Latina Hawley
Ms. Cassandra Headen
Mr. William R. Hiatt
Ms. Sandra Holgado
Ms. Demita Hopkins
Jackson Kelly PLLC
L C Industries
Mrs. Bette N. Laursen
Sean and Alison Lew
Mr. Michael C. Lewis
Lions Clubs International
Mr. and Mrs. Claude H. Long
Mr. and Mrs. William Luk
Dr. Mathew W. MacCumber and
Judith Weinstein
Marco Island Rotary Club
Mr. and Mrs. William N. Michaels
Dr. Michael M. Morton
Ms. Lacey Mtumura
Ms. Doris Nichols
Mr. Charles C. Pastore
Pfizer Inc.
Dr. Richard L. Pietsch
Raleigh Lions Welfare Fund Inc.
Reading School District
Ms. Sheila Riley
Dr. Peter J. Storey
Mr. Mark Taylor
Ms. Deborah Wrenn
American Glaucoma Society
American Health Assistance Foundation
Arkwright Foundation Inc.
Advisory Board members get down to business at the fall 2003
board meeting.
VISIoN
24
BT HeEhSicnednes:
Managing the
Eye Center’s
Research Grants
Research Administrator Beverly Thorpe manages
research grants and financial analysis so that
researchers can focus on the science
E
ach year, more than $4 million is awarded to the Duke
University Eye Center faculty in the
form of research grants, contracts,
and clinical studies to support our
faculty’s efforts to further the understanding and treatment of eye disease. As the Eye Center’s Research
Administrator, Beverly Thorpe manages all of that money and the associated administrative oversight so
that our basic science researchers
and our physician-scientists can
focus on their research.
Actually, Beverly is involved in
the grant process even before the
money is awarded to the Duke
researchers from government agencies like the National Eye Institute
(NEI), foundations like Research to
Prevent Blindness, and corporations
such as Bausch & Lomb. She works
closely with junior and senior faculty to identify funding opportunities and to gather the often-daunting
amount of information required to
submit a grant application. There
are piles of forms to fill out, budgets to develop, and strict guidelines to follow. Together with
Research Staff Specialist Barbara
Bennett, Beverly navigates through
the administrative end. She works
closely with the Duke Medical Center’s Grants and Contracts Office,
the Office of Science and Technology, and the Sponsored Programs
Office to secure approval. If the
research project is a collaborative
effort, she contacts her fellow
research administrators in other
Duke departments or at other universities to determine their budgetary needs. Her primary preaward objective: to take care of all
of the administrative and financial
details so that Eye Center
researchers can focus on drafting
their scientific plans.
Once the grant application is
compiled and submitted, Beverly
and Barbara, along with the faculty
members, cross their fingers and
wait. Decisions can take as long as
eight or nine months. If they get a
thumbs-up from the funding
agency, then Beverly’s work really
begins. Most grants and contracts
last between one and five years and
require regular updates to show that
the funds are being spent appropriately. It is Beverly’s job to monitor
each project’s budget; track
expenses; assemble financial
progress reports for the faculty, the
Eye Center, and Medical Center;
and report back to the funding
agency to insure that grant dollars
are appropriately spent. She makes
sure that approved equipment and
supplies are bought, travel is paid
for, and designated salaries and
patient care costs are covered.
As an academic medical center,
Duke holds, as one of its missions, a
fundamental commitment to
research. More than 100 funded
research projects are being undertaken by Eye Center faculty at any
given time. The largest grants are
from NEI, which is part of the
National Institutes of Health. The
private, New York-based Research
to Prevent Blindness foundation
is another major funding agency
for the Duke Department of
Ophthalmology.
“We’re on the rise,” Beverly
says proudly. “We’ve got a lot of
groundbreaking scientific research
that’s being funded. Currently, we
have 18 active NIH grants and
several foundation grants. We also
have a great deal of clinical studies
involving the study of human
patients that are sponsored by
industry partners like Bausch &
Lomb, EyeTech, and Allergan.”
“Research grants from government agencies, research foundations, and corporate-sponsored studies are essential to the Department
of Ophthalmology’s research mission,” says Department Chair Dr.
David L. Epstein. “The Department
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is committed to managing these
funds responsibly and efficiently so
that our funding partners can be
confident that their support is making the greatest impact on our goal
of translating the latest science to
new treatments and potential cures
for all eye diseases.”
Beverly came to the Eye Center
in August 2002 to help further the
Center’s commitment, bringing with
her grants experience she honed at
New York University and at Central
Piedmont Community College in
Charlotte. Raised in Chapel Hill, she
holds undergraduate and graduate
degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill. And
she is thrilled to be back in the Triangle. By all accounts, so is her
“yorkie” Koko whose photo is prominently displayed in Beverly’s office.
“We’re on the rise.
We’ve got a lot of
groundbreaking scientific
research that’s being
funded. Currently, we
have 18 active NIH
grants and several
foundation grants. We
also have a great deal of
clinical studies involving
the study of human
patients that are sponsored by industry
partners like Bausch &
Lomb, EyeTech, and
Allergan.”
~ Beverly Thorpe
25
Since deadlines for grant applications are spread throughout the year,
on virtually any given day, Beverly is
busy reminding faculty members of
impending deadlines or scrambling to
get an approved application out the
door. She says that managing in
excess of 100 accounts at a time is
“intense and very challenging. You’ve
got to be very focused and organized.
There’s always something to do, and
I try to be as responsive as I can to
the faculty and staff when it comes
to coordinating and managing our
sponsored research funds.”
According to the Eye Center
faculty, Beverly is doing a great job.
Dr. Paul Lee, who has grants with
Research to Prevent Blindness, the
NEI, and many others says, “Because
Beverly is there, we can focus on the
scientific content on the grant. She
helps us make the budgeting and
administrative pieces flow as
smoothly and in as user-friendly a
way as possible.”
Dr. Glenn Jaffe, who holds several grants and runs a range of clinical studies, agrees. “It has been a
pleasure to work with Beverly over
the past year. She has been a great
‘go to’ person for questions related
to the financial and administrative
aspects of my grants. She has helped
to organize the University’s faculty
grant financial reports in a clear and
logical manner. She maintains a very
positive attitude and is always working to improve the research administration’s operations and procedures.”
Although they work primarily
behind the scenes, by keeping the
administrative and financial aspects
of the grant process running
smoothly, Beverly and Barbara are
key players in the Eye Center’s
ongoing research success.
Duke Eye
Center
Honored
with NEI
Visit
D
uke Eye Center was
recently honored to host
National Eye Institute Director Paul
A. Sieving, MD, PhD, as a guest
lecturer in the Joseph M. Bryan
Research Lecture series. Dr. Sieving gave two valuable presentations
while here entitled: “Molecular
Diagnostics in Ophthalmic Genetic
Disease: Lessons from X-Linked
Juvenile Retinoschisis” and “Phenotypes in Genetic Mendelian
Forms of Macular Degeneration:
Searching for Clues in AMD.”
Mr. Joseph M. Bryan, a grateful
glaucoma patient and generous
benefactor of the Duke Eye Center,
established the Bryan Endowment
Fund to support a visiting lecturer
series on eye disease. This series is
now known as the Bryan Research
Lectures.
VISIoN
26
NC Lions Foundation Endowment
Earns AERI Namesake
W
hen the Albert Eye
Research Institute
(AERI) opens in December 2004
there will be many individuals and
organizations to thank for their
generous contributions that helped
make the new facility a reality.
Among those special contributors is
the North Carolina Lions Club
Foundation, which is participating
in The Campaign for Duke by
establishing a $500,000 endowment
to support children’s eye research.
In appreciation of this magnificent gift, the Duke University Eye
Center will name a portion of its
new pediatric facility in AERI in
honor of the NC Lions Club. Currently located in the Wadsworth
Building, the NC Lions Pediatric
“The contribution made
by the NC Lions will
have a tremendous
impact on our ability to
serve the children of our
communities. It is this
type of generous
philanthropy that makes
possible the work our
faculty performs in the
never-ending quest for
improved treatments and
cures of eye disease.”
~ David L. Epstein, MD
Eye Clinic will be an integral comThe NC Lions Pediatric
ponent of the expanded research
Endowment will allow researchers
and service offered when AERI
to advance cutting-edge research to
opens its doors. Duke Eye Center
improve the quality of life of visufaculty and staff gathered with
ally impaired children.
members of the NC Lions from
“The contribution made by
across the state earlier this year in
the NC Lions will have a tremenMay to commemorate this generous dous impact on our ability to serve
donation and express their heartfelt
the children of our communities,”
gratitude and thanks. During the
says Duke Department of Ophthalceremony, a plaque naming the NC
mology Chairman, Dr. David L.
Lions Pediatric Eye Clinic was
Epstein. “It is this type of generous
hung near the clinic’s current
philanthropy that makes possible
entrance in the Wadsworth building
the work our faculty performs in
in recognition of the NC Lions’
the never-ending quest for
benevolent philanthropic support.
improved treatments and cures
According to NC Lions Foundaof eye disease.”
tion Executive Director, Steve
Duke Eye Center Stewardship
Walker, the endowment provides an
Officer Renee Wallace explains
opportunity for the Lions Club to
that endowments are funds that
extend its historical patient care
remain in perpetuity. They are
focused contributions. “The Lions
among the most vital and valuable
have always been involved in workresources, offering donors an
ing with individuals that have vision
opportunity to make a lasting conimpairment or have lost their sight,
tribution to the battle against blindbut we also feel it’s important to help
ing eye disease. “Endowment gifts
find ways to prevent and cure blindare carefully invested by Duke and
ness,” explains Walker. “We want to
provide a steady, annual stream of
not only help the visually impaired,
reliable funding for the Eye Center
but also contribute to prevention.
programs, allowing the Eye Center
We selected a
pediatric
focus because
we had never
focused on
anything to do
with children
before but
feel it’s critical to our
mission to
also help
Pediatric Service Chief Dr. Ed Buckley with NC Lions
Club Foundation President David Smoot
children.”
VISIoN
to plan for the future with greater
certainty,” explains Wallace.
Each year the Duke Eye Center
faculty and administration will
conduct a thorough needs analysis
to determine the most appropriate
use of the expendable funds from
the NC Lions Pediatric Endowment.
“We understand that needs
change day to day and year to year.
It was important to our organization that we give the department
the ability to determine the best
27
use of the funds each year. We
wanted to be sure they have the
flexibility to use the funds as efficiently as possible,” says Walker.
The NC Lions Foundation
donation to the Pediatric research
fund promises contribution toward
improvement in pediatric eye care
for years to come. According to Dr.
Sharon Freedman, the money will
be available for a variety of valuable uses from helping purchase
cutting-edge diagnostic equipment
for clinical research to actually
funding supplies and specialized
personnel needed to perform that
research.
“The wonderful thing about an
endowment is that the resultant
research funding will be available
for worthy purposes we can’t even
envision yet but which will prove
vital to our future efforts to continue providing the best possible
care for our small patients with a
variety of serious eye conditions,”
Freedman says.
New AERI Model
Provides Unique
“Preview”
T
he Duke Eye Center has been
given a valuable and unique
opportunity to “preview” the design
and layout of the new Albert Eye
Research Institute (AERI) thanks to
a special contribution by Roger Milliken, CEO of Milliken & Company,
a fabric, yarn, and chemical products manufacturer based in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Milliken commissioned
Toronto-based Peter McCann Architectural Models, Inc. to develop a
highly-detailed, intricate model of
the AERI for the Eye Center.
Displayed in the Eye Center’s
main lobby, the AERI model is an
exact miniature replica of the
planned facility—providing a precise look at the building’s design,
layout, and architectural flow. Each
modeled floor can be slid outward
for individual inspection and evaluation of special functionality.
“We frequently use models of
new facilities and machinery installations in our company. Very few
people can visualize three dimensions, let alone two, when viewing
a building plan. A building model
has never failed to save us many
times its cost in avoiding mistakes,”
says Milliken.
“Roger’s truly unique and
insightful donation of the AERI
model has proved quite valuable for
our faculty, staff, friends, and
patients alike to ‘test’ the functionality of our planned AERI,”
explains Duke Eye Center Chairman Dr. David Epstein. “His generous contribution has provided us
with a tangible view of our new
facility and also generated a shared
excitement among the entire Eye
Center staff for what we’re all
working so hard to build. By allowing us to preview our new facility
in significant detail, the model has
allowed us to critically evaluate and
improve our architectural plans, use
of space, and overall configuration.
We are truly grateful to Roger for
providing us with such a meaningful and practical gift.”
The AERI model is currently on
display for visitors to see in the Eye
Center’s front lobby.
VISIoN
28
Duke Eye Center
Volunteers Make It a
Place Like No Other
W
inston Churchill once
said, “We make a living
by what we get, we make a life by
what we give.” The volunteers at
the Duke Eye Center live this quote
everyday. They are an amazing
team of individuals who give selflessly of themselves, their time, and
their hearts each week.
“They are truly living a life of
giving,” says Volunteer Program
Manager Robin Woods. “I am
proud and honored to be their
manager.”
Robin began overseeing the volunteer program nearly two years
ago. At first she felt overwhelmed
by the new responsibility but soon
realized it was the opportunity of a
lifetime. “I’ve never seen a group of
caring people like the 14 that make
up our volunteer team. You might
meet one or two in your lifetime,
but to work with a group of 14
every week is just amazing,”
she says.
Inez Neal is the volunteer program’s only charter member. She’s
been at the Eye Center for 19 years
and has won numerous awards during her tenure. “I can’t imagine the
volunteer program without Inez,”
says Woods. “She is the brightest
of the sunrays.”
Inez volunteers every Thursday
and is currently partnered with one
of the program’s newest members,
Zelma Head. Zelma’s only been
onboard 10 months, but she’s learning the “ins and outs” from an original.
The program’s most mature
volunteer, Bessie Raper, has been
active for 15 years. Ninety-three
years young, she still drives herself
to the Eye Center when not riding
with her partner, Hildur Blake.
“Often you see Hildur and Bessie
pushing the coffee cart together,
one holding the other’s hand to
assist with serving our patients and
visitors,” says Woods. “It’s truly a
team effort; when you see it you
can’t help but realize this is what
it’s all about.”
“They are truly living a
life of giving. I am proud
and honored to be their
manager.”
~ Robin Woods
Hildur has been volunteering
for the past 16 years. She’s a retired
RN from Duke with 28 years of
service.
Wednesday’s “Anchor Team,”
includes Rosa Taylor, Peggy Jordan, and Ruth Medley. Rosa has
been a volunteer at the Eye Center
for more than 10 years, retiring
from Duke after more than two
decades of service. She helps keep
things running smoothly. “While I
transitioned into my new role as
manager, Rosa took me under her
wing. She explained the program’s
history and always keeps me
informed when coffee supplies
need to be ordered or other needs
arise from our volunteer desk,”
says Woods.
Peggy is a new recruit to the
team. She’s been involved for about
a year and loves to stay busy. She’s
always looking for ways she can
help. Ruth, a 13-year veteran of the
volunteer program, always has a
smile on her face and is willing to
do whatever is asked of her.
The “Goodie Ladies,” Jean
Jones and Dorothy Scarlett, volunteer on Tuesdays. Every week they
show up with a basket of goodies
to share with patients, visitors, and
staff. Jean, who has been volunteering for eight years, is a retired
teacher. Dorothy was recruited to
the team more than 14 years ago.
The Eye Center’s only husband-and-wife volunteer team is
Eston and Jane Betts. They’ve been
active for the past three years and
are a valuable resource. “Jane and
Eston are always providing me
with information to help the visually impaired,” says Woods. “We
use it to stock our patient education
resource center.”
Linda Carden, with the Eye
Center for three years, volunteers
her time by assisting Duke Eye
Center’s Planning and Development office. She usually comes
twice a week to help out and
always shows up ready to get the
job done whether it’s answering the
phone or data entry.
For the past 13 years, Jennie
Holloway has been a volunteer.
And, although a typical “shift” is
only four hours, Jennie typically
puts in a full-day when she comes
each Monday. She works with
Helen Cunningham, a volunteer for
the past year. Helen is a seasoned
volunteer and has worked with a
number of other organizations.
VISIoN
29
Since day one, she’s been a natural
fit in the program.
The Duke Eye Center Volunteer
Program was established in 1984.
Since then it has grown in success
by providing a variety of services to
patients, families, and staff.
Whether it’s serving coffee,
escorting patients, assisting staff, or
just making everyone feel comfortable, Duke Eye Center volunteers
truly make a difference.
For more information about the volun-
teer program or to learn how to
volunteer, contact Robin Woods at
919-684-0414.
Rosa
Taylor
Jennie Holloway and
Helen Cunningham
Hildur B
lake and
Bessie
Raper
Linda Carden
Two Societies Host Residency Meeting
I
n September the North Carolina
Medical Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons (NCMSEPS) and
the North Carolina Medical Society
(NCMS) Foundation joined together
to host the “2003 Southeastern Ophthalmology Resident Meeting of the
Minds: What Every Resident Needs
To Know To Thrive After Residency.” The one-day, free event drew
43 ophthalmology residents from
across the Southeastern United States.
Duke Eye Center Retinal Surgeon
and Event Organizer Dr. Sharon
Fekrat developed the program as her
NCMS Leadership College project.
The Leadership College is a year-long
leadership training program for NC
physicians modeled after the Ameri-
can Academy of Ophthalmology’s
(AAO) Leadership Development program. In its first year of development, student-physicians of Leadership College are nominated by their
peers, local medical societies, and
state specialty societies and represent
a wide range of medical specialties
from across the state. Duke Eye Center Residents Dr. Paul Kang and Sherman Reeves assisted Dr. Fekrat in
directing the 2003 program.
“This conference is the first of its
kind and has brought together a large
audience for training on issues residents will soon be facing in practice,”
says Dr. Fekrat. “Our goal is to
enlighten residents and fellows about
the business aspects of entering a
practice, how to be an effective advocate for patients and the profession,
and to be aware of the forces that are
having an impact on the practice of
medicine and the quality of patient
care. We want to go beyond what is
taught during training.”
VISIoN
30
Faculty Updates
continued from page 19
Engineering undergraduate students
on instrument development this past
summer. Emily Kloeblen worked
with Brian Dodge in developing a
computer program to operate a complex glaucoma research instrument.
The new system will improve the
speed and accuracy of testing of new
glaucoma treatments in the laboratory of Drs. Vasanth Rao and
David Epstein. Sean Marshall
worked with Richard Nappi and
Brian Dodge to refine a method of
improving illumination in the eye for
vitreoretinal surgery. Dr. Mark
Cahill, a retina fellow, presented a
summary of the “Improvement in
Quality of Life in Patients After
Macular Translocation Surgery” at
the American Society of Retina Specialists in New York this fall. Dr.
Cahill’s research was performed in
collaboration with Avie Grier and
Drs. Cynthia Toth and Sandra Stin-
nett. Dr. Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, a
retina fellow, presented a summary
of the “Improvement in Visual Function in Patients after Macular
Translocation Surgery” at the American Society of Retina Specialists in
New York this fall as well. His
research was also performed in collaboration with Avie Grier and Drs.
Cynthia Toth and Sandra Stinnett.
In addition, Dr. Stephen Phillips, a
retina fellow, presented a summary
of the “Relationship Between the
Thickness of a Subfoveal Lesion and
the Vision Loss in Age-Related Macular Degeneration” at the American
Society of Retina Specialists. His
research was performed in collaboration with Hoang Nguyen, CRA and
Drs. Cynthia Toth and Sandra Stinnett. Finally, Dr. Toth and Retina
Service Chief Dr. Brooks McCuen,
along with Ronald Overaker and
Brian Dodge of the Biophysics Lab,
recently received a patent entitled
“Method of Making Miniaturized
Surgical Forceps” for its develop-
ment of uniquely designed forceps
that allow for manipulation of
extremely delicate tissue. The team
conceived and developed its first
prototype in the Biophysics Lab in
1998.
Carol Ziel, MD, Glaucoma Service, presented
information on
the “Advanced
Glaucoma
Intervention
Study and the
Use of
Antimetabolites
in Glaucoma Surgery” at the annual
Duke Glaucoma Symposium. She
also participated in the annual fall
McKinley Medical Conference in
Winston-Salem to area optometrists
focusing on glaucoma assessment
and treatment. In addition, Dr. Ziel
and her staff participated in a Lions
Vision Screening this spring for
employees of the North Carolina
Department of Transportation.
What’s New in Research
Dennis W. Rickman, PhD,
Research, received a Lew
R. Wasserman Merit
Award from Research to
Prevent Blindness. This
award, established in
honor of Research to
Prevent Blindness’ longtime chairman and trustee, is given annually
to mid-career scientists engaged in
eye research. He was also recently
appointed to the Members-In-Training Committee of ARVO and was
elected to the Steering Committee
of the North Carolina Tissue Engineering Interest Group of the North
Carolina Center for Biotechnology.
Dr. Yan Guo, a research associate
in the Rickman Lab, received a
Postdoctoral Fellowship from Fight
for Sight for his project entitled
“Neural Progenitor Cell Transplant
in Experimental Glaucoma.” He
also received the 2003 Robert A.
Machemer Research Award for the
most outstanding research project
by a trainee at the DUEC. Paul
Stephano, a third-year medical
student in the Rickman Lab,
received a Travel Fellowship from
the NEI to attend the annual 2003
ARVO meeting in Florida.
VISIoN
31
Have You Met…Reggie
R
eggie started working at the
Duke Eye Center six years
ago as a courier, and he also helped
out in the Medical Records department. Earlier this year, his career
headed in a new direction when he
was accepted into the Eye Center’s
On-The-Job Training Ophthalmic
Assistant Program, a one-year program that gives selected Duke
employees an opportunity for
career training and advancement
while they continue to work and
earn a salary.
What he is doing now:
As a student in the On-The-Job
Training Program, Reggie works
full-time as a visual field assistant
in the Eye Center’s Visual Field
Testing Room, where many patients
are sent to have their central and
peripheral vision tested. Reggie
helps each patient get comfortable
sitting in front of the computerized
testing equipment, gives instructions on how to take the test, and
makes sure that the process goes
smoothly to ensure accurate results.
In addition, Reggie studies and
takes classes in the training program.
When a position opens on the Comprehensive Ophthalmology Service,
he will continue his training while
working with patients with a wide
range of vision problems.
Why he took on this new
challenge:
“Working in Medical Records,
you get to see the patients’ charts,
but you don’t know what’s really
going on with the patients. I wanted
Prince?
to know more about what’s going
on as far as treatment and diseases
are concerned.”
Prior to working at the Eye
Center, Reggie had been a clinic
assistant in radiation oncology at
Duke Hospital. He enjoyed working directly with patients there and
wanted to get back into patient
care. So he asked Carolyn Vaughan,
director of the On-The-Job Training
Ophthalmic Assistant Program,
how he could get into the program.
Already impressed with Reggie,
Carolyn encouraged him to begin
studying to show that he was serious about the program. A few
months later, a position opened
up, and she offered it to him.
His favorite part of working
at the Eye Center:
“I’m a people person, so I
enjoy the chance to meet new
people, have some interesting
conversations, and just be able to
give a helping hand.”
His plans for the future:
When he completes the training
program, Reggie will be eligible to
take the exam to become a Certified Ophthalmic Assistant. Then,
he plans to continue his training to
become a Certified Ophthalmic
Technician.
When he’s not working:
Reggie is an avid fisherman,
spending most weekends fishing
for spots, croakers, and flounders
up in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay.
According to Carolyn
Vaughan, director of the OnThe-Job Training Program:
“Reggie displays excellent customer service skills and has a really
strong work ethic. He is very softspoken, self-assured, and incredibly
kind and gentle with our patients.
I love to hear him talk with them—
he is so understanding and exhibits
a lot of patience. Reggie brings a
calming presence to our clinic.”
Glaucoma Service
Wishes Fond
Farewell to
Adam Fisher
It was with mixed emotion that
the Duke Eye Center Glaucoma
Service wished a fond farewell to
Adam Fisher this past spring.
Adam, a senior at Duke, worked
in the Glaucoma Service office
during the 2002-2003 academic
school year. According to Glaucoma Service staff, Adam did anything and everything that was
needed around the office. Adam
was a “one-of-a-kind.” Adam
graduated from Duke in May and
moved back to his home state of
New York to pursue his career
endeavors. He will be sorely
missed.
VISIoN
32
Awards &
Recognitions
Guo Recipient
of the 2003
Robert Machemer
Research Award
RPB Grants Two Distinguished
Awards to Eye Center Faculty
Drs. Natalie Afshari and
Dennis Rickman are the
recipients of two highly
distinguished grants from
Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).
Dr. Afshari has been
awarded the prestigious RPB
Career Development Award
to further her career as a clinician-scientist and facilitate
her research in corneal disease. The Career Development Award was established in 1990 to attract
young physicians and basic scientists to eye research.
Dr. Rickman was awarded the highly esteemed RPB Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award. Established in 1995, the Lew R. Wasserman Merit
Awards provide unrestricted support to mid-career MD and PhD scientists
who are actively engaged in eye research within departments of ophthalmology at medical institutions in the United States.
RPB was founded over 40 years ago and is headquartered in New York,
New York. RPB is committed to facilitating the advancement of research
with the goal of developing more effective treatments, preventives, and
cures for all eye diseases that steal precious sight. In its mission to preserve
and, ultimately, restore sight, RPB mobilizes and disseminates financial
resources in support of eye research and can be identified in one way or the
other with virtually every major scientific advance in eye research.
Two Awarded Prestigious Fight for
Sight Postdoctoral Fellowship
Congratulations to Drs. Julia Song and Yan
Guo for both being awarded the prestigious Fight for Sight Postdoctoral Fellowship. These awards will generously fund
their pursuit of advanced research in ophthalmology.
Congratulations to Yan Guo, MD,
PhD, for receiving the 2003
Robert Machemer Research
Award. Dr. Guo was recognized
with the highly esteemed award
during the Annual Residents’ and
Fellows’ Day celebration in June
2003 for his project entitled
“Neural progenitor cell transplant
in optic nerve neuropathy.”
Every year Duke Eye Center
residents are asked to submit a
clinical or basic science research
proposal from any subspecialty of
ophthalmology to the Robert
Machemer Research Award Selection Committee. In honor of past
Eye Center Chairman Dr. Robert
Machemer, the Robert Machemer
Research Award is presented each
academic year to one resident
whose research proposal demonstrates intellectual curiosity and
scientific originality. The proposed research project must be
completed within a one-year
period and must be presented at
the Annual Residents’ and Fellows’ Day each June. For more
information on this award, please
contact Dr. Sharon Fekrat, chair
of the Annual Robert Machemer
Research Committee, at
919.681.0341.
VISIoN
33
2003 Ocular Innovation Award Goes
to Siddiqui and Greenman
Congratulations to Drs. Nouman
Siddiqui and Herb Greenman for
being joint recipients of the 2003
Ocular Innovation Award. Dr.
Greenman received the award for
his abstract entitled “The Safety
of Substances Used During CO2
Laser Surgery,” and Dr. Siddiqui
was recognized for his abstract
entitled “Natural History of Hemiretinal Vein Occlusion.”
The Duke Eye Center Award for Ocular Innovation is a cash award
given annually to the Department and the resident judged to have produced
the best research and formal presentation of an original concept, operation,
instrument, or invention in ophthalmology. Although less weight is given to
papers that do not represent an innovation such as reviews of literature,
reports of a series of an operation, descriptions of diseases or cases, or
quantification of former concepts, these projects are still considered. The
Ocular Innovation Award is sponsored each year by a former Eye Center
resident and is granted to inspire residents to pursue innovative research
during their years of study.
Congratulations to
Dr. Prithvi Mruthyunjaya
The Heed Foundation recently named Dr. Prithvi
Mruthyunjaya as a distinguished AOS/Knapp Fellow for
2003-2004. This prestigious fellowship is the highest
awarded by the Heed Foundation and will help fund Dr.
Mruthyunjaya’s clinical care activities.
Duke Eye Center
Receives Large
Alumni Gift
Duke Eye Center Alumnus
Dr. Jonathan Christenbury recently
gifted the Duke Eye Center with a
generous $100,000 commitment to
help make the Albert Eye Research
Institute a reality. Commenting on
the gift, Eye Center Chairman
Dr. David Epstein says, “We are
most grateful to Dr. Christenbury
for his kind and benevolent donation and hope it will encourage and
inspire other alumni to join in our
cause to help build a future free of
blinding eye disease.”
Dr. Leon Herndon
Awarded Allergan
Education Grant
Congratulations to
Dr. Leon Herndon
for receiving an educational grant from
Allergan. This grant
will advance Dr.
Herndon’s pursuit of cutting-edge
research, training, and education in
the field of glaucoma.
Congratulations to Duke Eye Center for its
8
#
Ranking in ophthalmology by
U.S. News & World Report
The annual survey conducted by US News & World Report can be found
on the web at www.usnews.com.
Duke Eye Center
ranks #8 in U.S. News
VISIoN
34
Congratulations!
Congratulations to
Leon Herndon, MD, on his
promotion to Associate Professor
of Ophthalmology.
Duke Eye Center
AMD Patient
In the News
Violet Meyerson, a Duke Eye Center AMD patient of Dr. Cynthia
Toth’s, was recently highlighted in
an August 11th article in the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel. Violet successfully underwent macular
translocation surgery at the Eye
Center earlier this year and has
now made it her calling to be an
ambassador for the Duke Eye Center and an advocate for AMD
patients everywhere.
A copy of the article “Pioneer
Surgery Preserves Eyesight Hollywood Woman Feared Losing Her
Vision to Disease” can be found for
a small fee on the Sun-Sentinel’s
website at www.sun-sentinel.com.
Violet Meyerson (right) meets with
AMD Program Director Mary Ward
Congratulations to
Sharon Freedman, MD, on her
promotion to Associate Professor
of Ophthalmology with tenure.
Congratulations to
Vasanth Rao, PhD, on his
promotion to Associate Professor
of Ophthalmology.
South Carolina Senator
Strom Thurmond Passes at 100
We were sad to hear of the passing of South
Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond on June 26,
2003. He was a committed advocate for the
State of South Carolina, having served as its
State Senator for 47 years. Mr. Thurmond was
also a grateful patient of Cornea Service Chief
Dr. Alan Carlson. He will be truly missed.
In Memory of
Martha Buchanan Wadsworth
It is with deep sadness and regret that we
announce the passing of Martha Buchanan
Wadsworth, widow of the late Dr. Joseph A.C.
Wadsworth, the first chairman of ophthalmology at Duke in 1965. When Dr. Wadsworth
retired in 1983, Duke named its current Eye
Center building after him. Mrs. Wadsworth
passed away at The Forest at Duke in Durham
on August 5, 2003. The Wadsworth’s have left
a lasting legacy at Duke Eye Center—one for which we will forever be
indebted. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.
VISIoN
35
Outreach Update
Alcon Project Focus Open Door Diabetic
Glaucoma Screening Eye Screening
Lions
Screenings
On Friday, September 12th Alcon
Laboratories partnered with Duke
Eye Center’s Dr. Leon Herndon to
offer a free glaucoma screening to
members of the African-American
community in Durham. A part of
Alcon’s Project Focus screening
series, the free event was held at
White Rock Baptist Church on
Fayetteville St. in Durham from 2
to 6 pm. A total of 66 people
received the free vision check.
On Saturday, August 23rd Duke
Eye Center partnered with Open
Door Clinic and Taylor Vitreoretinal to conduct a free diabetic eye
screening for uninsured patients
of the Open Door Clinic. Dr. Jeff
Taylor, a Duke Eye Center alumnus
and founder of Taylor Vitreoretinal,
generously offered free use of his
facility in Raleigh to support this
important cause. A total of 26
patients of Open Door received the
free eye examination.
Since June 2003 the Duke Eye
Center has partnered with the Lions
Club and Kroger to host five free
glaucoma and vision eye screenings
in the local community. The screenings have been conducted at area
Kroger Stores utilizing the fully
equipped, state-of-the-art NC State
Lions “Come See the 21st Century
Vision Van.” Overall, approximately 230 people benefited from
the free vision screenings.
Donors Establish Two Named
Chairs in Ophthalmology
he had the opportunity to meet the
senior Dr. Gills. Dr. Lee specializes in health services research,
including quality of care, patientcentered care, and health care
policy.
“It is exciting to hold a chair
donated by someone who is so
well-known for his insights and
innovations in cataract surgery and
in providing cataract surgery in as
efficient and as effective a manner
as possible,” Lee notes. “This
chair provides the time and
resources for the research team
to explore innovative and highrisk—but high-reward—areas that
may make a big difference in
what we’re able to do for people—promising areas that funding
agencies may be less likely to
support initially.”
According to Duke Department of Ophthalmology Chairman
Dr. David L. Epstein, “Endowed
chairs such as these are critical to
the Department’s ability to recruit
and retain world-class medical
scholars who are leaders in their
field and to fulfill our mission of
excellence in patient care,
research, and education. We are
grateful to Dr. Gills and to the
many individuals who contributed
to the Machemer Chair for their
generosity and foresight in creating these important resources that
ultimately will benefit patients
with potentially blinding eye
diseases.”
continued from page 10
back a little bit for the excellence
they’ve given in medicine for so
many years,” Dr. Gills Jr.
explains. “The Albert Eye
Research Institute represents a
great investment in the future of
eye care and medical advancements with people like Dr. Epstein
and Dr. Lee and all the other people on the staff. It’s a great investment because of how it is going to
change the lives of many people
in the entire nation.”
When Dr. Lee, who has earned
both medical and law degrees, was
a resident at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University,
VISIoN
36
Ophthalmic Medical
Technician Program
Graduates One;
Welcomes Three More
D
uke Eye Center faculty,
staff, family, and friends
gathered in June 2003 to celebrate
the accomplishments of 2002-2003
Graduate Rasheeda Alexander and
the many instructors who contributed to the Ophthalmic Medical
Technician Program throughout the
year. Rasheeda’s completion of this
challenging and prestigious oneyear program qualifies her to take
the national Certified Ophthalmic
Technician board exams and
embark on a rewarding career as an
Karen Summerville,
Rasheeda Alexander,
and Dr. David Chesnutt
eye care professional.
Duke Eye Center
joins Program Director
Karen Summerville,
COMT, in welcoming the
new class of 2003-2004:
Randall Douglas,
Ted Cummings, and
L-R: Randall Douglas, Lindsey King,
Lindsey King.
and Ted Cummings
To learn how you can
pursue a rewarding career as an
ophthalmic medical technician,
please call Program Director Karen
Summerville at 919.681.9157.
Family Night Out with the Bulls
In July Duke Eye Center hosted its annual Family Night Out with the Bulls at the
Durham Bulls Ballpark in downtown Durham. Faculty, staff, family, and friends enjoyed
good food, good fun, and a good ballgame under the warmth of the summer night sky.
VISIoN
37
Duke Eye Center Hosts
“Now See This” Exhibit
T
he Duke Eye Center’s
Touchable Art Gallery, display cases, and clinic waiting areas
recently hosted a statewide traveling art exhibit, “Now See This,”
featuring artwork created by people
living with disabilities.
“We felt this exhibit would be
quite appropriate since it relates so
well to our belief in using the arts
to support health and healing,”
explains Betty Haskin, coordinator
of the Eye Center Arts Program, a
part of the Duke University Medical
Center Cultural Services Program.
The “Now See This” exhibit,
which was also displayed in Duke
University Hospital’s display cases
in the North-South Corridor,
enjoyed favorable reviews. “Visitors at the Eye Center responded
very positively to the exhibit, probably because it was playful in many
ways,” says Haskin. “Many of the
paintings and drawings displayed in
the Eye Center and the hospital had
a light, carefree feeling.”
This art show wasn’t just fun, it
was also quite unique. In addition
to the artwork being created by
individuals living with disabilities,
it was also selected by “regular”
folks.
The collection’s pieces were
chosen from a series of regional
“hang up” shows across the state
where artists were invited to hang
their work for the day and then collect it at the end. Twenty pieces
were chosen at each regional show
by various attendees ranging from
artists and friends to program coordinators and parents—really anyone
and everyone passing by.
According to a statement from
the exhibit’s curator, “We didn’t
want typical art jargon to dictate
the outcome of the selected pieces.
We wanted to know what everyday
people responded to aesthetically
and conceptually as opposed to a
refined selection by a juror whose
profession it is to exclude less educated or less developed pieces.”
“Now See This” organizers
wanted the show to appeal to
everyone, with or without formal
art training. It was also important
for them to illustrate that art comes
from the same place within everyone regardless of age, ability, or
experience. The pieces in the exhibition reflect the experiences, concepts, and images important to its
artists, while also touching a broad
base of admirers.
“Several masks were on display
in the Touchable Art Gallery as part
of the exhibit and those drew lots
of attention—some were quite
humorous,” says Haskin. “I even
had one visitor tell me that one of
the more ‘comical’ masks reminded
her of her ex-husband!”
“Now See This,” which ran
July 10th through August 15th at
the Duke Eye Center, is part of the
VSA Arts of North Carolina
statewide traveling exhibit. VSA
arts programs are implemented
through a network of local, state,
national, and international VSA arts
organizations and affiliates in collaboration or partnership with educational and cultural institutions,
arts agencies, associations for people with disabilities, and health and
rehabilitation organizations.
Haskin estimates more than
1,000 people viewed the “Now See
This” exhibit at the combined Duke
venues.
“We felt this exhibit
would be quite appropriate since it relates so well
to our belief in using the
arts to support health
and healing.”
~ Betty Haskin
VISIoN
38
Every Gift
Makes a Difference
O
ver the years the Duke Eye
Center has been fortunate to
receive a number of magnificent
gifts from a wide range of supporters, friends, patients, and caring
organizations. Some of those gifts
have been extremely generous providing hundreds of thousands or
even millions of dollars for much
needed research, equipment, and
facility expansion.
But the Eye Center has also
been fortunate to receive many
other gifts, though not as large monetarily, that were just as valuable for
their creativity, meaning, and life
lessons.
When students at Northwest
Middle School (NWMS), an innercity school in Pennsylvania, donated
$220 to the Duke Eye Center in
honor of a NWMS teacher who had
been treated by Pediatric Ophthalmologist Dr. Sharon Freedman, the
gesture meant more than you could
put a price tag on.
The money was raised during
a monthly “Jeans Day” fundraiser
where students and faculty pay
25 cents to wear jeans to school.
Unfortunately not all of the children
can afford the 25 cents so other
students and even faculty pitched
in to help. The students planned the
donation to Duke Eye Center while
their teacher was at Duke receiving
treatment. She was completely surprised and thrilled upon her return
to NWMS.
“The lesson this taught me is
that anyone can make a contribution,” says Dr. Freedman. “It’s truly
heart-warming and shows how
easily people, even without the
financial means to do so, can help
out when they feel strongly about
the cause.”
The NWMS donation has been
earmarked specifically to help
improve the clinical care for children with pediatric glaucoma by
being put towards the building of
the new Pediatric Eye Clinic. Dr.
Freedman adds, “This type of donation is particularly special when you
realize that people who otherwise
wouldn’t be able to make a substantial gift have pulled together to
make a difference. It is an inspiration to those of us who provide care
and to those who do have the means
to give at a higher level.”
Dr. Freedman’s personal care
inspired yet another creative gift
idea. Christine and Frank Clark,
whose daughter Mary-Kathryn
(age six) was first treated by Dr.
Freedman as a baby, established a
memorial fund in honor of MaryKathryn’s grandmother to benefit
pediatric glaucoma research at Duke
Eye Center.
Mary-Kathryn was diagnosed
with congenital glaucoma, a disease
that can cause blindness quickly if
not treated right away with specialized eye surgery. “Dr. Freedman
saved my daughter’s eyesight,” says
Mary-Kathryn’s mother, Christine.
“She is the best doctor I’ve ever
met, and I would do anything for
her. The care she provides is personal and genuine—every doctor
should take lessons from her on
how to treat patients.”
Christine appreciatively recalls
Dr. Sharon Freedman
how Dr. Freedman called from her
home to check on Mary-Kathryn,
saw the Clark family on days she
normally didn’t see patients, and
returned calls the same day. “Dr.
Freedman was so good to our family that when my mother was dying
from cancer she requested we establish a memorial fund to benefit Dr.
Freedman’s pediatric glaucoma
research,” explains Christine.
“Today my daughter has nearly
20/20 vision. That simply would not
be so if it weren’t for Dr. Freedman
and her amazing work.”
“The Clark family has actively
contributed to improving our care
of other children with pediatric
glaucoma through education of
others around them and through
generous contributions to research
efforts,” says Dr. Freedman. “It is
truly a privilege to care for patients
like Mary-Kathryn Clark and to
work with her wonderful family.”
To date, the Clark’s memorial
fund has raised more than $3,500
for pediatric glaucoma research at
the Duke Eye Center.
For more information on how
you can support the Duke Eye
Center, please call (919) 684-3182.
VISIoN
2003 Annual Residents’
and Fellows’ Day
In June Duke Eye Center faculty and staff gathered again at Duke’s Terry
Sanford Public Policy Institute to celebrate the Annual Residents’ and Fellows’ Day. In keeping with tradition, residents and fellows presented on their
research projects during the two-day scientific symposium. A banquet was
held in the evening in honor of graduating residents and fellows who were
leaving the program. Dr. Eugene de Juan, Jr., MD, an alumnus of Duke Eye
Center and CEO and professor of ophthalmology at the Doheny Retina Institute in Los Angeles, California, was this year’s honored guest lecturer. Dr. de
Juan provided residents and fellows with valuable insight and thought-provoking input on how to design and conduct their research programs.
39
VISIoN
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Visit Duke Eye Center’s Web Site at: www.dukeeye.org