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A Note From our Chair
Welcome to the Byers Eye Institute 2023 Annual Report. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.
The end of the year is a time for reflection that I look forward to. Each December, I am more proud than the last to reflect on the achievements of the faculty and staff at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford.
Cover Story
The Paths to Clinical Care
Making patient care dynamic, accessible, and innovative
In medicine, new treatments generally start with an idea, go through a laboratory stage, and seek validation in human testing, a long and rigorous process before reaching their final destination in the clinic or the operating room, where those discoveries can improve patients’ lives.
In fact, at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford, “from lab to clinic,” is practically a mantra among the innovative and award-winning researchers and doctors striving toward a shared goal of fighting blindness and preserving sight.
However, laboratory discoveries are just one of the ways the team is working to expand care and make the clinical experience more effective for patients, both across the Bay Area and around the world.
“We have faculty who are leading in clinical work, bringing new therapeutics and surgical approaches to patients, all with compassion and empathy and the attitude that the patient comes first,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, the Blumenkranz Smead professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute.
Research and Innovation
Precisely Yours
As precision health grows, patients benefit the most
Precision health is the latest buzzword in medicine, promising to help doctors better tailor care to the individual and allow people to proactively address potential health issues before they become a problem. But it’s not always clear what that looks like in practice. Read more.
Drug Discovery
Eye research with ripple effects across medicine
Today, dozens of potential new treatments for a long list of eye-related diseases are in development by Byers Eye Institute faculty and researchers. Many of these are even making strides on the path toward FDA approval. Read more.
Improving Vision
Visual development and recovery after head injuries
It takes months for the average infant to see colors and begin recognizing faces. For the first 12 months of life, their vision, perception, and coordination change rapidly, passing important milestones that help them take in the world around them. But sometimes, a child doesn’t follow that trajectory. Read more.
Meet Dr. M.E. Hartnett
Michael F. Marmor, M.D., Professor in Retinal Science and Diseases
When Mary Elizabeth (M.E.) Hartnett, MD, arrived this year at the Byers Eye Institute, she brought with her a buzz of excitement that rippled through Stanford University and the international ophthalmology community. Read more.
Artificial Intelligence and Technology
Game On
How our eyes are the key to understanding the brain and body
If you sit down with Khizer Khaderi, MD, MPH, to talk about his work at Stanford University connecting vision and performance, there’s a good chance that by the end of the conversation, he’ll be drawing diagrams that crisscross the page or that fill up a whiteboard. Read more.
AI Revolution
Artificial intelligence is ushering in a new era of eye care
People think of their eyes as windows onto the world, but the physicians and professionals at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford know they offer a window into our health. It’s that quality that allows ophthalmology to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) advances. Read more.
Patient Care and Philanthropy
Life, Uninterrupted
An ocular melanoma diagnosis with a happy ending
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Janet Thompson knows better than most the value of a healthy lifestyle and preventative care to fend off disease, but she also knows first-hand that sometimes illness sneaks up on you anyway. Read more.
Sight Restored
Celebrating three years of restored vision
Larry Mohr never expected his eyesight to fail, until a tragic accident 20 years ago. The slow descent into blindness was, in his words, torture, made worse by the certainty that dark days were ahead. Read more.
Giving Mission
When the next best thing to being a doctor is helping one
If Bonnie Uytengsu could go back in time and pick any career she wanted, she would have made her way in medicine, as a doctor or as a researcher studying the intricacies of the brain and what makes it tick. Read more.
Why Give?
How philanthropy creates major impact
Nearly 2.2 billion people worldwide live with severe vision impairment or blindness, and with an aging population, these numbers continue to escalate steeply. Read more.
Education and Training
The Modern-Day Textbook
Ophthalmologists are turning to podcasts to teach and learn
Podcasts were popular and growing when Natalie Homer, MD, finished her residency in 2018, but the ophthalmic world had yet to carve out its own space in the audio medium. Just five years later, Homer makes the podcasts she wished she had in 2018. Read more.
Training the Next Generation
On a mission to find and support talented clinician-scientists
When Adeeti Aggarwal, MD, PhD, surveyed her residency options after medical school, the Byers Eye Institute stood out, offering something that other residency programs didn’t: the Stanford Ophthalmology Advanced Research Residency (SOAR) program. Read more.
Selected Awards and Honors
Congratulations to our faculty and trainees
The accomplished faculty and trainees at the Byers Eye Institute were recognized with a long list of grants, awards, speaker invitations, new leadership opportunities and more during 2023. Read more.
Meet and Greet
Meet our 2023 residents and fellows
Get to know the faces of the next generation of ophthalmic leaders in the clinic and in the laboratory. Read more.