John Nickerson and his research team spent an afternoon discussing new findings
There was a true meeting of the minds on April 21 when National Eye Institute (NEI) director Dr. Michael F. Chiang stopped by the Emory Eye Center to discuss ongoing research projects with the Ophthalmology Department's team of faculty and post-graduate investigators.
The atmosphere was collegial but charged as Chiang listened attentively to the progress reports delivered by director, John Nickerson, PhD and seven researchers: Ross Ethier, Deepta Ghate, Sayantan Datta, Andrew Feola, Hans Grossniklaus, Michael Iuvone, and Jeff Boatright.
Chiang was fascinated by Ghate's presentation, Differential High-Level Visual Impairments and their Impact on Quality of Life in Glaucoma,
which explored the ways in which specific high-level visual impairments tend to differentially impact a patient's quality of life. In particular, it looked at the impact on routine life activities, such as face recognition, scene navigation, and risk of falling.
It's hard to come up with end points for all of the research we do in special diseases,
he noted. Visual acuity is a good measure, but is there a quality of life instrument that will work with other diseases? This is important work.
He also applauded the multidisciplinary approach of the different research teams, some of which included engineering faculty and researchers from the Georgia Tech School of Biomedical Engineering.
The eye and visual system are an incredible system for methodological scientific innovation which can eventually be applied to improve patient care,
he said. It's exciting to see collaborative research here that fits this model: graduate students at Georgia Tech working with ophthalmologists at Emory together to develop creative new solutions to problems.
As director of Emory's ophthalmic research efforts, Nickerson was only too happy to join in the discussions that followed each presentation.
Now more than ever, the Emory Eye Center is expanding our research program to keep pace with the need for new treatments, options, and perspectives in vision health. The presentations Dr. Chiang saw today demonstrated that there's no shortage of innovation in the next generation of researchers,
said Nickerson.
But it was particularly encouraging for those new researchers - and for me - to see firsthand how open Dr. Chiang is to new approaches. That's the sort of leadership that bodes well for the field.
-Kathleen E. Moore