December 2019

Ronald Klein, MD, MPH was an esteemed faculty member of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences for over four decades. He shared his life and his life’s work with his partner of 54 years—Dr. Barbara Klein, who joined the department as a faculty member with Ron.

Our Faculty was honored with AAO Secretariat Awards, recognized for contributions to medical student eduction and the Hoon Lab secured UW2020 funding, among other achievements this year.

The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has implemented eSynchrony. With this visual communication tool, doctors, staff and technicians in a fast-paced clinic can nonverbally track patients by visually moving them through the steps of the process as they are being treated on a central screen.

Our Ophthalmology Residency Training Program celebrates its fourth year of a 2-week off-site rotation for senior residents to Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in New Delhi, India. Since its establishment in 2015, 14 residents have participated in the multi-dimensional experience that involves extracapsular cataract surgical training, tailored clinical exposure to subspecialty clinics in ophthalmology, patient screening in a rural outreach facility, educational conferences and exchanges, and cultural immersion.

Beginning in January 2019, three students—one postdoctoral and two pre-doctoral—engaged in the first integrated training program of Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS) that is dedicated to the visual sciences.

By 2018, Dave could barely see a pinpoint of light. He had been legally blind for three years due to optic neuropathy in both eyes. His body also felt like it was falling apart, and his unexplained collection of symptoms—including numbness in his limbs and difficulty walking—puzzled many physicians.

One of the most exciting new projects in vision research at UW–Madison is a groundbreaking group collaboration among the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS), McPherson Eye Research Institute (MERI), and other UW and national partners. The Wisconsin Advanced Imaging of Visual Systems (WAIVS) Lab, founded in 2018, promises to establish and advance exciting new eye imaging techniques at UW–Madison.

Meet our new students!

Learn about our new faculty and staff members. We welcomed Laura J. Kopplin, MD, PHD; Kevin D. Kurt, OD; Colleen M. McDowell, PhD; Alexander R. Miranda, MD; Donna M. Neumann, PhD; Kelsey L. Rickels, OD; and Suzanne W. Van Landingham, MD this year.

In August of 2018, the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS) launched a teleophthalmology program in an effort to make diabetic eye examinations highly accessible to rural Wisconsin communities.