Featured Speakers
Snell Memorial Lecturer, Michael Chiang, MD
Michale Chiang, MD, is Director of the National Eye Institute. By background, he is a pediatric ophthalmologist and is also board-certified in clinical informatics. His research focuses on the interface of biomedical informatics and clinical ophthalmology in areas such as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), telehealth, artificial intelligence, electronic health records, data science, and genotype-phenotype correlation. He is an Adjunct Investigator at the National Library of Medicine, and his group has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers and developed an assistive artificial intelligence system for ROP that received Breakthrough Status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
He is a member of the NIH Scientific Data Council. Before coming to NIH, he received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Biology from Stanford University, an MD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and an MA in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University. He completed residency and pediatric ophthalmology fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. Between 2001-2010, he worked at Columbia University, where he was Anne S. Cohen Associate Professor of Ophthalmology & Biomedical Informatics, director of medical student education in ophthalmology, and director of the introductory graduate student course in biomedical informatics. From 2010-2020, he worked at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), where he was Knowles Professor of Ophthalmology & Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, and Associate Director of the Casey Eye Institute. He co-directed an NIH-funded T32 training program in visual science for graduate students and research fellows, as well as an NIH-funded K12 clinician-scientist program at OHSU.
Frederick Dushay, MD, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Valerie Biousse, MD
Valerie Biousse, is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Emory Eye Center, Reunette Harris Research Chair of Ophthalmology, and Director of Emory Eye Center's Neuro-Ophthalmology Fellowship.
Dr. Biuosse is a fellow of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society and of the French Society of Neurology and an elected member of the American Neurological Association, and multiple other national and international societies, including the American Academies of Ophthalmology and Neurology and the French Society of Ophthalmology.
She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology. She currently also serves on the board of directors as President of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society.
She has more than 500 publications, including scientific articles, book chapters and books, including the primary textbook Neuro-Ophthalmology and Walsh & Hoyts Clinical Neuro-Ophthalmology, 6th Edition, 2005, and the practical textbook Neuro-Ophthalmology Illustrated (Thieme 2009, 2016 and 2019). Neuro-Ophthalmology Illustrated received the British Medical Association best book of the year award in 2016 (category Neurology) and the PROSE award from the American Association of Publishers in 2017.
Dr. Biousse regularly lectures throughout the world. Her current research focuses on four primary areas: (1) idiopathic intracranial hypertension, (2) the use of non-mydriatic fundus photography for the diagnosis of neuro-ophthalmic disease in various clinical settings and the applications of artificial intelligence as a diagnostic aid, (3) diagnostic errors and referral patterns in neuro-ophthalmology, and (4) ocular manifestations of cerebrovascular diseases.
Ross Debates in Ophthalmology Speakers
Ajay Kuriyan, MD, MS is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson Medical College and a member of the Mid Atlantic Retina Group team of Wills Eye Hospital. His areas of interest include age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, refractory macular holes, retinal detachment repair, and novel retinal surgical techniques.
He graduated with Honors in dual majors of Biology and Health and Society from University of Rochester, and received his Doctor of Medicine degree, with academic distinction and honors in research, from University of Rochester as well. He then completed an internship at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and performed his ophthalmology residency at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, where he was selected as Chief Resident. Dr. Kuriyan also completed his retina fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Prior to working at Mid Atlantic Retina, Dr. Kuriyan was a faculty member at the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY and a retina surgeon at the University of Rochester.
Aleksandra Rachitskaya, MD is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Case Western Reserve University's Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and member of the vitreoretinal faculty at the Cole Eye Institute. She is involved in numerous clinical trials, including studies about age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and gene therapy. She has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and has lectured throughout North America. She is also very involved with the American Society of Retina Specialists, serving as leader of its Early Career Section.
She completed her undergraduate education at John Carroll University and attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University. She went on to complete her ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.