Alumni News
Dear Fellow Alumnus,
This is an exciting time for Bascom Palmer!
As the new chairman, my priorities are straightforward: We will continue to provide exceptional patient care, ensure our residents and fellows receive unsurpassed training, recruit the nation's finest physicians and scientist, expand and improve our facilities to meet increasing patient demand and make certain Bascom Palmer is the best place to work. And we will do this together.
We can all share in the remarkable news that Bascom Palmer has been rated the #1 eye hospital in the country by U.S.News & World Report for the sixth consecutive year. In fact, the institute has never been ranked below second place in the 20 years that the survey has been taking place. We owe this honor to the many skilled and dedicated ophthalmologists who have been on our faculty as well as those who have aritcipated in our residency and fellowhips programs, for we learn from each other.
In the coming months and years we will build upon Bascom Palmer's solid foundation as we enter a new period of growth and development. By working with faculty and staff to establish our plans and priorities, we will invest our time, energy and resources into making Bascom Palmer an even-better place for our patients and for all of us.
I am pleased to announce the following faculty promotions effective June 1, 2009: Dr. Vittorio Porciatti received tenure as professor of ophthalmology; Drs. Victor Perez and Sonia Yoo were promoted to associate professors of ophthalmology; and Drs. Audina Berrocal and Stephen Schwartz was promoted to associate professors of clinical ophthalmology.
It gives me great pleasure to announce Bascom Palmer has added seven physicians to its faculty roster in the past year: Dr. John Guy, a neuro-ophthalmologist, joins us from the University of Florida as professor of ophthalmology, Drs. Anat Galor (corneal and external diseases), Jennifer Hui and Erin Shriver (ophthalmic plastic and orbital surgery), Krishna Kishor (glaucoma), and Lana Srur and Jeffrey Goldberg (comprehensive ophthalmology) join the faculty as assistant professors of clinical ophthalmology.
Residents Days was held on June 19-20 at Bascom Palmer. Residents Days marks the culmination of medical training for many of our residents and fellows. We bid farewell to our residents and fellows and welcome them to the Alumni Class of 2009.
Congratulations to Dr. David Tse who was recently presented with the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Chair in Ophthalmic Plastic, Orbital Surgery and Oncology. Congratulations also to Dr. Donald Budenz, who recently joined me as a new inductee into the American Ophthalmological Society. This invitation-only organization which was founded during the Civil War has only 350 members in the United States. Dr. Budenz and I join Drs. Doug Anderson, John Clarkson, Richard Forster, Richard Parrish and David Tse as the Bascom Palmer faculty in this prestigious organization.
We recently completed a successful re-accreditation of our residency program by the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education that is responsible for accrediting residency training programs. The quality of our residency program was evaluated during a site visit this spring including an assessment of the facilities, didactic lecture series, teaching faculty, clinical and surgical volume, systems for evaluating the residents and faculty, and scholarly activity of the faculty and residents. I am proud to report that our program received continued full accreditation. Kathy Corser, our residency coordinator, is to be congratulated for her help in successfully navigating the residency through the review process, including preparation of the 202 page Program Information Form. Kudos to Dr. Steven Gedde for his exceptional work as residency program director.
Congratulations to Dr. Amy Schefler who will receive the Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Foundation Award at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting this October in San Francisco. This award is granted annually to an outstanding 2nd year vitreoretinal fellow currently training in the United States.
As further testament of Bascom Palmer's excellence in its residency and fellowship training, congratulations to Dr. Cynthia Nix who won the Bloomberg Cataract Video Competition, presented by the American College of Eye Surgeons.
San Francisco was the setting for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons recent annual meeting. Bascom Palmer's faculty, residents, fellows and research fellows were honored for presenting winning posters.
Congratulations to Drs. Sonia Yoo, Takeshi Ide, and George Kymionis for receiving an honorable mention in the keratorefractive posters; Drs. Sonia Yoo, Fernanda Piccoli, Artur Schmitt, Takeshi Ide and Tsontcho Ianchulev for their intraocular poster of special interest; Drs. Yousuf Qureshi and Darlene Miller for cornea honorable mention; Drs. Takeshi Ide, Terrence O'Brien and Sonia Yoo for a cornea poster of special interest; Drs. Anita Shirodkar, Ying Hu, Hemalatha Raju, Anil Vedula, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Alexandra Weisman for a glaucoma poster of special interest; and Drs. Mohamed Abou Shousha, Jay Wang, Takeshi Ide, Victoria Chang, Ash Abbey, Victor Perez, and Sonia Yoo for presenting the "Best Paper of the Session" in Cornea. Also at the congress, I presented the Richard Lindstrom Lecture. Finally, at the recent Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology meeting (APIC), Darlene Miller and I received the "Best Poster in Show" award.
Our faculty continues to travel around the world participating in dozens of ophthalmic educational programs. Our residents and fellows contribute to Grand Rounds each week in the Retter Auditorium, (you can see these on this page); and our continuing medical education department is busier than ever organizing a full roster of post-graduate programs to meet the needs of ophthalmologists in this region and
beyond.
I hope to see you at the Academy meeting and at one of our many named lectures or continuing medical education programs. Please visit our Continuing Medical Education web pages for details of upcoming events and visit our Calendar of Events. Thank you again for your loyalty and support of Bascom Palmer and the Alumni Association.
We have our sights set on accomplishing great things! Thank you for making a difference.
Sincerely yours,
Eduardo C. Alfonso, M.D. (84)
President, Bascom Palmer Alumni Association
Professor and Chairman, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
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