Harvard Department of Ophthalmology
Joseph B . Ciolino , MD
Alumni Reunion Co-chair , Associate Professor of Ophthalmology , Associate Director of Ophthalmology Alumni , and the Henry Freeman Allen Cornea Scholar , Harvard Medical School , Mass . Eye and Ear
Dr . Ciolino earned his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine and subsequently pursued an ophthalmology residency at Albany Medical College , where he served as Chief Resident in his final year . Returning to Boston for a two-year fellowship in the Cornea , Refractive Surgery and External Disease Service , he received the nationally recognized Claes Dohlman Fellowship Award . He then joined Harvard Medical School ' s full-time faculty at Mass . Eye and Ear under the K12 Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program , a highly competitive institutional program funded by the National Institutes of Health .
Working with collaborators at Boston Children ' s Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Dr . Ciolino has developed a drug-eluting contact lens capable of delivering various pharmaceutical agents , such as antibiotics , antifungals , and glaucoma medication . These drug-eluting lenses have the potential to improve surgical outcomes for patients with keratoprosthesis by both protecting the ocular surface of the eye and by preventing post-operative infections , and they may one day replace eye drops .
In addition to his clinical practice and his research program , Dr . Ciolino also supervises medical students and participates in training residents and fellows . He is a named inventor on a U . S . patent application for a contact lens drug delivery device , and his research innovations have multiple direct therapeutic applications that may ultimately benefit a broad and diverse patient population .
Gena Heidary , MD , PhD
Annual Meeting Co-chair , Associate Professor of Ophthalmology , Harvard Medical School and Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology Service , Boston Children ’ s Hospital
Dr . Heidary earned her MD , PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine . She completed her ophthalmology residency training at Harvard Medical School . She is dually fellowship trained , having completed a fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus at Boston Children ’ s Hospital under the mentorship of Dr . David Hunter and a second fellowship in Neuro-Ophthalmology at Mass . Eye and Ear under the mentorship of Drs . Joseph Rizzo and Simmons Lessell .
As the Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology Service at Boston Children ’ s Hospital , Dr . Heidary ’ s clinical work focuses on pediatric neuro-ophthalmology and the management of pediatric and adult strabismus . Her research focuses on improving the management and treatment of patients with visually threatening , pediatric neuro-ophthalmic disease and complex strabismus . Specific efforts have focused on the development of a method to non-invasively assess elevated intracranial pressure using otoacoustic emissions in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri . Additionally , Dr . Heidary has been working toward the development of a novel system to accurately assess visual field dysfunction in pediatric patients using saccadic vector optokinetic perimetry ( SVOP ). With this technique , eye-tracking technology is used to evaluate pediatric patients for visual field loss .
Rachel Huckfeldt , MD , PhD
Annual Meeting Co-chair , Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology , Harvard Medical School , Mass . Eye and Ear
Dr . Huckfeldt earned her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from Washington University in St Louis . After completing her ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School , she conducted postdoctoral research focused on novel therapeutics for retinal dystrophies in the lab of Dr . Jean Bennett at the University of Pennsylvania . She subsequently completed clinical fellowships in medical retina ( University of Iowa ) and inherited retinal disorders ( Mass Eye and Ear ) with the latter under the guidance of Dr . Eric Pierce with support from a Foundation Fighting Blindness Clinical / Research Fellowship Award .
Dr . Huckfeldt ’ s research focuses on improving the visual outcomes of patients with inherited retinal disorders ( IRDs ). She is the site principal investigator for multiple first-in-human clinical trials of genetic therapies for IRDs , and she also leads Mass Eye and Ear ’ s participation in clinical studies conducted by the Foundation Fighting Blindness Consortium . Dr . Huckfeldt was recently selected to serve as Co-chair for this multi-institution research group . Her own research program , which encompasses topics including retinitis pigmentosa-associated cystoid macular edema , is supported by a Career Development Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness as well as the 2021 Iraty Award . Dr . Huckfeldt is also the director of the Inherited Retinal Degenerations clinical fellowship at Mass Eye and Ear .
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