My career has been circuitous but rich and fulfilling. Great mentors have touched my life in so many ways. I completed my glaucoma fellowship at the University of Louisville when the late Thom Zimmerman, MD, was chairman. Thom was an inspiration, an innovator, and a great friend. My 2 years in Louisville, Kentucky, formed the foundation of my passion for academic ophthalmology.
Besides maintaining a busy clinical practice, I have several research interests, many of which are related to telemedicine in glaucoma. When I joined Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (formerly UMDNJ), Ben Szirth, PhD, was director of the Applied Vision Research Laboratory and ran a sophisticated telemedicine program in the state. Ben is a pioneer in digital and nonmydriatic stereoscopic imaging, and together, we piloted and tested those applications in telemedicine for the screening and detection of vision-threatening diseases, including glaucoma. He has a passion for advanced optics, imaging, and digital image analysis. Our telemedicine research team examined the direct translation of such applications in our telemedicine program. Nonmydriatic imaging combined with digital filters and tele-presence capabilities made our telemedicine community outreach program effective and efficient. Identifying glaucoma in the community earlier meant patients were referred sooner to receive treatment, helping to prevent permanent visual loss.
I was grateful to receive the American Glaucoma Society's MAPS Award, which was instrumental in my telemedicine research. The field of tele-glaucoma is in its infancy, its future not yet clearly defined and its role in our health care system ambiguous. Initially, I aimed to answer basic questions. Are film and digital stereoscopic optic nerve imaging comparable? How can we make tele-screening more efficient by incorporating new hardware and software solutions? Next, I plan to conduct studies on standardizing tele-glaucoma image acquisition, viewing, and interpretation. Through collaboration with colleagues such as Louis Pasquale, MD, and Karim Damji, MD, I hope to reach my goals more effectively. I believe that standardized tele-glaucoma will help different research groups collaborate and compare their results, which will improve disease detection and directly benefit patients.
I am honored to have mentored medical students (New Jersey Medical School Sight Savers Program) and residents and to see them lead successful careers in ophthalmology. Without a doubt, this career experience is one of my most gratifying, and it led to my new role as director of the ophthalmology residency program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. I consider myself fortunate to work with young minds entering the field and privileged to influence their careers. As my good friend, mentor, and colleague Robert Fechtner, MD, used to say to me during my fellowship, “We inherit from our mentors, who inherited traditions from theirs.” I hope as a clinician scientist to play a similar role for residents.
Outside my clinical and research responsibilities, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, especially my wife, Liliane, and our two boys, Peter and Christopher. There is no better way to decompress after work than taking a bike ride with the boys along the Staten Island boardwalk and under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Section Editor Tony Realini, MD, MPH, is an associate professor of ophthalmology at West Virginia University Eye Institute in Morgantown. Dr. Realini may be reached at (304) 598-6884; realinia@wvuh.com.
Albert S. Khouri, MD, is an assistant professor, program director of the ophthalmology residency, and associate director of the Glaucoma Division at Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Khouri may be reached at (973) 972-2045; albert.khouri@rutgers.edu.
