2024 鶹AV Ophthalmology Symposium
The 2024 鶹AV Ophthalmology Symposiumtook place on June 14 and 15, 2024 at the St. James Club with the theme Neuro-Ophthalmology. Keynote speakers included Dr. Susan Mollan (Dr. Stephen Fichman Lecture), Dr. Fiona Costello (Dr. Sean B. Murphy Lecture), and Dr. Julie Falardeau (Dr. Dario Lorenzetti Lecture)
We are pleased to announce the prize winners from the Symposium:
Nicole Dranitsaris “At-home training on an app to improve vision in adults with amblyopia” was selected as Day 1 Feature Talk – First Place
Ashim Pandey “Perceptual learning generalizes to untrained visual field locations in a naturalistic navigation task in a patient with cortical visual impairment” was selected as a First Place Poster Session Winner
Siddharth Nath “Efficacy and safety of nanomicellar cyclosporin 0.09% in patients with dry eye disease refractory to emulsion cyclosporin 0.05%: a prospective crossover study” was selected as a First Place Poster Session Winner
Daniela Gurman “Binocular combination under asynchronous viewing conditions” was selected as a First Place Poster Session Winner
Raheem Remtulla “Interactions of Neuroprotective Compounds with MOG and anti-MOG Antibodies: Implications for Treatment of Anti-MOG Syndrome” was selected as Day 1 Feature Talk – Second Place
Ana Ramirez “Towards early glaucoma detection: Contrast modulation perimetry as a selective diagnostic tool" was selected as Day1 Feature Talk – Second Place
Mostafa Bondok “Potential inequities in glaucoma research in Cochrane reviews and randomized clinical trials” was selected as Day 2 Feature Talk – First Place
Congratulations to all winners!
Sean Murphy Award for Research 2023-2024 Winners
The Department is proud to announce eleven winners of the Sean Murphy Award for 2023-2024.
Ali Salimi (supervisor Hady Saheb) for his abstract "Prophylaxis Against Intraocular Pressure Spikes Following Uncomplicated Phacoemulsification: A Meta-Analysis" presented and the 2023 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Meeting.
Daniel Gurman (supervisor Alexandre Reynaud) for his poster presentation "Investigating the temporal dynamics of dichoptic masking" presented at the 2023 Vision Sciences Society Meeting.
Harrish Nithianandan (supervisor John Chen) for his poster presentation "Examining the value of intraoperative optical coherence tomography during vitreoretinal surgery in guiding surgical decision-making: A systematic review of 1956 eyes" presented at theAmerican Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) 2023 Annual Meeting.
Mohammad Karam (supervisor Samir Jabbour) for his oral presentation "Extended depth of focus vs Trifocal for intraocular lens implantation: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis" presented at the 2023 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Meeting and Exhibition.
Nicole Dranitsaris (supervisor Alexandre Reynaud) for her poster presentation "Developing a novel dichoptic reading application for the treatment of amblyopia" presented at the 2023 Vision Sciences Society Meeting.
Penghan Wang (supervisor Alexandre Reynaud) for his poster presentation "Are crossed and uncrossed disparities processed by the same mechanism?" presented at the 2023 Vision Science Society Meeting.
Raffles Zhu (supervisors Robert Hess and Alexander Baldwin) for his poster "Using a letter identification task to assess projection fidelity: investigating resiliency to
scrambling in normal and amblyopic human vision compared to convolutional neural networks" presented at the Bernstein Conference in Computational Neurosciences (Berlin Germany).
Raheem Remtulla (supervisor Karin Oliver) for his oral presentation "Immune checkpoint inhibitor associate uveitis rates varies by medication class in international database" presented at the 2023 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Meeting.
Rinku Sarkar (supervisor Alexandre Reynaud) for her poster presentation "Testing the effect of dichoptic surround masking in amblyopic vision" presented at the Vision Science Society Meeting.
Sheetal Pundir (supervisor Pierre Lachapelle) for her oral presentation "Endothelial Cell Metabolism Determines Healthy or Diseased Revascularization of the Ischemic Retina" presented at the 2023 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Meeting.
Siddharth Nath (supervisor Johanna Choremis) for his oral presentation "Efficacy of intracorneal ring segments for treatment of residual astigmatism following penetrating
keratoplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis" presented at the 2023 Canadian Ophthalmology Society Meeting.
Congratulations!
Research Day Prize Winners 2023
The department's annual research day took place on June 12, 2023, at the MUHC-RI.
Amrit Das' presentation "Simulation of Non-Arteritic ischemicNeuropathy using COMSOL Multiphysics Software" was selected as a winner for the best featured presentation.
Sheetal Pundirpresentation "Endothelial Cell Metabolism Determines Healthy or Diseased Revascularization of the Ischemic Retina" was selected as a winner for the best featured presentation.
Ali Salimi'spresentation "Large Language Models in Ophthalmology Scientific Writing: Ethical Considerations. Blurred Lines or Not at All?" was selected as a winner for the best flashtalk/poster sessions.
Emily Marcottepresentation "Discovering the pathogenesis of cancer dissemination: The role of dual nature – hybrid cells in Uveal Melanoma" was selected as a winner for the best flashtalk/poster sessions.
Congratulations to the winners!
Third Annual Learner and Faculty Teaching Innovation Awards
Learner Award:
We are pleased to announce that that our resident, Stuti Tanya (R1) and Anne Nguyen (4th year 鶹AV medical student) were recipients of the third Learner Award. Congratulations on their project, Canadian Ophthalmology Mentorship Program (COMP), which connects Canadian medical students (mentees) and ophthalmology residents (mentors) to help build a nation-wide network of mentors and mentees in the landscape of Canadian ophthalmology training.
In their own words: We are honoured to be recipients of the Learner Award for Teaching Innovation, which recognizes COMP’s efforts in improving access to equitable mentorship opportunities for learners at 鶹AV and beyond. Founded by and for trainees in ophthalmology at 鶹AV and other Canadian institutions, this grassroots initiative is an innovative and pragmatic response to reimagining mentorship in contemporary medical education. With this award, we will be able to sustain COMP and develop additional tools to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in ophthalmology.” – Stuti (Misty) Tanya, MD, Anne Xuan-Lan Nguyen and the COMP tea
Picture from the . COMP team
Faculty Award:
We are excited to announce that Dr. Fatma Zaguia was amongst the winners of the third annual Learner and Faculty Teaching Innovation Awards. Dr. Zaguia’s project was focused on the development of the 鶹AV Academic Surgical Hub, an application and web-based portal to help with teaching cataract surgery.
In her own words: “It is a great honour to receive the Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation. After three years of development and beta testing, we are so excited to roll out our new app for the 2022-23 academic year. Historically, the teaching of cataract surgery has been a difficult procedure for residency programs to measure and give accurate feedback on for multiple reasons. Alongside my colleague Mash Darvish, MDCM, we were able to develop a platform consisting of a smartphone application and a web-based portal that addresses these issues and takes teaching high volume, multi-part surgeries into the Competency by Design (CBD) era. We truly believe this platform will allow residency programs to implement CBD principals to complex high volume surgeries in an efficient and effective manner.” – Fatma Zaguia, MDCM
Picture from the . Drs. Mahshad Darvish (left) and Fatma Zaguia (right)
The TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards 2021-2022
The department is pleased to announce that 2021-2022 TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards for Excellence in Teaching for ophthalmology were awarded to Dr. Fatma Zaguia (faculty award) and R3 resident, Dr. Tony Shicheng Jin (resident award). Drs. Zaguia and Jin are among the 24 TCP teachers from various departments chosen for this award.
The Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences held the 2023 celebration on February 8, 2023.
Congratulations to both winners!
From left to right: David Luckow, George Mandich, Tiffany Fung, Tony Shicheng Jin, Qais Alrashidi, Lorne Rosenbloom, Dean David Eidelman, Julien Vaillancourt, Asli Buyukkurt, Justin Tabah, Carlo Santaguida, Mickey Max Moroz, Vincent Larouche, Abed Baiad. Photo: Owen Egan and Joni Dufour
The department held a retreat on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, on Saturday, September 17, 2022, at the Intercontinental Hotel. The retreat included interesting talks on this topic from guest speakers Dr. Marcia Anderson from the University of Manitoba, Dr. Keith Carter from the Univesity of Iowa, and Dr. Nupura Bakshi from the University of Toronto. Clinical faculty members, residents, and fellows had the opportunity engage in group discussions and small group sessions. Following the retreat, a team-building activity took place at A/MAZE.
Research Day 2022 Prize Winners
The department's annual research day took place on June 17, 2022, at the McIntyre medical building.
Ali Salimi's oralpresentation "Short- to Medium-Term Outcomes of Kahook Dual Blade Excisional Goniotomy with Concomitant Phacoemulsification: a pan-Canadian 3 Study" was selected as a winner for Session I & II.
Austin Cooper's oral presentation "Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Optic Neuropathies: A Critical Literature Review"was selected as a winner for Session I & II.
Daniel Gurman'soral presentation "Assessing the Interocular Delay in Amblyopia and its link to Visual Acuity"was selected as a winner for Session I & II.
Laurie Goulet'soral presentation "NeuroCSF an Objective Neuroimaging Method to Measure Human Population Contrast Sensitivity Function"was selected as a winner for Session I & II.
Congratulations to the winners!
Congratulations to our residents and clinical faculty who were awarded prizes at the Resident’s Graduation Dinner heldon Friday, June 3, 2022, at Restaurant L'ambroisie.
Resident Awards:
- Nour Nofal:Resident Cataract Award
- Gareth Mercer: Resident Surgical award and Highest Academic Achievement Award
- Abdullah Alkaabi, Zoya Chaudhry, Daniel Peretz: Leadership Award
Faculty Awards:
- Mahshad Darvish: Best Clinical Teaching and Best Surgical Teaching Awards
- Darren Albert:Best Cataract Teacher Award
Sean Murphy Prize winners announcement 2021-2022
The Department is proud to announce two winners of the Sean Murphy Award for 2021-2022.
Ali Salimi (supervisor Mahshad Darvish) for his publication Harrison Watt; Hassan Elhawary; Mahshad Darvish; Mona Harissi-Dagher: Awareness and attitudes toward corneal donation among Canadians: Informative and motivational videos can increase willingness toward corneal donation, presented at the Canadian Ophthalmology Society meeting (COS) 2021.
Harrish Nithianandan (supervisor John Chen) for his poster Adam Samet; John Chen: Examining the prognostic value of intraoperative optical coherence tomography during pars plana vitrectomy for idiopathic epiretinal membrane removal: A systematic review of 638 eyes, presented at the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) meeting 2021.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to prize winners at the Department of Ophthalmology Research Day 2021, held virtually on October 22, 2021, Mona Al-Shehri (winner of the Session I & II oral presentations), Raheem Remtulla (winner of the Session I & IIoral presentations), Anne Xuan-Lan Nguyen(winner of the Session III oral presentations), and Ali Salimi (winner of the Session III oral presentations).
The TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards 2019-2020
The department is pleased to announce that the 2019-2020 TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards for Excellence in Teaching for ophthalmology are to be awarded to Dr. Devinder Cheema (faculty award) and R5 resident, Dr. Thomas Berk (resident award). Drs. Cheema and Berk are among the 15 TCP teachers from various departments chosen for this award.
The Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences held a virtual celebration on May 26, 2021.
The department congratulates both winners!
First-Place Winners of the Marika Zelenka Roy Innovation Prize 2020-2021
Remote Optical
Dr. Leonard Levin and his team Angela Wong, Jeremy Zwaig, and Oliver Wu Martinez werefirst-place winners of the Marika Zelenka Roy Innovation Prize!
"No high-quality remote examination method of the front of the eye exists. Our solution revolutionizes eye care with remote, asynchronous imaging and examination. These features improve access to eye care for people in rural/indigenous communities, senior homes, intensive care units and emergency rooms. Our solution saves money and time, and leverages the power of AI to assist ophthalmologists during exams and improve monitoring of changes in eye condition between consultations."
TheMarika Zelenka Roy Innovation Prize, launched in partnership with theMontreal General Hospital Foundation,highlights the innovation providing the best solution to an unmet clinical need for the care of a patient and the highest likelihood of success in being translated.
The 鶹AV Clinical Innovation Competition (CLIC) and Awards Ceremony took place virtually on May 20, 2021. Clickhere to see the 2021 top teams.
Sean Murphy Prize winners announcement 2020-2021
The Department is proud to announce three winners of the Sean Murphy Award for 2020-2021.
Mercedes Gauthier(supervisor, Dr. Pierre Lachapelle) for her abstract Anna Polosa:Analysis of rodent scotopic oscillatory potentials at extremelydim flashes shown in time and frequency domains.
Harrish Nithianandan(supervisor, Dr. Hady Saheb) for his abstract Ali Salimi, Huda Abdullah:Efficacy of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy is related to the extent of patent trabecular shelf on SS-OCT.
Seung Hyun Min (Sam)(supervisor, Dr. Robest Hess) for his abstract Alexandre Reynaud:Interocular difference in spatial frequency but not size mediated a Pulfrich phenomenon.
Ali Salimi(supervisor, Dr. Hady Saheb) for his abstractHuda Al-Farsi:Gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) with and without concomitant cataract surgery in young and middle-aged adults.
Congratulations to the winners!
Congratulations to our residents and clinical faculty who were awarded prizes at the Resident’s Graduation Dinner held virtually by Zoom on Thursday, June 18, 2020.
Residents awards
- Dr. Fatma Zaguia – Cataract Surgical Skills Award
- Dr. Georges Nasrallah - Leadership Award
- Dr. Henry Fung - Surgical Skills Award
Clinical Faculty
- Dr. Hady Saheb - Best Surgical Teacher
- Dr. John Chen - Best Subspecialty Teacher
- Dr. Jesia Hasan - Best Clinical Teacher
Congratulations to prize winners at the Department of Ophthalmology Research Day 2020, held virtually on October 23, 2020, Anna XuanLan Nguyen (1st prize - Talk), Raheem Remtulla (2nd prize - Talk), Ana Ramirez Hernandes (1st prize - Poster), and Gareth Mercer (2nd prize - Poster).
Winner of Vision Network Publication Award
Congratulations to Seung Hyun (Sam) Min, PhD student of Dr. Robert Hess, for being one of three winners. Sam's paper, co-authored withDr. Alex Baldwin and Dr. Robert Hess, is entitled:Ocular dominance plasticity: A binocular combination task finds nocumulative effect with repeated patching.
Publication: Min SH, Baldwin AS, Hess RF. Ocular dominance plasticity: A binocular combination task finds no cumulative effect with repeated patching. Vision Res. 2019 Aug;161:36-42
The TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards 2019
The department is proud to announce that the 2019 TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards for Excellence in Teaching were given to Dr. Mahshad Darvish (faculty award) and R3 resident Thomas Berk (resident award), at a ceremony at the Deanery, Faculty of Medicine, on February 6, 2019. Drs. Darvish and Berk were among the 13 TCP teachers nominated by Med-2 students. In honour of the laureates, the Faculty of Medicine made a monetary contribution to the TCP Teaching Fund which is used to purchase educational material and tools to support teachers during TCP.
The Stephen Fichman Donation in Clinical Ophthalmology
Stephen H. Fichman, BSc 1959, MDCM 1963, has made a major contribution of $100,000 towards the Faculty of Medicine. He is providing a donation to establish an endowment fund in support of an annual lecture in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences.
The lecture will take place on the 鶹AV Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science’s Clinical Day, and will focus each year on a compelling topic in Ophthalmology. The first annual lecture will take place in the 2018-2019 academic year.
The generous support of individuals like Dr. Fichman makes it possible for our Department to grow to its full potential.
Appointment
We are delighted to announce the appointment of John Galic, MD, FRCSC to the position of Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences. Dr. Galic will assist the will assist the Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Scienceson numerous initiatives and recruitment. Specifics include the planning and recruitment of clinical faculty across subspecialties to ensureexposure of trainees to appropriate volumes and quality of clinical activities across hospital sites, serving as a liaison with the Chair and Director of Research in facilitating access to clinical material for research at various sites,and assisting in the process of appointing and supporting clinical site directors.
Dr. Galic is an Associate Professor in the Department who specializes in retinal diseases. Dr. Galic attained his medical degree at Queen’s University then went on to complete his ophthalmology residency followed by avitreoretinal fellowship at 鶹AV. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor, CAS Clinical in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences in 2005.Dr. Galic has made substantial contributions to developing a national retina fellowship program in Canada and the program is recognized internationally. He is Chair of the Retina Foundation of Canada Medical Advisory Committeesince 2011.
The TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice) Teaching Awards
The TCP (Transition to Clinical Practice)Teaching Awards for Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences were given to Dr. Leonard A. Levin (faculty award) and R4 resident Andre Ali-Ridha (resident award), at a ceremony at the Deanery, Faculty of Medicine, on February 8, 2018. These awards are given by the 2nd year medical students in the TCP program. The department congratulates both winners!
Andre Ali-Ridha and Dr. Levin |
Andre Ali-Ridha and Dr. Discepola |
More News & Events
The Annual Lions Outreach Eye Clinic, held in collaborationwith the Montreal Chinese Lions Club, was held onSaturday, May 4, 2019 at the 鶹AV Academic Eye Centre. For more information, check out the page or send us an eye.med [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Information%20about%20Lions%20Clinic) (email.)
Andre Ali-Ridha, R5 Resident, was a finalist for the2018 Prix Excelsior award, given by the Fédération des médecins résidents du Québec. He was also nominated for the John Ruedy Award for Innovation in Medical Education from The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. Chirstian El-Hadad was nominated for his work in organizing the Lions Club Eye Clinic at the 鶹AV Academic Eye Centre in 2016, where 140 people received care, more than half of whom were Syrian refugees.
鶹AV Peeps Program
鶹AV PEEPs program is an initiative at 鶹AV involving the residents and staff. We are the first program in Canada to start this project and we have recently paired up with the Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Our program involves reaching out to the local community and giving talks about eye safety and how to prevent ocular injuries with the goal of raising more awareness about these preventable injuries. The program is supervised by both Dr. Cheema and Dr. Deschenes. The session involved a 30 minute presentation to visually impaired individuals in the local community, the team at the CNIB including the staff, manager and director and other students.