Welcome to the Summer 2026 edition of the Department of Ophthalmology InSight Newsletter. This summer we welcomed our new fellows, including our first-ever fellows in neuro-ophthalmology and ocular oncology. We also welcomed six residents, who will spend most of their first year of residency with internal medicine before joining us full time in 2027. In June, we opened the Carlson Family | Dawn’s Light Foundation Research Center in the South Lake Union F building, adjacent to research laboratories and one floor above the Karalis Johnson Retina Center, creating a brand new, purpose-built clinical trials center.
The first of this issue's research spotlights is on Ricky Wang, PhD, the George and Martina Kren Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology Research and joint Professor of Bioengineering and Ophthalmology. Dr. Wang was the senior author of a recent paper published in JAMA Ophthalmology, theorizing that a simple eye exam may soon do far more than check vision because it could help detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
Acting Assistant Professor Yue Wu, PhD and colleagues in the Departments of Bioengineering and Neurology were co-authors. By combining several eye-based measurements, the authors were able to identify patterns linked to cognitive decline, highlighting the eye as a powerful, non-invasive window into brain health.
Also in research, Nayoon Gim, a UW MD/PhD student in Bioengineering and Medicine who completed her PhD in the Department of Ophthalmology, was recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with a Replication Prize for developing a framework to improve the speed and reproducibility in clinical and epidemiologic research using large public biomedical datasets, a form of clinical research that looks for patterns in patients’ electronic medical records to understand diseases, treatments and health outcomes better.
Our Patient Care Spotlight features the new triage clinic in the Eye Institute at Harborview, where Jeff Dabundo, OD, is helping patients gain faster access to appropriate ophthalmic specialty care as needed. The triage clinic can assist with urgent cases, starting initial treatments and getting them to the right ophthalmologist quickly.
In Education, our Class of 2026 residents and fellows were honored at the annual Department of Ophthalmology graduation dinner in June, along with several academic and faculty awards.
Finally, in our philanthropy spotlight, we are pleased to announce that Lisa Olmos de Koo, MD, MBA, is the first holder of the Richard S. Munsen, M.D. Professorship in Ophthalmology, created a year ago by Dr. Munsen and his wife, Deidra Wager, together with generous support from a group of grateful patients.
Russ Van Gelder, MD, PhD,
Boyd K. Bucey Chair, UW Medicine Department of Ophthalmology
Director, Roger and Angie Karalis Johnson Retina Center
Director, Vision Science Center