2023: A YEAR IN REVIEW
BREAKTHROUGHS AND DISCOVERIES

Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology is committed to compassionate patient care, exceptional education and advances in research. We continue to maintain a robust research portfolio, with 28 unique grants, including 13 active NIH R01 awards from eight different principal investigators. We have also introduced a new “Research Track” into our residency program to allow residents to establish research interests and actively perform research throughout their residency.
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Our faculty members have had another productive year — publishing in high-impact journals and achieving other career milestones. Check out some of the top achievements and breakthroughs by the Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology team over the past year.

CLINICAL UPDATES AND ADVANCES

Case Report: Orbital Necrotizing Fasciitis Due to Severe Odontogenic Infection
A patient presented to a Northwestern Medicine emergency department with a day-long history of severe eye pain, eyelid swelling and decreased vision (hand motions). Imaging showed the potential for gas in his orbit, raising the concern for necrotizing fasciitis. In this video, Preeti J. Thyparampil, MD, of Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology describes the case.
Case Report: Bilateral Disc Edema in an Overweight Female Patient
A patient with a BMI of 36 and 5-pound weight gain in the past year presented to Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology with a history of headaches and transient visual obscurations described as a “white out” and shadows in her vision. A dilated funduscopic exam revealed bilateral optic disc edema, mild blurring of peripapillary vessels and a peripapillary hemorrhage, raising the concern for intracranial hypertension.
​Case Report: Extranodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma of the Ocular Adnexa
A 54-year-old man presented to Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology with right eye pain and blurred vision. A clinical exam revealed intraocular pressure (IOP) of 35 mmHg in the right eye and 11 mmHg in the left eye, a salmon-colored sub-epithelial conjunctival infiltration and a diffusely shallow anterior chamber in the right eye, and a normal anterior segment in the left eye.
​Preventive Anti-VEGF Therapy Does Not Improve Outcomes for Patients With NPDR
​Patients with moderate to severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NDPR) who received early therapeutic intervention with anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medication injections saw no improvement in their visual acuity compared to patients who underwent sham treatment, according to a recent clinical trial and published in JAMA and co-authored by Lee Jampol, MD, the Louis Feinberg, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology. 
​AI-Driven Diabetic Retinopathy Screening
Paul J. Bryar, MD, professor of Ophthalmology and Pathology at Northwestern Medicine, discusses how AI is being used to transform diabetic retinopathy screening. He provides an overview of Northwestern Medicine’s diabetic retinopathy screening program, how that differs from traditional screening methods and how AI technology is improving that process.

RESEARCH NEWS AND DISCOVERIES

Study Uncovers Novel Synaptic Intricacies Inside the Retina
A Northwestern Medicine study co-authored by Steven DeVries, MD, PhD, the David Shoch, MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology, has uncovered novel cellular mechanisms within the retina, findings that could help advance the development of targeted therapeutics for diseases and conditions impacting vision, according to findings published in Nature Communications.​
Unified Classification of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells Using Function, Morphology and Gene Expression
How many retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types are there? New research from Northwestern Medicine Ophthalmology’s Schwartz Lab published in Cell Reports suggests that the answer is 42. Gregory W. Schwartz, PhD, the Derrick T. Vail Professor of Ophthalmology, and his team, along with collaborators from University of Chicago, Harvard University and Berkeley University, measured more than 1,800 mouse RGCs to arrive at 42. 

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