DOHENY EYE INSTITUTE OPHTHALMOLOGIST RECEIVES GRANT FOR GUIDING THE TREATMENT OF ANTERIOR EYE DISEASES WITH OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY

April 10, 2008 – Los Angeles, CA –Researcher and ophthalmologist, David Huang, MD, PhD, at the Doheny Eye Institute (www.doheny.org) has received a grant award from the prestigious National Institutes of Health for "Guiding The Treatment of Anterior Eye Diseases with Optical Coherence Tomography." This grant is one of several research grants he has received from the National Institutes of Health. The duration of this study will be 3 years. The cumulative direct cost will be $826,000 and the total cost will be $1,232,867.

The long-term goal of this project is to utilize newly available very high-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology to guide surgical treatments of anterior eye diseases. Measuring aberrations in the optical surfaces of the cornea requires great precision. OCT is well known for its exquisite spatial resolution, but until recently it has not had sufficient speed to overcome the inherent biological motion of the eye and capture the shape of the cornea. The development of Fourier-domain (FD) OCT technology has made the requisite speed possible.

Dr. Huang’s work with OCT technology is considered by Ocular Surgery News as one of the “Top 10 Ophthalmic Innovations” in the past twenty five years. He is the medical director of the Doheny Laser Vision Center and the Charles C. Manger III, MD Chair of Corneal Laser Surgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

He thanks Maolong Tang, Ph.D., and Yan Li, M.S., who helped prepare the grant application and preliminary data. He offered special thanks to Sam Yiu, MD, PhD, who also played a major part in the grant.

Dr. Huang is listed in www.trustedlasiksurgeons.com , a directory service that screens LASIK surgeons based on research experience and premier patient care."