Faculty Profiles for the Webcast
George A Williams, MD
George A Williams, MD is Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Beaumont Eye Institute at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He is also Clinical Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Eye Research Institute of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.
A graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, he completed his residency in ophthalmology and his fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Eye Institute of the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr Williams has published over 150 articles and book chapters in the field of vitreoretinal surgery. He has participated as principal investigator or co-investigator in over 20 clinical trials, including studies sponsored by the National Eye Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr Williams is a recipient of the Secretariat Award and the Senior Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is chair of the Retina Ophthalmic Technology Assessment Committee and a member of the Health Policy Committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr Williams is past president of the Vitreous Society (now the American Society of Retinal Specialists) and the Michigan Ophthalmological Society. He is an associate examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and a member of the American Medical Association, Retina Society, and Macula Society.
Jay S Duker, MD
Dr Duker is the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Tufts-New England Medical Center, Director of the New England Eye Center, and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has also held several visiting professorships, most recently at the Columbus EENT Society, Columbus, Ohio, and Northshore/Long Island Jewish Hospital, Long Island, New York.
A graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr Duker completed an ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, where he was chief resident, followed by a 2-year fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery fellowship, also at Wills.
Dr Duker’s major research interests include retinal vascular disease, drug delivery to the posterior segment, HIV-related ocular complications, and new imaging systems, particularly optical coherence tomography (OCT). He was principal investigator for a Phase II study of PKC412 (midostaurin) for diabetic macular edema (DME), and an investigator or coinvestigator for studies of intravitreal fluocinolone and octreotide acetate for DME and nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, respectively.
Dr Duker is the lead editor of one of the best-selling ophthalmology textbooks, Ophthalmology (Mosby), and the author of numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed original research studies, and review articles. He has also served as an editorial board member or reviewer for many ophthalmology and medical journals, including Ophthalmology, Retina, New England Journal of Medicine, Survey of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmic Surgery and Laser Therapy, Evidence-Based Eye Care, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, American Journal of Ophthalmology, and Archives of Ophthalmology.
Among Dr Duker’s professional society memberships are the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology, the New England Ophthalmology Society, the Vitreous Society, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Medical Association. Dr Duker has received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Honor Award and Senior Achievement Award.
Neil M Bressler, MD
Dr Bressler is currently Chief of the Retina Division at the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He also has an endowed chair as the inaugural James P Gills Professor of Ophthalmology. Dr Bressler graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1982. After completing an ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1986, he returned to Baltimore to join the faculty at the Wilmer Eye Institute. In addition to teaching medical students, residents, and fellows at Hopkins, Dr Bressler directs several Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Continuing Medical Education courses in ophthalmology each year.
Dr Bressler’s research has focused on collaborative efforts in clinical trials of treatments for common retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. He has served as Study Chair of the National Institutes of Health-supported Submacular Surgery Trials. Additionally, he is Network Chair of the National Eye Institute’s Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network, a network of over 150 clinical centers and 1,100 certified staff involved in diabetic eye research around the country. He also chairs or helps to lead several multinational randomized clinical trials evaluating drug treatments for macular degeneration, and trials testing new devices for the detection and management of retinal diseases.
Dr Bressler is Chair of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee for the National Eye Institute’s Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health. He is also a member of the Ophthalmic Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee for the Center for Devices and Radiologic Health, US Food and Drug Administration, and is a member of the US Pharmacopoeia Expert Committee. The author of over 200 published peer-reviewed articles, Dr Bressler currently serves on the editorial boards for the Archives of Ophthalmology, where he heads the Controversy Section, and for Retina.
Among his many honors, Dr Bressler was the youngest recipient of the Macula Society’s J Donald M Gass Medal (2003). In 2004, he received the Helen Keller Foundation Award.
Faculty Profiles for the CME/CE Article
Michael J Cooney, MD, MBA is a practicing vitreoretinal surgeon at the Vitreous Retina Macula Consultants of New York in Manhattan. Dr Cooney attended Siena College in upstate New York and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. Upon completing an internal medicine internship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr Cooney completed his ophthalmology residency at The Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was asked to remain at Johns Hopkins for a medical and surgical retina fellowship at the Wilmer Retinal Vascular Center. Dr Cooney was an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins until 2001, when he joined the faculty at Duke University Eye Center. At Duke, Dr Cooney was director of the medical retina service, the Duke Center for Macular Degeneration, and the medical retina fellowship program from 2001 to 2005.
Dr Cooney received his MBA degree from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Dr Cooney’s clinical practice focuses on the medical and surgical treatment of vitreoretinal diseases, particularly age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. He is actively involved in the clinical development of new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities for vitreoretinal disease and the training of residents and fellows at Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. Dr Cooney has authored over 40 publications and book chapters.