The Emory Eye Center, part of the Emory University School of Medicine, has a long tradition of teaching, research, and patient care in ophthalmology that began in the late nineteenth century. The center maintains a commitment to clinical trials and multidisciplinary, translational research that has been supported by National Institutes of Health grants for nearly forty years. Its vision research work connects ophthalmology with related health sciences fields and research partners across Emory, including the Emory National Primate Research Center.
The importance of research has grown along with the clinical work of the Emory Eye Center. The center’s Research Division includes laboratory groups, a clinical trials program, and research specialists, postdoctoral fellows, and students, working to translate research into new approaches for preventing and treating vision disorders and diseases. Clinical research and trials continue to connect the center’s scientific work with patient care.
Research projects at Emory include studies of ocular oncology, retinal disease, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and optic nerve disease, inherited eye conditions, immunology, drug delivery, and gene therapy. Clinical trials include studies in ocular oncology, neuro-ophthalmology, glaucoma, pediatric ophthalmology, and related areas. These research projects and clinical studies support the center’s broader effort to translate scientific research into improved prevention, accurate diagnosis, and treatment of vision disorders.
Research projects are conducted in collaboration with institutions and organizations in Atlanta’s vision research community, including Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and Morehouse School of Medicine. Emory Eye Center also collaborates with Emory National Primate Research Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center.
The many strides that have been made in eye research and clinical eye care in Georgia can be traced back to a time when the practice of ophthalmology was just beginning in the United States. In 1872 Abner W. Calhoun, the Southeast’s first specialist in the eye and ear, came fresh from training in Vienna, Austria, and Berlin, Germany, to Atlanta Medical College, which was established by his father, Andrew B. Calhoun, in 1854. (Atlanta Medical College became Emory University School of Medicine in 1915.)
Abner Calhoun served as faculty president from 1900 until 1910. He and industrialist Andrew Carnegie provided funds to construct a medical college building that later became part of Grady Memorial Hospital, which remains a training ground for Emory residents. As the only scientifically trained ophthalmologist in the South of Maryland, Calhoun was the specialist of choice for many southerners with serious eye problems before the turn of the century.
From 1910 until 1940, Calhoun’s son, F. Phinizy Calhoun Sr., was department chair at Emory, earning a reputation as one of the region’s leading ophthalmologists. His successor, Grady Clay, developed an academic program for ophthalmology students and for eye, ear, nose, and throat resident physicians. Clay served as department chair from 1940 until 1946.
In 1940 Clay and Phinizy Jr., the son of F. Phinizy Calhoun Sr., organized an ophthalmic pathology laboratory, one of only a handful of laboratories of its kind in the country. Calhoun Jr. went on to serve as department chair from 1946 until 1978. During his tenure he helped open an eye bank, the fifth in the United States, to serve patients in the Southeast who needed corneal transplants. He is credited with bringing modern ophthalmology to Georgia. In 1947 Phinizy Calhoun Jr. became the first eye doctor in the state to perform surgery under a microscope and the first in the Southeast to perform a corneal transplant. Colleagues regarded him as one of the best-trained ophthalmic pathologists in the country during the 1950s and 1960s, when the subspecialty was beginning to develop. During his many years at Emory, he helped train more than 100 ophthalmologists, who went on to practice across the country.
Emory Eye Center has continued to receive national recognition, including recognition in Ophthalmology Times national surveys and in U.S. News & World Report health-care rankings.
