2024 Hill Lecture: Dr. Loretta Szczotka-Flynn
The Hill Lecture Series endowment brings internationally recognized scientific innovators and thought leaders in the field of vision science to our doorstep. This year, the College of Optometry was proud to honor one of our own, Loretta Szczotka-Flynn (OD/MS’92), the 2024 Richard and Leonora Hill lecturer.
Dr. Szczotka-Flynn traveled from Cleveland, where she is the Searle Huang Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. It was in her role as the Director of the Contact Lens Service at the University Hospitals Eye Institute where she served as one of my clinical attendings and solidified my passion for cornea and contact lens research and practice.
In her talk, titled “Clinical and research interests on the corneal endothelium: from swelling to surgery and back again,” Dr. Szczotka-Flynn took us on a chronological journey of her extensive research career. As a graduate student in optometry school, Dr. Hill himself trained Dr. Szczotka-Flynn on his pioneering equivalent oxygen percentage technique. This research influenced her master’s project and led to a series of Contact Lens Spectrum articles that translated equivalent oxygen percentage to more clinically focused hypoxic stress units, coauthored by Dr. Hill.
I’d like to go back in history because you need to understand the legacy of the tremendous contact lens heroes and greats that came and spent some time here at Ohio State.
Her early interest in corneal swelling manifested later in her directing two NIH funded, multisite corneal transplant studies. The Cornea Preservation Time Study found that donor corneal tissues can be preserved for up to 11 days and still successfully grafted, which expanded the previously accepted tissue age of one week. Additionally, the study found that the endothelial cell loss three years post-transplant was far less with DSEK when compared to traditional penetrating keratoplasty. Her current work with the Diabetes Endothelial Keratoplasty Study evaluates the effect of donor diabetic status on endothelial keratoplasty graft success. The results of this study will have a major impact on the availability and utilization of donor tissues.
I had the distinct pleasure of training under [Dr. Hill] and leaning his EOP (Equivalent Oxygen Percentage technique).
Finally, Dr. Szczotka-Flynn closed with some current work that was inspired by clinical observations of regional corneal swelling in post-penetrating keratoplasty corneas. Her study group found that endothelial cell density and daily corneal thickness changes were counterintuitive, suggesting that endothelial cell density may not correlate to function in this population.
We look forward to hearing more from Dr. Szczotka-Flynn in the future, as she continues on her path of corneal exploration, still inspired by her Buckeye mentors from years ago. It is bittersweet that Dr. Hill did not get to see his former graduate student present highlights from her storied career, but there is no doubt that he would be proud.
