Answering the Call

Each year a new crop of eager young minds embarks on a one-year journey as a resident or fellow in cornea and contact lenses. However, there are a few special individuals who embrace the opportunity to participate in a two-year program: The Ohio State University Advanced Practice Fellowship (APF) in Cornea and Contact Lenses.

It all started in 1977. The first formally accredited one-year optometric residency, at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, had just begun the year prior. Currently there are nearly 300 accredited optometric residency programs, according to the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry. Optometrists in most states did not yet have the privilege of utilizing diagnostic or therapeutic agents. The in-demand lectures on the continuing education circuit revolved around one thing: contact lenses. Soft contact lenses had only been introduced six years earlier and gas permeable rigid materials would be introduced two years later. Nevertheless, as many as two million people worldwide were wearing contact lenses, and the numbers were growing. There was a need to better understand the physiology of the ocular surface and how contact lenses impacted its function. This gave birth to Ohio State Optometry’s fellowship program.

“The motivation for initiating the program was to induce excellent clinical students to become future clinical faculty members and/or researchers in the contact lenses field,” according to Gerald Lowther (OD’66, PhD). Dr. Lowther collaborated with fellow faculty members John Schoessler, OD, PhD and Richard Hill, OD, PhD to create the program.

“It was a two-year program as required to award a Master’s degree,” said Dr. Lowther. “This made it more extensive than the one-year residences we think of today.  It included more research techniques, etc.”

The first two students to participate in the program were Joseph Barr (OD’77, MS’79) and John Pole (OD’75, MS’79). Both went on to establish distinguished careers.

“Saying ‘yes’ to the program was a smart decision for me and probably the best thing I did for my career,” shares Dr. Pole, who spent 36 years teaching at the Michigan College of Optometry.

Dr. Pole continues, “I had so much more experience than the average practitioner fitting difficult patients with keratoconus and other irregular corneas, high astigmats, presbyopes etc. Also, because of the advanced knowledge of the physiology of the cornea, I was able to diagnose and treat diseases of the anterior segment.”

Associate Clinical Professor Nicky Lai (OD/MS’03) has overseen the APF in Cornea and Contact Lenses program since 2008. “I’ve been the clinical advisor,” he explains. “The APF works with their graduate advisor, someone of their choosing, on the graduate (MS) part of the program.”

The current Ohio State Optometry APF is Madison Roth (OD’23). She describes the program as a “hybrid of a traditional residency and graduate school program.” She enjoys the variety in her day-to-day schedule.

“It is the perfect blend of additional clinical training mixed with time dedicated to research and furthering my education,” says Dr. Roth.

An exceptionally high number of graduates of Ohio State’s APR in Cornea and Contact Lenses have established themselves as leaders in the contact lens field as teachers, researchers, industry leaders and specialty care providers. How many names do you recognize on the list of graduates?

One thing we can say for certain. There was a need, and Ohio State Optometry developed a program to answer the call. In true Buckeye fashion, it continues to excel.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Drs. Jeff Walline (OD, MS’98, PhD’02), Nicky Lai (OD/MS’03), Joseph Barr (OD’77, MS’79), Barbara Fink (OD, MS’85, PhD’87), Marjorie Jeandervin Rah (OD’95, MS’97), William Miller (OD’89, MS’91, PhD’94), Joseph Schwallie (OD’90, MS’92), and Keith Basinger (OD’93) for their kind assistance in compiling the list of graduates.