Download Neuro-Ophthalmology Faculty and Staff

Neuro-Ophthalmology Faculty and Staff
FACULTY RESEARCH INTEREST SUMMARIES
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Service Director, Randy Kardon M.D., Ph.D., has been part of the
neuro-ophthalmology faculty in this Department since 1989. He has
continued the Iowa tradition of interest in pupillary questions and has
taken pupillary research to a new level of technical sophistication. He
is recognized as an important innovator; he has developed several
new tests for examining visual function, and has a number of national
competitive grants supporting his pupil studies. In addition, he is
known as an astute diagnostician, an effective teacher and is a much
sought after lecturer.
Michael Wall, M.D. is a neurologist who trained as a neuroophthalmologist in Boston. Dr. Wall has been part of the Neuroophthalmology faculty at Iowa since 1991. Before that he had been a
neuro-ophthalmologist at Tulane University in New Orleans. Although
based in the Neurology Department, Dr. Wall staffs the Neuroophthalmology Clinic in the Eye Department on certain days of the
week. He has a special clinical interest in increased intracranial
pressure and its effect on vision. Dr. Wall is also an expert on testing
the visual fields and a respected investigator on the subtleties of this
important test.
Dr. Matthew Thurtell joined our Department in December 2010, as
Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in Ophthalmology,
Neurology and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr.
Thurtell trained in Neurology in Sydney, Australia under the
mentorship of Dr. G. Michael Halmagyi, one of the most well known
experts in ocular motility and the vestibular system. Following his
residency, Dr. Thurtell completed a two year fellowship in Neuroophthalmology with Drs. John Leigh and Robert Tomsak at Case
Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. During his clinical fellowship in
Cleveland, Dr. Thurtell continued to develop his expertise in eye
movement and in the visual afferent system, with special interest in the
pathophysiology and treatment of raised intracranial pressure as it pertains to the visual system. Dr.
Thurtell then completed a third year of Neuro-ophthalmology fellowship at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia under the direction and mentorship of Drs. Nancy Newman, Valerie Biousse, and
Beau Bruce. Dr. Thurtell adds important expertise to our Iowa Neuro-ophthalmology Service in central
and peripheral aspects of ocular motility physiology and pathology. He also continues his interest and
expertise in the afferent visual system, including idiopathic intracranial hypertension
Chris A. Johnson, Ph.D. received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Oregon, his doctorate from Penn State University and an
honorary doctorate from the State University of New York. After
postdoctoral training in the Department of Ophthalmology at the
University of Florida, he was a faculty member in the Department of
Ophthalmology, University of California, Davis for approximately 17
years, and was then a research scientist and director of diagnostic
research at Devers Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon for 10.5 years. Dr.
Johnson has received considerable research funding throughout his
career and has more than 300 publications. He has also been active in
several multicenter clinical trials, developing and maintaining several
visual field reading centers, and has participated in many collaborative studies with companies in the
private sector and has served on a number of national and international committees. Dr. Johnson is
the Director of the University of Iowa Visual Field Reading Center.
H. Stanley Thompson, M.D., M.S. founded the Neuro-ophthalmology
Unit in Iowa City, was its director for 30 years (1967-1997) and is now
retired. His interest in the workings of the pupil of the eye stimulated
pupillary research in Iowa City and made Iowa known around the world
as a place where unusual pupillary problems might be solved.
Marcia Griffin, COA, (left) and Mary Stever Terrill, COA (right) are our clinical technicians. Mary
and Marcia do the preliminary examination and some of the tests for most of the patients in our clinic.
Ramona Weber is our service secretary
Group photos of past faculty and fellows