Download Clinical Interests - Case Western Reserve University

Dr. Douglas J. Rhee arrived to the University Hospitals Eye
Institute in 2013 as the Chair of the Department of
Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences. He is a glaucoma specialist,
molecular biologist, and board-certified ophthalmologist. In
2016, Dr. Rhee was voted by The Ophthalmologist as one of the
Power 100 (the most influential people in ophthalmology
worldwide). Previously, he had served at the Massachusetts Eye
& Ear Infirmary (MEEI), Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB) and
was the Associate Chief of Operations for the Department of
Ophthalmology and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical
School. Prior to MEEI and CHB, Dr. Rhee was an attending
physician at Wills Eye Hospital and was an Assistant Professor at Jefferson Medical College the
departments of Ophthalmology as well as Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology.
Dr. Rhee was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating
valedictorian of his high school, he entered the combined pre-medical / medical program at the
University of Michigan Medical School. After graduating in the top 10% of his class (Alpha
Omega Alpha), he then finished an internship at the University of Michigan affiliated Oakwood
Hospital (Dearborn, MI). Dr. Rhee completed his ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital
where he also served as co-chief resident. He was awarded a competitive Heed Fellow award
and completed a clinical glaucoma fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and a postdoctoral laboratory fellowship at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health
(Bethesda, MD) investigating the molecular biology of intraocular pressure regulation. Dr. Rhee
went on as an attending physician on the glaucoma service of Wills Eye Hospital for four years,
a clinical consultant of the National Eye Institute for five years, and Massachusetts Eye & Ear
Infirmary for eight years prior to coming to the UH Eye Institute.
Clinical Interests and Contributions
Dr. Rhee cares for both adult and childhood glaucomas. He has an interest in complex
and high-risk cases, rare clinical syndromes, as well as the more common forms of glaucoma.
Some of Dr. Rhee’s clinical research interests include the outcomes of both traditional and
novel/advanced surgical procedures. Combining his research and personal experience with
these procedures, Dr. Rhee is a surgical innovator and strives to optimally customize the
treatment for an individual patient. He has introduced the surgical procedure, ab interno
trabeculotomy (i.e. Trabectome), to New England in 2006. The trabectome is a less invasive
approach to filtration surgery. Dr. Rhee was the fifth surgeon worldwide to perform the
procedure and has pioneered its surgical techniques. His clinical research has helped to define
its place within the glaucoma surgical armamentarium. In 2013, Dr. Rhee introduced the iStent,
a microstent that enhances aqueous humor drainage to lower eye pressure, to New England.
Dr. Rhee is one of the few surgeons in the Midwest who also offers deep sclerectomy, an
alternative to traditional glaucoma filtration surgery trabeculectomy. With the resources of the
glaucoma service of UH/CMC, Dr. Rhee can offer the widest array of surgical procedures and
implant devices (e.g. Baerveldt, Ahmed, Molteno, and ExPress drainage implants) available in
the Midwest. Dr. Rhee has been included in the prestigious Best Doctors (Boston, MA) since
2007. Dr. Rhee was recognized by Boston magazine as one of its “Best Doctors 2007-2008,”
as well as Cleveland magazine since 2015.
The University Hospitals glaucoma service participates in numerous FDA phase 3
device and implant studies to include sustained release medication platforms and novel
microshunts [e.g. hydrus (Ivantis) and supra (Glaukos)] to lower intraocular pressure.
Dr. Rhee has also contributed to our understanding of rare clinical syndromes, such as
plateau iris, medication-induced (sulfonamide, corticosteroid, etc.), and idiopathic elevated
episcleral venous pressure associated glaucoma. For example, Dr. Rhee discovered that
plateau iris syndrome is a familial condition and described the autosomal dominant inheritance
pattern in 50% of affected individuals. He was one of the first to describe the rare condition of
bilateral acute angle closure glaucoma that can be caused by the medication topiramate; Dr.
Rhee went on to describe the only effective treatment for severe cases of topiramate-induced
angle closure. Dr. Rhee has also furthered the knowledge base of medication-induced
(sulfonamide, corticosteroid, etc.) and idiopathic elevated episcleral venous pressure associated
glaucoma.
At the UH Eye Institute, Dr. Rhee has received regional, national, and international
referrals. Dr. Rhee sees patients at UH Eye Institute’s main facility as well as our Landerbrook,
and Westlake Hudson satellites.
Laboratory Research Interests
In addition to his main interest of caring for patients, Dr. Rhee’s scientific research is
aimed at determining the cellular and molecular causes of glaucoma while developing disease
modification/interruption as a novel treatment paradigm. Dr. Rhee’s laboratory is elucidating the
fundamental mechanisms of extracellular matrix dysregulation in the trabecular meshwork.
They have identified key molecular mechanisms that may significantly alter the pathogenesis of
glaucoma and are endeavoring to now translate this into new disease modifying therapy.
Although the matricellular protein, SPARC, was described in the trabecular meshwork (the
principle drain of the eye) in the late 1980’s, Dr. Rhee’s group was first to fully characterize its
expression pattern within the trabecular meshwork and discover SPARCs previously
unrecognized importance to regulating eye pressure. His group has demonstrated some of the
structural, functional, and mechanistic regulatory pathways of these proteins in normal and
abnormal aqueous outflow.
Using prostaglandin analogues and lasers as model systems, Dr. Rhee’s laboratory has
further demonstrated the importance of the relationship of matrix metalloproteinases and their
inhibitors as effector enzymes for the control of eye pressure.
Dr. Rhee co-founded, along with Case Western’s Carol Toris, the International
Trabecular Meshwork and Aqueous Humor Dynamics Society which meets biennially in
Cleveland. Because of Dr. Rhee’s scientific achievement, leadership, and vision, he was
selected to serve on the National Eye Advisory Council of the National Eye Institute, National
Institutes of Health.
Trainees in Dr. Rhee’s laboratory have won the James Shipman Award in 2003, Fight for
Sight Student Fellowships in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 (2), 2011, 2014, Ohio Research to
Prevent Blindness in 2016, and been supported by the extremely competitive and prestigious
Howard Hughes Medical Research Fellowships in 2011 (two separate students) and 2012.
Publications and Awards
Dr. Rhee has published over 80 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. He has
received the competitive American Glaucoma Society’s Clinician-Scientist award in 2004 and
2005 (the maximum number allowed by the society). In 2008, the American Glaucoma Society
honored Dr. Rhee with the inaugural the Mid-Career Physician-Scientist Award. In 2008, Dr.
Rhee was awarded the competitive Research to Prevent Blindness Physician-Scientist Award
from the Research to Prevent Blindness organization. These awards were given to support his
research into eye pressure regulation. His research has been funded by various public and
private sources including the National Eye Institute, Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund
and several corporate sources.
Regional, National, and International Leadership
Dr. Rhee is the current President of the Cleveland Ophthalmologic Society and
immediate past President of the Korean-American Ophthalmologic Society (2012-2016). Dr.
Rhee is on the Governing Board for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
(2013-Present), the Board of Directors of the American Glaucoma Society (2015-Present), one
of the selected few on the National Advisory Eye Council (a.k.a. “Council”) for the National Eye
Institute (2015-Present).
Other Notable Facts
Dr. Rhee has a long history of administrative leadership. While at Wills Eye Hospital, he
served as the Medical Director of the Glaucoma Service Diagnostic Laboratory from 2004
through late 2005. He was awarded the Norman Knight Leadership Development Award in
2006 by Mass. Eye & Ear. In early 2007, Dr. Rhee began service as the Medical Director of the
Mass Eye and Ear suburban centers in Stoneham and East Bridgewater, Mass. In 2008, Dr.
Rhee’s duties expanded to serve as medical director of strategic network development. In
2010, his responsibilities at Mass Eye & Ear expanded to become the Associate Chief of
Practice Development and finally in 2011 to Associate Chief of Operations and Practice
Development. In addition to serving as Chair of the department of ophthalmology at University
Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Rhee chairs the Access Committee of
University Hospitals which has span over patient access across the entire University Hospitals
health care system.
Dr. Rhee is a leading educator of ophthalmologists. He serves on various scientific or
curriculum committees for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, National Institutes of
Health, American Glaucoma Society, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons,
and American Board of Ophthalmology (the certifying organization for ophthalmologists). Dr.
Rhee has served as an Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology since 2006 and
served one year in 2007 as a Special Examiner. In 2007, his contributions to the American
Academy of Ophthalmology were recognized by the Achievement Award and in 2013 by the
Senior Achievement Award; he was again recognized for the American Academy of
Ophthalmology for distinguished educational contributions to the field by the Secretariat Award
in 2014. Dr. Rhee has organized and developed the curricula for numerous regional and
national meetings for the continuing education of his colleague ophthalmologists. In 2013, Dr.
Rhee was named the Chair of the Glaucoma Curriculum Committee for the American Society of
Cataract and Refractive Surgery which oversees the glaucoma content for all ASCRS activities.
Dr. Rhee participates in the teaching of glaucoma to medical students, residents, and fellows.
He has been an invited speaker to over 230 meetings regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Dr. Rhee is an accomplished writer having co-authored the Wills Eye Drug Guide (first
edition 1998, second edition 2001) and was the lead editor for the third edition of the Wills Eye
Manual (2001). He authored the Ophthalmic Drug Guide (first edition 2007, second edition
2010). Dr. Rhee authored and edited Color Atlas & Synopsis of Clinical Ophthalmology:
Glaucoma (first edition 2003, second edition 2012). His has served as a co-editor of the
Shields’ Textbook of Glaucoma (6th ed, 2011). Additionally, he contributed over 30 chapters to
other textbooks whose target audience ranged from the general public, general medicine,
comprehensive ophthalmologists, and glaucoma specialists. Dr. Rhee has served as a
consultant for the Physician’s Desk Reference for Ophthalmology in 1997 and had been the
lead medical editor for this publication since 2002 until its final publication in 2012. He reviews
for several ophthalmologic journals, and in 2006, Dr. Rhee began serving as a contributing
editor for the trade publication Ocular Surgery News, served as an editor for the journal Lasers
in Medicine from 2009-2015, and International Glaucoma Review from 2011-2014.
Dr. Rhee has participated in the training of over 125 residents, 39 clinical fellows, as well
as mentored 4 post-doctoral research fellows, 15 medical and 3 undergraduate students in the
lab. His fellowship trainees have gone onto leadership positions to include a department Chair
and Residency Program Directors. Approximately half of his clinical fellowship and laboratory
trainees are faculty in numerous ophthalmology departments nationally and internationally. Dr.
Rhee inaugurated the first glaucoma fellowship at University Hospitals in 2016.
Patient Advocacy and Education
Dr. Rhee has served to advocate for patient safety issues at the legislative level. Dr.
Rhee served as Vice President of the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons
from 2009-2013 having testified before the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Aside
from numerous citations in ophthalmology trade journals, Dr. Rhee has been interviewed for
local newspapers, radio programs, and the Wall Street Journal.