All May See Foundation Announces $300,000 in Chair Awards

Periodically, the Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology may request special funding from All May See Foundation. This could be to support residents, medical students, clinical fellows, shared lab support, faculty travel, and more. A formal proposal is submitted to the Foundation and reviewed by its board of directors.

All May See Foundation is pleased to announce the following new chair awards, approved at its April Board meeting, to support the following programs of UCSF Department of Ophthalmology:

Shared Faculty and Microsurgery Laboratory Support

One of All May See’s longstanding goals has been to support promising vision research that has not yet reached the stage for external funding. A key departmental component of that strategy has been the maintenance of a core laboratory facility shared by numerous clinical faculty members who need access to high-quality laboratory facilities for aspects of their work, but all of whom do not have dedicated National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for this purpose.

Support for the shared space has been instrumental in enabling translation of ideas into funded projects for multiple faculty members who bring clinical insight into their applied research projects. This support from All May See helps fund the research specialist/technician position that provides ongoing hands-on expertise in this lab, which thereby allows faculty members to explore early-stage, high-risk / high-reward projects in an expedited fashion so that they do not need to await funding cycles and staff hiring in order to move the experimentation forward. This facility continues to be one of the most academically productive investments All May See makes towards the department’s research program and has directly led to NIH support for numerous high-value projects.

Fellow Research Fund

The clinical fellowship programs represent the highest level of clinical training offered in ophthalmology. The goal is to provide an environment that encourages the development of an academic career path, with fellow graduates seeking full-time academic careers and advancing the understanding and care of patients with visual disability and blindness. UCSF Ophthalmology actively supports mentored research by clinical fellows and the presentation of this research at national conferences.

Medical Student Education Fund

Funds will be used for the following:

1. 1. To support costs associated with creating new curricular and didactic materials for the UCSF Bridges Curriculum.
   2. To support the efforts of a Medical Student Analyst.
   3. Student travel and conference fees to attend scientific meetings.
   4. Preparation of student papers and posters to be presented at national meetings.
   5. Academic mentoring.
   6. Tools to meet learning needs and curricular objectives for medical students including texts, equipment for clinical skills teaching.
   7. Medical student directed ophthalmology faculty lunch time lecture series.

Resident Education Fund

By supporting residency education, All May See has contributed to the professional development of a new generation of leaders in academic and clinical ophthalmology. Support from AMS allows the department to recruit the highest-caliber residents who are trained in research as well as patient care, who conduct mentored research, write papers, present at national scientific meetings, and continue to develop their own research and clinical care programs, becoming distinguished scholars and clinicians throughout the country.

Faculty Scientific Meeting Participation

A critical element in the development of new concepts and therapeutic approaches is the free exchange of ideas amongst experts across diverse fields that occurs at scientific conferences. These face-to-face interactions of faculty with their peers from other institutions across the globe that occur at professional meetings are invaluable, particularly with regards to the earliest emerging work. The Department strongly encourages its faculty involved in research and education to attend and actively participate in subspecialty and scientific meetings. The Department also encourages meeting participation for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who find these experiences extremely valuable in getting early feedback from a diverse group of experts in very specialized areas. This grant award will supplement Departmental support that allows full-time faculty to participate in scientific meetings directly related to their areas of research and clinical expertise, with the goal of advancing their investigation and care in those specific areas

All May See Foundation is proud to support these initiatives and is committed to saving and restoring sight and inspiring hope that, one day, all may see.