Richard L. Abbott, MD
Dr. Abbott served as president of the Board of Trustees in 2011 and currently serves as Secretary for Global Alliances. Prior to his current term, he served on the Academy's Committee of Secretaries as secretary for quality care and knowledge base development from 2002 to 2008. He has served in several leadership positions since 1981, including secretary for quality of care (1994) and senior secretary for ophthalmic practice (1996 to 2001). He also served as chairman of the board of OMIC (2009 to 2010).
Dr. Abbott is the Thomas W. Boyden health sciences clinical professor of ophthalmology at the University of California San Francisco and research associate at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation. He received his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 1971. After completing his internship at Los Angeles County Hospital, he spent two years in the Indian Public Health Service teaching medics and running a community health clinic on the Navajo reservation. He then pursued his ophthalmology training with a residency at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and a fellowship in corneal and external diseases at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, where he was awarded both a Heed and Fight for Sight Fellowship grant. In 1978, upon completion of his training, Dr. Abbott returned to San Francisco, where he practiced for 17 years as a consultant and then director of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service at California Pacific Medical Center. He joined the full-time faculty at UCSF as professor and co-director of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service in 1995.
Dr. Abbott received the Academy's Honor Award in 1984 and its Senior Honor Award in 1994. In 2006, he was awarded the Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1995, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Lecturer Scholarship from the Ministry of Health, Singapore, and in 2007 received the International Distinguished Golden Service Award from the Chinese Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2008, he was elected as a lifetime member of Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and in 2009 was appointed adjunct professor of ophthalmology in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society and is listed in Who’s Who in America and the World, as well as Best Doctors in America. He has authored or co-authored more than 85 peer reviewed publications and 34 book chapters and has delivered more than 600 invited lectures and 17 named lectures.
Dr. Abbott is currently involved in several leadership positions for many organizations outside of the Academy. These include: past president and member of the Executive Committee, Pan American Association of Ophthalmology, past president of the Pan American Ophthalmological Foundation, Board of Directors for the Society of Heed Fellows, Board of Directors for That Man May See Ophthalmic Foundation, executive committee and member of the Board of Directors for ORBIS Telemedicine Cyber Sight Advisory Board and International Program Advisory Council and chair for Guidelines Development and board member of the International Council of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Abbott is an emeritus director of both the American Board of Ophthalmology and the Castroviejo Cornea Society, and has also served as a member of the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel and the NEI coordinating committee for the development of a patient assessment instrument for refractive error correction.
Direct Financial Relationships with Industry
Nothing to disclose.
