Russell N. Van Gelder, MD

I am deeply honored to be nominated to serve as Vice Chair of the Council, and to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Academy.

As Council Vice Chair and Trustee, my mission will be to serve our profession by representing the diverse practices of our membership. The coming months and years will be a truly tumultuous and challenging time for all of health care. Ophthalmology’s role in health care is unique, and it will be essential that the Academy can represent the needs of its members in the larger debate on health care reform. At the same time, we face novel and pressing challenges within the profession. It is critical that we work diligently to resolve our internal issues; continue to defend our patients by ensuring that surgery is performed only by surgeons and medicine is practiced by medical doctors; and that we maintain our powerful, unified voice to the rest of medicine and to the government. All of us who practice ophthalmology know what a profound and powerful force we, as a profession, are in safeguarding the vision of our society. I sometimes challenge our residents to imagine a world without ophthalmologists, in which nearly every person over the age of 65 would be consigned to a life of poor or no vision. Our contributions cannot be minimized.

I bring broad experience to these positions. I am one of a small number of uveitis specialists who practice in the Northwest, and have a busy referral practice. Prior to coming to Seattle in 2008, I practiced for 10 years as a member of the Barnes Retina Institute, a large retina practice in St. Louis, MO that is an amalgam of private practice and university service. In my current position, I am chair of a mid-sized academic department, and director of the University of Washington Eye Institute, a 20-ophthalmologist multi-specialty group, which includes comprehensive and subspecialist members. I am acutely aware of the financial issues involved in ophthalmology practice! I believe strongly in the obligation of every ophthalmologist to not only practice state-of-the-art care but endeavor to improve upon it. I am a clinician-scientist with NIH funding, working on novel treatments for irreversible blindness as well as diagnostic tests for ocular inflammation. I serve on the Editorial Boards of the AJO and IOVS. Within the Academy, I have served on numerous committees including the BCSC, MOC, and nominating committees; organized and taught LEO and many individual courses at the annual meeting; and have completed the Leadership Development Program in 2003. I have been councilor to the Academy for the American Uveitis Society for the past three years. Outside the Academy, I am currently President of the American Uveitis Society, and serve on the Board of Trustees of the Washington Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.

I respectfully ask for your vote for Vice Chair of Council and member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy.