The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the appointment of Michael Chiang, MD, as director of the National Eye Institute (NEI). Dr. Chiang is currently the Knowles Professor of Ophthalmology & Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and is associate director of the OHSU Casey Eye Institute.
“Dr. Chiang brings extensive experience as a clinician, researcher and educator to NIH. His work in biomedical informatics and telehealth research are particularly important for the future of vision research,” said NIH director Francis Collins, MD, PhD. “I look forward to having him join the NIH leadership team later this year. I also want to recognize Santa J. Tumminia, PhD, for her dedicated leadership in serving as the acting director of NEI since October 2019.”
As director, Dr. Chiang will oversee an annual budget of nearly $824 million, including 1,600 research grants and training awards that will primarily support vision research.
Aside from his clinical practice focusing on pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus, Dr. Chiang is an active researcher. His areas of interest include telemedicine and artificial intelligence for diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity and other ophthalmic diseases, as well as implementation and evaluation of electronic health record systems, modeling of clinical workflow and data analytics. He has been a principal investigator on multiple NIH grants since 2003, and his research group has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers.
Over the years, Dr. Chiang has mentored more than 50 postdoctoral fellows, medical students and graduate students. He codirects both an OHSU-wide vision science training program for predoctoral and postdoctoral students and a mentored clinician-scientist program in ophthalmology, both of which are funded by the NIH.
An active member of the Academy, Dr. Chiang previously served as chair of the medical information technology committee and was an at-large member of the board of trustees. Currently, he is on the IRIS® (Intelligent Research in Sight) Registry executive committee and is chair of the IRIS Registry data analytics committee. In addition, he serves on the editorial board for the Academy’s flagship journal, Ophthalmology.
Dr. Chiang earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering and biology from Stanford University; his master’s degree in biomedical informatics from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; and his MD and master’s in medical science from Harvard Medical School and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.