SAN FRANCISCO – The American Academy of Ophthalmology Academy has presented the Outstanding Advocate Award to Michael R. Redmond, MD, for his more than 30 years of involvement with advocacy on behalf of ophthalmologists and their patients and for his many contributions to the Academy.
In addition to being a driving force for many years in the Florida Society of Ophthalmology and its political action committee, Dr. Redmond was also the only ophthalmologist on the Council on Legislation for the Florida Medical Association for many years, eventually becoming the chairman of that council. He served on the Academy's Board of Trustees from 1993 to 1999, first as chairman and vice-chairman of the Council and then as trustee-at-large. He was elected by the Academy's more than 25,000 members to serve as the organization's president in 2003. Other Academy positions Dr. Redmond has held are representative to the American Medical Association's House of Delegates, chairman of EyeCare America's Children's EyeCare Project and chairman of the Long-Range Planning Committee. In addition, he was also a member of the Ethics Committee, the Ad Hoc Committee for Primary Eye Care and the Committee for State Governmental Affairs, and he chaired the Subspecialty Society Relations Task Force.
"Dr. Redmond's legislative work, both on a national and local level, has truly had a momentous impact on the field of ophthalmology," said David W. Parke II, MD, CEO of the Academy. "I could think of no finer person to receive this award. He is a teacher, an advocate and an ambassador for our profession. As a pediatric ophthalmologist, children's eye care issues have always been special to him."
Dr. Redmond received his medical degree from St. Louis University in 1968 and completed his residency there in 1974. He completed his fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology at the University of Iowa in 1975. Dr. Redmond currently practices in a multi-specialty group practice in Pensacola, Fla.
The Outstanding Advocate Award was created in 2008 to recognize Academy members who participate in advocacy-related efforts at the state and/or federal level. The nominee must be a Fellow or Member in good standing of the American Academy of Ophthalmology who has demonstrated a decades-long pattern of advocating for the profession and for patients. Dr. Redmond, who was nominated for this honor by the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, is only the fourth recipient of the Outstanding Advocate Award.
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About the American Academy of Ophthalmology
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is the world's largest association of eye physicians and surgeons—Eye M.D.s—with more than 29,000 members worldwide. Eye health care is provided by the three "O's" – opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who can treat it all: eye diseases and injuries, and perform eye surgery. To find an Eye M.D. in your area, visit the Academy's Web site at www.aao.org.