Clinical Research

Bascom Palmer’s clinical research effort includes programs led by individual investigators, as well as multi-investigator team programs with shared leadership. Clinical research units provide specific services.  Please scroll down the page to learn more, or click the links below to go directly to specific programs or units.

Clinical Research Investigators

Clinical Research Programs
BPEI Center for Hereditary Retinal Disease
Ocular Epidemiology Research Group

Clinical Research Units
Biometry
   AVATAR
   Biostatistics Center
   Optic Disk Reading Center
Clinical Trials
   Clinical Trials Unit

Clinical Research Programs

Bascom Palmer’s clinical research effort includes programs led by individual investigators. The Ophthalmology clinical training program affiliations of the clinician-researchers are identified in the Training Program Affiliation column.

Clinical Research Investigators

BPEI Center for Hereditary Retinal Disease
Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital clinics

Established in 2005, this unit is a comprehensive program of clinical care, research, and education. The mission is to provide state-of-the-art patient care to affected patients and their family members, and to perform research into the cause and treatment of hereditary retinal conditions. These goals are achieved through a multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary approach involving clinicians, clinical scientists, and basic scientists.

A major effort within the group is the Florida Inherited Eye Disease Project. The project’s main goal is to identify every patient in Florida with an inherited eye disease I order to provide genetic counseling and in preparation for emerging therapeutic opportunities.

Ocular Epidemiology Research Group
Clinical Research Building, 15th Floor

Despite the importance of visual impairment (VI) as a public health problem there has been relatively little research on the influence of this condition on morbidity and mortality. This investigative team was formed to help address this knowledge gap using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Clinical Research Units

Biometry
Biometry is the discipline concerned with the application of statistics to biology, medicine and drug development. It involves the design of experiments and surveys, the storing and organization of the data collected, and data analysis and interpretation.

• AVATAR
  Ophthalmic Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Building, 15th floor
  
  Established in 2007, this unit is dedicated to use of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) as a secondary outcome measure for ophthalmic clinical trials, and for telemedicine application. The focus is on an advanced OCT technology called spectral domain-OCT that enables the reconstruction of a detailed 3-D image from which individual anatomic features can be mathematically quantified.
  
  

  Director Geeta Lalwani, M.D.                Technical Director Delia Cabrera Fernandez, Ph.D. Co-Directors Shuliang Jiao, Ph.D. (Image Acquisition) Giovanni Gregori, Ph.D.  (Image Analysis) Advisors Carmen A. Puliafito, MD, M.B.A. Philip J. Rosenfeld, MD, Ph.D.

  Training Program Affiliation Ophthalmology, Retina BME BME BME Ophthalmology, Retina Ophthalmology, Medical Retina, Retina



• Biostatistics Center
  Ophthalmic Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Building, 15th floor
  
  This unit provides laboratory and clinical research investigators with collaborative expertise in research and clinical study design, data management, and biostatistical analysis. The unit is a resource center for the National Eye Institute of the National Institute’s of Health.
  
  

  Director Richard K. Parrish, II, M.D. Investigators Joyce Schiffman, M.S. William Feuer, M.S. Giovanni Gregori, Ph.D.

  Training Program Affiliation Ophthalmology, Glaucoma



• Optic Disk Reading Center
  Ophthalmic Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Building, 15th floor
  
  This unit is dedicated to the interpretation of retinal fundus photographs and the accumulation and analysis of data sets for multi-center clinical outcomes studies.
  
  

  Director Richard K. Parrish, II, M.D. Investigators Douglas R. Anderson, M.D. Donald L Budenz, M.D.

  Training Program Affiliation Ophthalmology, Glaucoma Ophthalmology, Glaucoma Ophthalmology, Glaucoma

Clinical Trials
Clinical trials apply the scientific method to human health. Observational studies are those in which individuals are observed and their outcomes are measured by the investigators. Interventional studies are those in which the research subjects are assigned by the investigator to a treatment or other intervention, and their outcomes are measured.

• Ophthalmic Clinical Trials Unit
  Ophthalmic Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Building, 15th floor
  and clinic floors
  
  This unit provides infrastructure, space, and regulatory support for clinical trials and clinical research conducted at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.