The USC Department of Ophthalmology and the Doheny Eye Institute continue to be ranked among the top 10 ophthalmology programs in the country by both U.S. News & World Report and Ophthalmology Times. The leading-edge research at the Doheny Retina Institute has resulted in 22 patents.  The innovative “retina chip,” designed to restore sight to patients with blinding retinal disorders, has been placed in 6 clinical trial participants. In 2007, the department moved up to third in the country in the rankings of eye institutes and eye departments receiving research funding from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

National & International Recognition

“Best Doctors in America”

• A. Linn Murphree, M.D.
• Alfredo Sadun, M.D., Ph.D.
• John Irvine, M.D.
• Lawrence Chong, M.D.
• Mark Borchert, M.D.
• Mark Humayun, M.D. Ph.D.
• Narsing Rao, M.D.
• Ronald E. Smith, M.D.
• Stephen Ryan, M.D.

"America's Top Doctors"*

• Mark Borchert, M.D.
• John Irvine, M.D.
• A. Linn Murphree, M.D.
• Narsing Rao, M.D.
• Ronald E. Smith, M.D.

*New York: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.; 2004

USC researchers reveal key findings at ARVO conference»
In more than a dozen presentations of scientific papers and scores of poster presentations, scientists and physicians from the Keck School and USC’s Doheny Eye Institute described their advances in the field of ophthalmology at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., May 1–5.

USC researchers detail progress in restoring partial sight to the blind»
Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine and the Doheny Retina Institute presented data on the first six patients implanted with an intraocular retinal prosthesis. According to Mark Humayun, professor of ophthalmology at the Keck School and the lead investigator on the project, all six of the previously blind patients have been able to detect light, identify objects in their environment, and even perceive motion after implantation with the epiretinal device.