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Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., M.B.A.
Dean, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Current Position
Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., is dean of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, holder of the May S. and John Hooval Dean’s Chair in Medicine, and professor of ophthalmology and health management at the Doheny Eye Institute. Dr. Puliafito assumed his role at the Keck School on November l, 2007.
Background
As a chair of two departments of ophthalmology over a 16-year period, Dr. Puliafito established himself as one of most creative and successful leaders in academic ophthalmology. From 2001 to 2007, he served as director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He earned acclaim for creating and enacting a strategy for growth that propelled Bascom Palmer to new heights in clinical practice, education and research.
Under Dr. Puliafito’s leadership, Bascom Palmer’s faculty increased from 33 to 70 members. Research funding rose from $2.5 million in 2002 to more than $8 million in 2007. Clinical revenues rose from $16 million to a projected $35 million in 2007.
In addition to the opening of two satellite patient care centers in South Florida, he led fundraising and development efforts for the opening of a $22 million, seven-acre campus for Bascom Palmer in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The facility offers the most technologically advanced eye care available.
Bascom Palmer seized the No. 1 spot in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of eye hospitals in 2004, three years after his arrival.
Prior to his work at Bascom Palmer, Dr. Puliafito served as founding director of the New England Eye Center and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Tufts University (1991 to 2001). He accepted and met the challenge of building an eye program at Tufts that could compete with well-established Boston-area counterparts. During this time, he burnished his credentials as an administrator by earning an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Puliafito started his career at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, where he was founder of the Laser Research Laboratory, director of the Morse Laser Center, a member of the Retina Service, and associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.
Research and Development
Dr. Puliafito is recognized as co-inventor of the technology of optical coherence tomography (OCT), and was the first ophthalmologist to use this technology to study the human macula in health and disease.
From his first publication about OCT in 1991, to the implementation of the first clinical system two years later, Dr. Puliafito led in the development of a technology that revolutionized retinal practice and made a real difference for both patients and retinal specialists.
From a single system at the New England Eye Center at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1993, OCT has now grown to have a global impact with more than 7,000 systems in use every day throughout the world.
For his work on OCT, Dr. Puliafito was awarded (along with James Fujimoto and Eric Swanson) the 2002 Rank Prize-- the world’s most prestigious award in optoelectronics.
Throughout his career, Dr. Puliafito has been an innovator, most recently participating in the introduction of bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of retinal disorders. He was the first to describe the use of semiconductor diode laser for retinal photocoagulation, and did pioneering basic science research in excimer laser photoablation and optical breakdown and photodisruption.
Degrees
A graduate of Harvard University and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Puliafito completed his residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary of Harvard Medical School, as well as fellowships in ophthalmic pathology and vitreoretinal diseases and surgery. He also earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.
Professional Leadership
Dr. Puliafito has served as president of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, vice president of the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, and trustee and president of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the largest eye research organization in the world.
Publications
He is the author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications in scientific literature as well as six books.
Personal
A native of Buffalo, New York, Dr. Puliafito is married to Janet Pine, M.D., a former classmate at Harvard Medical School. They have three children-- Amy, Ben and Sam.
Dr. Puliafito is an award-winning philatelist (collector and student of postage stamps), an expert on the early history of the U.S. postal service, and a runner who has completed the Boston Marathon and numerous half-marathons.
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