News

UNC Ophthalmology pauses this week to recognize International Nystagmus Day, which occurs annually on June 20th. This day of awareness focuses on a lesser-known ophthalmic disorder that affects millions of people worldwide and has no known permanent cure. Nystagmus causes the eyes to make rapid, repetitive, and uncontrolled movements and...

Fireworks are advertised like toys between Memorial Day and July 4th. As a result, emergency rooms treat the highest number of pyrotechnic-related eye trauma cases between mid-June and mid-July. Even the most safety-minded users aren’t aware that via combined force, heat and chemicals, pyrotechnics can cause unexpected explosions when they...

Every June, UNC Ophthalmology’s residency program enters an annual period of transition marked by 3rd-year resident graduation to independence practice, bookended by an arriving class of interns who join us in early July. Looking back on the 2022-2023 academic year, our program takes pride in the learning and enrichment milestones...

June is Cataracts Awareness Month. As the year nears its midpoint, aging adults are advised to pause and learn more about a vision-worsening condition that occurs around age 40 when proteins in the eye lens begin to break down, clump and form a cloudy area over time. Cataracts affect 70...

On Saturday, April 1st, the 2023 UNC EYE Symposium drew colleagues in eye care practice from across North Carolina and out of state to the William & Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill, NC for a daylong conference. This year, this annual symposium reached its highest attendance...

Aging adults can falsely assume that changes in vision mean total loss of vision is inevitable.  In truth, around 40 all adults begin to experience degrees of diminished ocular function, such as loss of ability to focus on objects up close due to hardening of the eye’s lens (presbyopia).  The...

  Every year, UNC Hospitals administers the Press Ganey Medical Practice survey to solicit feedback from patients specific to their likelihood of recommending their UNC provider’s practice to friends and family. This year, survey results informed the selection of 202 UNC Hospitals physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) as recipients...

It’s a busy carpool day with the kids’ sports practice. Packing safety gear competes with dropping each at practice on time. Your high schooler’s got his bucket helmet for lacrosse. Your middle schooler’s excited to wear her new shin guards to soccer. For your fifth grader, however, you’ve not yet...

Over almost a decade at UNC, gene and drug delivery expert Zongchao Han, MD, PhD, has conducted translational research focused on developing novel and alternative therapies to treat retinal diseases via biomedical nanoparticle applications. In March 2023, Gene Therapy* featured a study led by Dr. Han that achieved intact genomic...

Join UNC Department of Ophthalmology on April 1st, 2023, for the annual UNC Eye Symposium at the William & Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. This conference is designated for Ophthalmologists, Optometrists, Ophthalmic Technicians, and Photographers. Please click on the registration links on this page to register early for the...

UNC Department of Ophthalmology is pleased to welcome Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Marc Booth, MD, as the newest faculty member to join the Comprehensive Eye Care team. Dr. Booth joins UNC Ophthalmology on the heels of 20 years in ophthalmology private practice with physician groups nationwide. He brings a...

March 23rd is World Optometry Day! Each year, the eye specialist community pauses to recognize optometrists worldwide and their critical role as highly trained providers of comprehensive eye care. Assistant Professor Michael Mendsen, OD, is a UNC Department of Ophthalmology faculty optometrist and Comprehensive Eye Care team provider at UNC...