News

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...

When the 2020 pandemic made working remotely the new normal, millions of Americans found themselves adjusting to the home as their full-time workplace and. Displaced desk sitters spent extended periods in front of screens logging longer hours, and reports of suffering symptoms of digital eye strain became more common. A...

As a UNC freshman, Nicholas Ilgandi was a familiar face around UNC Kittner Eye Center. By graduation, the well-liked, motivated undergraduate’s primary role within the department had expanded to assisting a wide range of faculty-led clinical studies serving as a Clinical Research Assistant.  Nicholas is now a first-year medical student...

Advanced-age adults who face increased odds of developing a degenerative eye disease frequently narrow their worries to conditions that are most in the spotlight and/or prevalent, such as the world’s two leading causes of blindness — cataract and glaucoma. Lost in this mix among senior Americans is adequate awareness of...