The most common hereditary retinal dystrophy in the world is Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Over the past four years, the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, under the leadership of Dr. José -Alain Sahel, who has dedicated his career to the study and development of new treatments for hereditary retinal dystrophies, […]
Gathering the Pieces to Help Solve the Problem of Sino-Nasal Cancers
The Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is consistently one of the most highly regarded departments in the country. A key component of this long-time success can be attributed to the pioneering efforts that have been made in the field of nose and paranasal sinus cancers. Sino-Nasal Cancers and the […]
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What is the Guerilla Eye Service?
Living up to their motto of “travel light and save sight,” Dr. Evan Waxman, along with ophthalmology residents and medical school students, take their “mobile eye clinic” to underserved communities around Pittsburgh three times a month. Vision loss is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people around the world. Exasperating this problem is the […]
Three Years of the Survivorship Clinic: New Programs and New Research
In 2016, Jonas Johnson, MD, Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh, and Marci Nilsen, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care in the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing established the UPMC Survivorship Clinic for Head and Neck Cancer. The clinic’s mission is to address […]
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Big Data, Big Possibilities
By leveraging scalable computational power, machine learning offers the potential to predict outcomes of a person’s disease from real-world data extracted from electronic medical records. What is a Digital Twin? The Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh has invested time and resources into building an artificial intelligence model that would predict the way […]
Q&A with Dr. Andrew McCall, Otologist
Sight & Sound launched a new feature with our most recent edition – a Question & Answer (Q&A) session with one of our popular University of Pittsburgh faculty members and UPMC clinicians. This series focuses on questions and concerns that clinicians are asked daily by patients. Additionally, Q&A will offer insight into a diverse mix […]
Restoring Vision with Optogenetics
Dr. Sahel spoke about pioneering work in optogenetics, where scientists have attempted to, with success, restore the function of the cone cells in the eye that were not completely lost due to disease by utilizing light-sensitive algae. On Thursday, May 21, Department of Ophthalmology Chairman Jose-Alain Sahel, MD gave an honorary lecture (virtually) at Columbia […]
Reviving Retigabine for Tinnitus Podcast
Tinnitus Talk, “a podcast on all things tinnitus,” interviewed Thanos Tzounopoulos, PhD, director of the Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center on his research on developing a drug to treat tinnitus. His work builds on the previously somewhat successful off-label tinnitus drug Retigabine (Trobalt). That drug was taken off the market due to severe side effects. Thanos […]
Hearing Loss and Social Isolation
“Blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people.” —Helen Keller These words, spoken so many years ago, unfortunately still hold true for millions of people with untreated hearing loss around the world. While more and more health care systems and insurers are interested in social participation as it is linked to health […]
A New Look at Treating Eye Disease
Exciting breakthroughs in ocular drug delivery and release may provide relief for vision patients who rely on eye drops, thanks to the work of Morgan Fedorchak, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Bioengineering and Clinical & Translational Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. New Solutions to Old Problems One of the biggest problems patients face with […]
Surgical Cognition Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh
There is much more to surgery than manual dexterity. A virtuoso violinist does not necessarily make a great surgeon. The Surgical Cognition Laboratory at the Eye & Ear Institute is a new initiative that delves deep into the surgical experience to better understand the origins of surgical expertise. Led by Carl Snyderman, MD, MBA of […]
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Getting a Bird’s Eye View
Scientists in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine continue to advance their research on a variety of areas that could eventually help solve the puzzle of vision loss. One current area of focus involves studying the fovea. What’s a Fovea? The fovea is a small depression in the retina […]
A Window to the Brain: Understanding How What We Hear Influences How We Behave
As humans, our senses, such as hearing, influence how we perceive and recognize the world around us. For example, most everyone has experienced the phenomenon of hearing a certain song and instantly being transported to a specific memory of their life. Researchers in the Department of Otolaryngology, however, are now trying to determine how what […]
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Swimming Towards a Cure: Studying Fish to Understand Vision Loss in Humans
Led by Jeffrey Gross, PhD, the E. Ronald Salvitti Chair in Ophthalmology Research and the director of the Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration, researchers are studying an unlikely creature to understand vision loss in humans: zebrafish. A major focus area for the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine […]
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COVID-19 and Your Respiratory Tract: Important Signs to Know From the ENT Team
The Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine would like to provide information on COVID-19 and how it affects your respiratory tract. The clinicians are here to help you during the quarantine caused by this pandemic. Q: What is COVID-19? COVID-19 is a form of the coronavirus, which is a respiratory […]
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