Bascom Palmer Eye Institute | |
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Geography | |
Location | Miami, Florida, U.S. |
Coordinates | 25°47′27.72″N80°12′38.25″W / 25.7910333°N 80.2106250°W |
Organisation | |
Funding | Private |
Type | Teaching |
Affiliated university | University of Miami Miller School of Medicine |
Services | |
Beds | 56 |
Speciality | Ophthalmology |
History | |
Opened | January 20, 1962 |
Links | |
Website | bascompalmer |
Lists | Hospitals in U.S. |
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is the University of Miami School of Medicine's ophthalmic care, research, and education center. The institute is based in the Health District of Miami, Florida, and has been ranked consistently as the best eye hospital and vision research center in the nation. [1]
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute faculty and staff treat patients from around the world at the institute's multi-location facilities, including its flagship location in Miami and at satellite facilities elsewhere in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Collier County in South Florida.
The institute's clinical faculty treats more than 250,000 patients annually, [2] provides 24-hour emergency care, and is the only community-based ophthalmic care center for indigent and low-income patients of Miami-Dade County.
Ophthalmology at the University of Miami School of Medicine began in 1955 and attained departmental status in 1959. [3]
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute was founded seven years later, on January 20, 1962, by Edward W. D. Norton, a neuro-ophthalmologist, retinal specialist, administrator and professor who joined the University of Miami's School of Medicine with aspirations of building a regional ophthalmic center in South Florida. The institute was named after Bascom H. Palmer, a Miami ophthalmologist who settled in Miami in the 1920s. [4]
The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's founding five physicians, including Norton, Victor Curtin, the first faculty member, who was hired in 1959 and established the institute's pathology laboratory and its eye bank, [5] which has provided ophthalmologists with donor eye tissue for more than 30,000 patients since its 1962 founding, [6] J. Lawton Smith, a neuro-ophthalmologist, who created the nation's first post-graduate neuro-ophthalmology course, [7] J. Donald M. Gass, a macular degeneration specialist who developed fluorescein angiography as a diagnostic tool, [8] and John T. Flynn, a pediatric ophthalmologist who established the institute's Children's Clinic. The institute was officially opened on January 20, 1962. [9]
John Clarkson, a vitreoretinal specialist and surgeon, succeeded Norton in 1991 and chaired the institute until 1996. [10] Richard Parrish, a glaucoma specialist, became the institute's third chairman in 1996 and served for three years. Richard Forster, a cornea and external disease specialist, served as interim chairman from 1999 until 2001. Carmen A. Puliafito, a vitreoretinal specialist and surgeon, was appointed chairman of the institute and medical director of the Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital in July 2001, serving until October 2007.
Eduardo C. Alfonso, a cornea and external disease specialist, is Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's present chairman and has served in that capacity since June 2009. [11]
The institute provides 24-hour emergency care and is the only community-based ophthalmic care center for indigent and low-income patients Miami-Dade County. Faculty and staff treat patients with most eye disorders and diseases, including: [20]
Retina and Vitreous Diseases and Surgery
Glaucoma
corneal and external diseases
Laser Vision Center treatments
Neuro-ophthalmology
Ophthalmic oncology
Ophthalmic plastic and orbital surgery
Pediatric ophthalmology
Ophthalmic pathology
Uveitis
Comprehensive ophthalmology
24-hour emergency in Miami
Optical services
Contact lens service
Low vision rehabilitation
In 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked Bascom Palmer Eye Institute the best ophthalmology hospital and research center in the United States for the 17th consecutive year and 19th year overall since the institute's 1962 founding. [21]