Flanzer Eye Center Opens
(l-r) Mr. and Mrs. Louis Flanzer and Mr. and Mrs. Seymour
Milstein in front of the entrance to the Flanzer Eye Center
Center Offers Advanced Care in
Pleasant Surroundings
The Flanzer Eye Center, which opened formally on November 18, l998, is a state-of-the-art patient
care facility that dramatically revitalizes clinical space on the Harkness Eye Institute’s first floor. The new space combines an attractive, modern, and patient-friendly environment with today’s most sophisticated technology, to accommodate physicians, staff, and patients of Columbia phthalmology Consultants, Inc., Columbia University’s Ophthalmology faculty practice.
Very Special Friends
Lead gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Louis Flanzer, Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Milstein, and a consortium of donors that includes Messrs. Samuel Sheng and Jack Clark, Fluorosystems, Ltd., The Fischbach Foundation, and Dr. and Mrs. Stanley Chang made creation of the Flanzer Eye Center possible. “We are fortunate to have a number of very special friends,” said Dr. Chang, chairman of the Department of phthalmology and Edward S. Harkness Professor, “who, seeing a tremendous need to refurbish the Eye Institute’s first floor offices, helped put together resources that gave our renovations project the ability to move forward.”
Visitors to the new Flanzer Eye Center will enter through a light, airy lobby with gleaming marble floors and walls at the Eye Institute’s 165th Street entrance. At the heart of the Center, is a large central reception area, surrounded by 13 examining rooms and separate treatment suites for imaging and other diagnostic exams, and for laser treatment.
Views from the Chair
Dear Friends:
At the beginning of another academic year, we can look back with pride on newly achieved successes and project more progress during the coming months. The Department continues to focus on maintaining the highest standards in vision research, education, and patient care. To that end, some of our most exciting recent accomplishments are helping to strengthen
programs going forward in all three areas.
Continuing philanthropy and support from the Flanzer and Milstein families have given our clinical facilities beautifully refreshed surroundings appropriate to the caliber of our services. The Flanzer Eye Center, highlighted in this Viewpoint issue, provides our faculty with a modern and comfortable environment in which to offer their outstanding clinical care. This state-of-the-art facility also presents new opportunities for resident and medical student training as well as expanding the outlook for
ongoing clinical research projects.
Our search for additional faculty has identified a selection of highly qualified investigators with whom negotiations are in progress. We hope, through the Department’s Research Scholars program, to attract the best young minds from the scientific
community to work at Columbia on vision disorders. Our three new residents, Dr. Timothy Du, Dr. Joan Li, and Dr. Marc Winnick, bring outstanding credentials and such boundless enthusiasm to their training in Ophthalmology that we have
responded by enriching the Department’s educational program to challenge their eager minds.
We are indebted to loyal and devoted friends for a great deal of our success in making the Eye Institute one of the nation’s finest eye care, research, and education institutions. It is a delight to know that the Department of Ophthalmology’s family of dedicated patients, alumni, and concerned individuals continues to grow, and we are extremely grateful for the many gifts received to support our efforts in making the gift of sight available to all.
My wife, Jean, and I wish all of you a happy holiday season and continued good health in the coming year.
Sincerely
Stanley Chang, M.D.
Edward S. Harkness Professor and
Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology
IN FOCUS
News Briefs
George K. Smelser Lectureship to Resume
The Department of Ophthalmology has reestablished the George K. Smelser Lectureship, thanks to a generous bequest from the Estate of Victoria Ozanics. Originally created in 1975, the lectureship was suspended six years after it began because of insufficient funding. Now, Ms. Ozanics’ thoughtfulness and devotion to the late Dr. Smelser has made it possible to
recommence the annual series, whose distinguished roster of speakers has included Dr. Arthur DeVoe, former Department of Ophthalmology
chairman, and Dr. David Maurice, professor of Ocular Physiology.
Professor of Anatomy (in Ophthalmology), Dr. Smelser was Director of Research in Ophthalmology at Columbia from 1956 until 1973.
During that time, he played a key role in increasing the amount and quality of eye research in the Department and contributed extensively to the understanding of eye morphology and its relationship to function. All the
while, Victoria Ozanics, a Columbia research associate, was Dr. Smelser’s loyal assistant, co-authoring many of his papers and sharing his
teaching responsibilities.
The Department of Ophthalmology will present the next Smelser lectureship at a date to be announced.
New Low Vision Clinic Established
Columbia’s Department of Ophthalmology has established a low vision clinic, which offers patients with limited eyesight an array of devices to maximize remaining vision. Directed by Dean E. Hart, O.D., the clinic will also specialize in providing contact lenses for hard-to-fit patients and offer psychological and social support services for patients and families coping
with the difficulties of vision loss.
Dr. Hart, a graduate of the New York College of Optometry, is an associate research scientist and assistant professor in Columbia’s Department of Ophthalmology. The director of a low vision clinic at Harlem Hospital for the past ten years, he has frequently appeared on television and radio programs to talk about eye care.
Amilia Schrier, M.D., Joins Columbia Faculty
Dr. Amilia Schrier is the newest member of the Department of Ophthalmology’s growing faculty. A graduate with “high distinction”of the University of Virginia, Dr. Schrier received her M.D.
degree from the SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn Medical School. She completed an
internship at Long Island College Hospital and a residency at SUNY’s Health Science Center in
Brooklyn, where she also served as chief resident. Dr. Schrier then completed a fellowship in
cornea and external disease at North Shore University Hospital-Cornell Medical College.
Before coming to Columbia last July, Dr. Schrier was a resident instructor and assistant
chief of service at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, where she was voted “Teacher
of the Year” in 1995 and again in 1997 and 1998, accomplishments she describes as “highlights” of her career. Specializing in the treatment of corneal and external disease, cataract and anterior segment surgery, and trauma-related reconstruction, she has also published and lectured extensively on the treatment of infectious corneal disease.
Harold Spalter, M.D., announced his retirement from clinical practice on October 1, 1998. He plans to continue his work with Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., as well as to train residents and help to conduct clinical research.
George Florakis, M.D., Michael Kazim, M.D., and Hermann Schubert, M.D., recently volunteered their services on a medical mission to Morocco. Accompanying them were senior resident, Alexandra Elliot, M.D., and Eye Institute operating room senior staff nurse, Emily Bonduc, R.N.
Schering-Plough Corporation and Mr. Joseph C. Connors have generously supported the acquisition of a new fluorescence microscope for scientific investigations by Department of Ophthalmology research faculty.
Columbia University in the City of New York
Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute
635 West 165th Street
New York, NY 10032-3797
