Roles
Professor of Ophthalmology
Edward W. D. Norton Chair in Ophthalmology
Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
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Biography
Richard K. Parrish, II, MD, a member of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, is the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO) and has served as president of the American Ophthalmological Society. A widely published author and internationally recognized speaker who has delivered 35 named lectures, he served as a member of the editorial board of Archives of Ophthalmology. He edited the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s Atlas of Ophthalmology, a comprehensive ophthalmic text that set a standard for ophthalmic education. His enviable academic career includes more than 100 peer-reviewed original scientific publications and many more chapters and abstracts. He is a skilled editorialist who has contributed to the national narrative on innovative glaucoma surgical procedures and recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force on glaucoma screening. His research interests have focused on improving patient care through clinical trials in glaucoma. In 1994, he was named Vice-Chair and a Principal Investigator of the National Eye Institute’s (NEI) landmark Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS and OHTS II) and will serve in this capacity for OHTS III, a 20-year follow-up investigation. He was the Project Chairman of the NEI’s Fluorouracil Filtering Surgery Study, the first multicenter randomized clinical trial in glaucoma surgery in the United States, and served as the Principal Investigator of the Optic Disc Reading Centers for the NEI-sponsored OHTS and OHTS II, the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study, and the Advanced Imaging for Glaucoma. His early preclinical studies on the modulation of wound healing after glaucoma filtering surgery in experimental models provided the foundation for the randomized clinical trial fluorouracil and stimulated interest in how to measure and improve outcomes of glaucoma surgery. His American Ophthalmological Society thesis described the patients’ perspective on how glaucoma affects their daily lives. At the scientific level, Parrish has served three times on National Institutes of Health special review panels. The American Board of Ophthalmology sought his expertise to serve on critical committees for developing its Maintenance of Certification programs. At the request of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, he served as a member of the Women’s and Diversity Issues Committee. He is a Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the AAO recognized his accomplishments at the 2014 Annual Meeting as the “Guest of Honor,” a rare privilege that is bestowed annually by the Academy’s president on only three members of the more than 15,000 members. He has played a monumental role in the education of ophthalmologists throughout the world. Academic ophthalmologists from Europe and Asia needed widely accepted goals and objectives regarding the curriculum for international medical-student education. At the personal request of Bradley Straatsma, M.D., J.D., Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Institute at UCLA, Parrish assumed responsibility for the completion of this important project. By surveying more than 100 national and supranational groups and analyzing their responses, he developed an internationally accepted curriculum based upon a consensus of participating societies under the auspices of the International Congress of Ophthalmology. Results of this work were published in 2006 and he received a Medal of Achievement from the World Ophthalmology Congress in Brazil that year. Dr. Parrish was named to The Ophthalmology Power List 2018. -
Education & Training
Education
Licensures and Certifications
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Teaching Interests
Clincial glaucoma fellowship mentoring
Resident education in the emergency room at the Anne Bates Leach Eye Center
Mentoring of junior facutly for National Eye Institute sponsored K08 postdoctoral award
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Research Interests
Clinical trials
Surgical innovation in ophthalmology
Quality of life -
Publications
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