Richard Rosen, MD, Receives Founders Award From ASRS
The American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) is honoring Richard B. Rosen, MD, ScD (hon), FACS, FASRS, FARVO, CRA, the Belinda Bingham Pierce and Gerald G. Pierce Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with the prestigious Founders Award for 2024. He received this award at the 42nd ASRS Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, during a ceremony on Friday, July 19.
The ASRS Founders Award recognizes Dr. Rosen’s significant contributions to the advancement of vitreoretinal surgery, treatment, research, and patient care, and his dedication to the field of ophthalmology. He is the first ophthalmologist from Mount Sinai to receive this annual award.
“I am most grateful to the nominating committee and leadership of the ASRS for this honor. I have been a member of the society since completing my retina fellowship in 1991 under the preceptorship of Dr. Thomas Muldoon and Dr. Joseph Walsh at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE). It’s particularly gratifying to me since Dr. Muldoon was the faculty advisor to the Founders, Jerry Bovino, Roy Levit, and AllenVerne, and encouraged them to create the Vitreous Society, which eventually grew into the ASRS. Their contribution of including the wider community of retinal specialists within our country and beyond has expanded access to education, the latest treatment techniques, and professional camaraderie, which has had immense benefits for our patients, our trainees, and our profession,” Dr. Rosen said in a Mount Sinai news release.
Dr. Rosen also serves as the Surgeon-Director, Chief of Retina Services, Vice Chair of Research, and Director of Retina Fellowships at NYEE. There, he has created one of the most advanced ocular imaging centers in the United States. Dr. Rosen helped develop the first combined en face optical coherence tomography (OCT)/confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope instruments, which were the forerunners of today’s non-invasive OCT angiography systems. This fostered the translation of other novel imaging systems to the clinical setting. Dr. Rosen lectures worldwide and has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals on topics including new treatments for macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, along with innovations in diagnostic retinal imaging and vitreo-retinal surgical instrumentation.
At ASRS, Dr. Rosen’s Founders Lecture focused on using dynamic OCT angiography and quad-fusion adaptive optics to identify subclinical sickle cell activity, undetectable with traditional clinical examination, in order to appreciate earlier disease and subtle treatment effects as they appear in individual patients.