Clinical Leaders

US Clinical Leadership

Peter Hersh

The Cornea & Laser Eye Institute

Dr. Hersh is a revered ophthalmic surgeon who has participated in many FDA clinical trials of excimer laser LASIK and other surgical corrections of nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and keratoconus. Most prominently, he was lead author of the clinical study that led to the very first FDA approval of laser vision correction for the treatment of nearsightedness in the United States in 1995. He also was one of 2 investigators to present the Conductive Keratoplasty procedure to the FDA device panel, resulting in its 2002 approval. More recently, Dr. Hersh served as medical monitor and was lead author of the two studies leading to U.S. FDA approvals of corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) for keratoconus and corneal ectasia.

Dr. Hersh has been elected to the American Ophthalmological Society, the oldest and most prestigious eye surgery association in the country. He has also been awarded the Senior Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, an honor bestowed on fewer than 1% of eye surgeons, and has been selected for Best Doctors in America for over 10 years running. Due to his philanthropic work, he was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International.

Vance Thompson

Vance Thompson Vision

Vance Thompson, M.D. is a board-certified ophthalmologist in Sioux Falls, SD specializing in laser vision correction and advanced cataract surgery. A leading expert in LASIK and cataract surgery, Dr. Thompson strives to enrich his patients’ lives by helping them experience visual clarity. Dr. Thompson currently serves as a professor of ophthalmology at the Sanford USD School of Medicine and hopes to continue sharing his extensive knowledge of laser and implant vision correction for years to come.

With more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Thompson has performed more than 75,000 vision correction surgeries worldwide and remains among a select group of refractive and cataract surgeons who prioritize the use of innovative, advanced surgical techniques. As a leading international researcher, Dr. Thompson has played an important role in the discovery and development of the advanced technologies and techniques used in both laser and implant vision correction surgeries today. Serving as the medical monitor lead, or principal investigator, Dr. Thompson has led over 65 FDA-monitored clinical trials on the subjects and has published numerous papers and book chapters on his findings.

EU Clinical Leadership

Arthur B. Cummings

THE WELLINGTON EYE CLINIC AND THE BEACON HOSPITAL

Arthur Cummings THE WELLINGTON EYE CLINIC AND THE BEACON HOSPITAL is an ophthalmic surgeon practicing in Dublin, Ireland as a cataract & refractive surgeon. Dr Cummings hails from South Africa and trained there and in Edinburgh before commencing private practice in Pretoria, South Africa where he performed retinal surgery, refractive surgery and cataract surgery.

In 1998 the Cummings family relocated to Ireland to allow Dr Cummings do a fellowship in refractive surgery and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Dr Cummings fell in love with the sub-specialty and decided to make it his lifelong ambition to help people see better without the use of glasses and contact lenses. 40 000 procedures later you would still have to go a long way to find a surgeon that is more committed and more passionate about this field and about getting excellent results for his patients. The joy that results from the benefits of refractive surgery and the positive way in which lives are changed are his reward. His interest in this discipline has led to his close collaboration with industry and he consults for many different industry partners and serves on many advisory boards in the hope of making the procedures even better than they are today – by no means an easy task as refractive surgery has never been safer or more effective than it is today.

Besides his medical and post-graduate degrees from Pretoria University he has an FRCS fellowship from Edinburgh University and the Laser Refractive Certification from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London. He reviews for all the major peer review journals and served as European president of AECOS (American European Congress of Ophthalmic Surgery). The Wellington Eye Clinic in Dublin is where he spends 90% of his working hours as medical director and owner and the rest of his work time is spent in the Beacon Hospital where he is head of department. He has been awarded the WaveLight Global Ambassador Award in 2006 and has trained more than 200 ophthalmic colleagues through the WaveLight Refractive Fellowship that he co-presents on a bi-annual basis in Dublin. He is the author of the Wellington nomogram, a good starting point for users of the WaveLight series of lasers.

Aylin Kılıç

SWISS VISION GROUP

Aylin Kılıç graduated from Hacettepe University, Turkey in 1998. A highly experienced surgeon with more than 50.000 cataract and refractive surgery procedures. She gave several courses about keratoconus, LASIK surgery and femtocataract topics at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the American Academy of Ophthalmology meetings. Currently, she serves as an Executive Committee Member and Turkish delegate of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS), which is the largest international organization for cataract and refractive surgeons.

She is a member of the Academic Faculty of ‘Università Della Svizzera Italiana European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology’. She is a well-known international lecturer, she has been involved in many international organizations as an invited speaker about ‘Keratoconus’, ‘Refractive Surgery’, ’Femtosecond laser’, ‘Presbyopia’ and ‘Cataract Surgery’. She has published many articles and delivered more than 200 presentations internationally and nationally. She was editor of her last book about ‘Corneal Topography’ with Cynthia Roberts.

Recently, she performed initial clinical studies about allograft corneal inlays for presbyopia and hyperopia and vision behavior monitoring to make a refractive surgical plan. She earned the ‘Achievement Award’ (2010), the ‘Senior Achievement Award’ (2018) and the ‘Lans Distinguished Lecturer Award’ (2016) from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and the ‘ISRS Recognition Award’ from the International Society of Refractive Surgery’ (2017).

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