Long recognized as a leader in groundbreaking research and innovative eye care, the UAB Department of Ophthalmology hit a major milestone in 2016, ranking in the top twenty of nationally ranked ophthalmology departments in the amount of funding it receives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With over $4.9 million in NIH annual funding for fiscal year 2016, the Department now ranks 17th, up from their 2013 ranking of 36th.

The rankings are published by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, which lists all NIH funding for U.S. medical schools.

This achievement reflects the tremendous efforts of the Department’s researchers and puts the Department further on the map as a national recognized leader in vision research. Moreover, it represents the significant growth in their research capacity while further enhancing their ability to recruit and retain world-class researchers to secure additional support.

This accomplishment advances the Department down the path to developing new treatments and interventions to reduce the burden of blinding disease.

“The Vision of Excellence was developed in 2012 as a bold, novel partnership between the UAB School of Medicine, the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama, and the International Retinal Research Foundation to leverage capital resources to support and grow the robust clinical and research strengths within the Department of Ophthalmology and across campus, to develop a world-class research program,” says Christopher A. Girkin, M.D., MSPH, EyeSight Foundation of Alabama Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. “Since this time, the Department has expanded its research faculty, recruiting seven new scientists to develop cutting-edge, collaborative research labs that have integrated with our existing vision researchers in addition to researchers across the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Arts and Sciences, and Engineering.  This integration has resulted in an explosion of scientific discovery from these highly-collaborative labs and a significant expansion in the research funding in the Department, which is now ranked 17th in the country in NIH support.”