Instilling the call for humanitarian service – Dr. Bradley Farris
In this episode, we had the chance to talk with Dr. Farris about his charitable work in eye care both in the United States and internationally. For the past 20 years, he has led a team annually from Dean McGee Eye Institute to develop academic exchange and work with the local residency-training programs in China. He has done the same in Africa for the past 11 years.
Dr. Farris is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology at the University of Oklahoma and Dean McGee Eye Institute.
About the guest:
Dr. Farris, a native Oklahoman, obtained his undergraduate and Medical degree from the University of Oklahoma. He completed 2 years of Neurology residency in Oklahoma City, and completed his Ophthalmology residency at the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute. After completing a year of Neuro-ophthalmology Fellowship at the University of Miami and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, he returned to the University of Oklahoma and Dean A. McGee Eye Institute in 1986. He presently serves as Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology at the University of Oklahoma and Dean McGee Eye Institute. He has a wife and three sons.
Dr. Farris has published 35 peer-reviewed articles, published a book in Neuro-Ophthalmology, contributed a number of chapters in textbooks as well as authored numerous Audio-Digest Tapes. He has delivered well over 200 invited lectures, both locally, nationally, and internationally. He has an interest in teaching ethics both locally and nationally. For the past 20 years, he has led a team annually from Dean McGee Eye Institute to develop academic exchange and work with the local residency-training programs in China. He has done the same in Africa for the past 11 years. He is a member of many professional societies in Medicine, including those within his field of Neuro-Ophthalmology. He is the past president of the Christian Ophthalmology Society and has served on the editorial review board of many national and international journals. He has been recognized both locally and nationally for his combination of clinical and surgical expertise, as well as ability and desire to teach. He has been named the University of Oklahoma Regents Award for Superior Teaching in 2011, Tian Fu Friendship Award for Sichuan Province in 2014, as well as the Presbyterian Health Foundation Presidential Professorship in 2016, the Global Citizen Award in Health Care in 2017, and most recently the Edward and Thelma Gaylord Teaching Award in 2019. He was honored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2021 by being named Humanitarian of the Year.
Dr. Farris has continued his Global Ophthalmology interests as the Director of the Bradley Farris Global Eye Care Program at Dean McGee Eye Institute, as well as Director of the Global Ophthalmology Fellowship program at DMEI. Future efforts will include working with the Sichuan People’s Provincial Hospital in Chengdu to further academic and partnership interests. In Eswatini, Africa, with the cooperation of local physicians, he hopes to provide primary and sub-specialty support from those who volunteer at Dean McGee Eye Institute to the far reaches of southern Africa in hopes of significantly impacting preventable blindness. Lastly, new efforts are underway to support and improve eyecare to the underserved in both local communities as well as Native American Indian tribes in the state of Oklahoma.
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