Paul R Lichter MD
Professor, Ophthalmology
Specialties: Ophthalmology
Clinical Interests: Management of glaucoma and cataract; management of complications of glaucoma and cataract surgery; management of glaucoma in infants and children
Dr. Lichter is the F. Bruce Fralick Professor of Ophthalmology and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, a department founded in 1872. In addition, Dr. Lichter is the first Director of the University's W.K. Kellogg Eye Center that opened in 1985. A new, 230,000 square foot addition to the Center opened in March, 2010. Dr. Lichter is a native of Detroit and received his undergraduate, medical school, and ophthalmology residency education at the University of Michigan, and a glaucoma fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Lichter's research and clinical interests involve glaucoma, genetics, quality of life, ethics and medical professionalism including physician--industry conflict of interest. He serves as Chair of his medical school's Clinical Conflict of Interest Committee. Dr. Lichter chaired the recently completed Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS), a National Eye Institute (NEI)-sponsored 14-center clinical trial. CIGTS is continuing to analyze its data comparing, in newly diagnosed patients with open-angle glaucoma, the effect of initial medication versus initial filtering surgery on visual function and quality of life. Dr. Lichter is a co-investigator on an NEI-sponsored grant involving the genetics of glaucoma. He has to his credit over 200 publications including scientific articles, editorials, and book chapters and has delivered over 35 named lectures including the 50th Jackson Memorial Lecture. In 2008, he received the prestigious Howe Medal from the American Ophthalmological Society.
In addition to serving as the 100th President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 1996, Dr. Lichter is also a Past President of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Pan American Association of Ophthalmology as well as a Past Chair of the American Board of Ophthalmology. He is currently a Director of The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation as well as President of Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis. Dr. Lichter is a past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ophthalmology and currently serves as an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
