Patricia Ann Peat sees first-hand the results of her generous contributions
The Department was thrilled to be able to have one of our major supporters Patricia Ann Peat in attendance at our Grand Rounds event on Friday, September 28.She was able to witness first-hand the results of the research of this year's Paddy Ann Peat research award recipient Albert Hu as well as the ongoing research of Dr. Manlong xu and Dr. Fay Zhai.
In Patricia's own words, "All my life I have had to fight to see". As an infant, Patrica was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity and has had numerous surgeries throughout her life, including surgery by one of the first Chair's of the Department Dr Mark Marshall. Patricia is currently very near sighted but is extremely grateful for the vision she has and is a passionate supporter of vision related research that impacts the patient.
At the start of Grand Rounds, Dr Damji thanked Patricia and acknowledged her contributions to support learners within the Department over many years. He presented her with a gift of a book which documents the history of the Department. What started as a small research fund when Patricia had approached Dr Ian MacDonald (the former Chair of our Department) is now an endowment, and her contributions will continue to support many students over the years.Thank you Paddy Ann Peat for your stalwart and highly valued support for students that are part of the next generation of scholars and whose work has a significant impact on patient care!
Albert Hu is a second year medical student here at the University of Alberta. He previously received a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and then worked in the business consulting sector before joining the MD program here in 2017. Albert has developed an interest in eye care during his undergraduate years volunteering with Unite for Sight.Supervised by Dr. Damji, his summer project entitled "Mobile and Handheld Fundus Photography - Quality Assurance" compared the use of various hand held cameras to capture images of the back of the eye.Others involved in this project include Dr Matt Tennant (a retina specialist at the U of A) and Albert Khouri (Director of Glaucoma at Rutgers University, New Jersey).
Congratulations to Albert on being a recipient of this award and we are looking forward to further results from your project!
Left to Right: Dr. Karim Damji, Patricia Ann Peat, Dr. Ian MacDonald
Left to Right: Alberta Hu, Patricia Ann Peat
Paddy Ann Peat research award recipient Albert Hu