Dr. Shlomit Schaal presents at Family Medicine Grand Rounds

Dr. Schaal was invited by Dr. Dan Lasser, Chair of Family Medicine, to present a talk entitled: “The Eye as a Window for Early Diagnosis of Systemic Diseases”. Dr. Schaal discussed some of the innovative cutting-edge research performed at the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School aiming to automatically diagnose systemic diseases based upon retina scan.

Systemic diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, and obstructive sleep apnea, may be early diagnosed and better managed upon subtle vascular clues that appear in the retina. The research efforts are coordinated by Dr. Omar Helmy, a post-doc fellow at the department. Lauren Lomardi, a first year medical student at UMass Chan Medical School will be presenting the preliminary results of the research at the annual ARVO conference in Baltimore.

Research collaborators include Dr. Stacia  Sailer from Mass Lung and Allergy, Dr. Karin Johnson, and Dr. Mary Jo Farmer from Baystate. Interested patients with diabetes or with obstructive sleep apnea are welcome to contact us to be included in this study.