A graduate of Cornell University in 1872 and the University of Michigan Medical School in 1882, Harold Gifford, Sr., MD, came to Omaha in 1886 and founded the Nebraska Eye and Ear Infirmary. He joined the Omaha Medical College in 1897 and served as dean from 1895-1898. He was later associate dean of the Omaha campus of the new University of Nebraska College of Medicine from 1902-1911. A quiet philanthropist, he donated land for Fontenelle Forest and Gifford Park in Omaha and the original building of the Nebraska Eye and Ear Infirmary to house the original Methodist Hospital.
Jacob C. Denise, MD was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia in 1855. He served with the 27th Ohio Volunteers in 1863 and served in several surgical positions from 1865-1869 when he came to Nebraska. He was an initial founder of the Omaha Medical College in 1881 and was a professor of Ophthalmology from 1882-1898. He served as dean from 1885-1889 and again from 1893-1895. Dr. Denise died in 1899 at the age of 71.
James M. Patton, MD, was born in Pennsylvania in 1876 and grew up in Pawnee City, Nebraska. He received his medical degree from UNMC in 1904 and joined the faculty in ophthalmology in 1906. During WWI, Dr. Patton joined the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army as a Captain, serving at Base Hospital No. 49 and later in the Hospital Centre at Vittel, France. Patton continued to serve in the Ophthalmology Department after the war, acting as chair in 1925.
A $20 million, 54,536-square-foot facility, the Truhlsen Eye Institute features outpatient eye exam facilities, an optical shop, and a comprehensive regional diagnostic center.
Research partnership with Tongji University and Tenth People's Hospital in Shanghai, China, is announced to combine forces on areas of significant concerns for visual loss such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and uveitis and ocular inflammation.
It is only the second in the United States to receive the honor. The selection is based on the number of continuous publications in the in evidence-based medicine in ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Diane Do, MD, professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Carl Camras Center for Innovatie Clinical Research at the Truhlsen Eye Institute
