Scientific Advisory Board
The Optomed Scientific Advisory Board has been established to help advance and promote evidence-based eye screening globally.
Optomed US | Scientific Advisory Board
The Board consists of international experts in ophthalmology, specializing in diabetic retinopathy screening and artificial intelligence (AI). They will provide support in clinical validation of Optomed products and increase awareness of handheld fundus cameras and AI-solutions worldwide.
The US Scientific Advisory Board Members
Linda Chous
• O.D., received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Southern California College of Optometry • Established a pediatric optometric practice, The Glasses Menagerie, MN • Member of the board of directors of PreventBlindness • Member of committees for the American Optometric Association (AOA), including the AOA Education Center • Served as the Chief Eye Care Officer for UnitedHealthcare from 2009-2019 • Member of Optomed’s Clinical Advisory Board
Linda Marie Chous, O.D., received her Doctor of Optometry degree Suma Cum Laude from the Southern California College of Optometry. Following graduation, she relocated to Minnesota and established a pediatric optometric practice, The Glasses Menagerie.
Dr. Chous is a member of the board of directors of PreventBlindness, a past president of the Minnesota Optometric Association, and serves on committees for the American Optometric Association (AOA), including the AOA Education Center. She has co-authored the AOA Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Pediatric Eye and Vision Exam, Eye Care for the Patient with Diabetes Mellitus, and Adult Eye and Vision Exam. Dr. Chous served as the Chief Eye Care Officer for UnitedHealthcare from 2009-2019, where she wrote publications regarding the importance of eye care in the identification and monitoring of chronic systemic disease.
Dr. Chous is a recipient of the Women in Optometry Theia Award for Innovation, the Mpls/St Paul Women in Business Award, the American Optometric Association Presidential Award, and the VisionMonday Most Influential Women in Optical. She is also a diplomate of the American Board of Optometry. Her areas of special interest are pediatric vision rehabilitation, myopia management, and diabetic eye care.
Michael Wallace
• Optometrist; Senior Director Strategic Healthcare Initiatives, Vision Source • Medical Director Southeast Michigan Vision Source; Private Practice, Flushing Vision Clinic • Past President Michigan Optometric Association • Past Board of Advisors Tear Lab, Inc. • Past Executive Director of Professional Development TLC Laser Eye Centers
Michael G. Wallace, O.D., received his Doctor of Optometry degree with High Distinction from the Ferris State University College of Optometry in 1986. Upon graduation, he worked in multi-disciplinary facilities including Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit where in addition to his clinical duties, he served on the Risk Management Committee for the healthcare system. Within this expertise, he was appointed to the American Optometric Association’s Task Force on Multi-Disciplinary Optometry representing the non-traditional pathway of many young optometrists at the time. He performed clinical duties at the VA Hospital in Detroit and served as an Adjunct Clinical Professor for FSUCO, as well. Prior to moving to private practice, he was Clinical Director of TLC Laser Eye Centers for the Michigan subsidiary of that organization. Dr. Wallace served on various advisory boards, including that of TearLab, Inc. in the mid-2000s.
Dr. Wallace is a former board member of the Optometric Clinic of Detroit, a non-profit clinic serving an indigent population where interns from various optometric schools attended. He served as a board member of the Michigan Optometric Association for 14 years where he served in all capacities of leadership including past-President. During the years in which Michigan was a battle-ground state for therapeutic expansion, Dr. Wallace served as vice-chair of their grassroots political action forum rallying the troops to victory on numerous levels.
Currently while maintaining his private practice, Dr. Wallace serves in several capacities for Vision Source, the country’s leading independent Private Practice Optometry group. He is Medical Director for the Southeast Michigan region. As well, he serves nationally as the Senior Director-Strategic Healthcare Initiatives for Vision Source identifying collaborative care opportunities with both healthcare delivery systems and payor groups.
The International Scientific Advisory Board Members
Daniel Ting
• Consultant, Surgical Retina, Singapore National Eye Center • Clinical Lead, AI in Ophthalmology, Singapore Eye Research Institute • Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore • Professor, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, China
Dr Daniel Ting is the consultant vitreo-retinal surgeon in the Singapore National Eye Center, Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology with Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore, and Clinical Lead for artificial intelligence (AI) in ophthalmology at Singapore Eye Research Institute. He is also the visiting Full Professor in Ophthalmology at the AI and data science center in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Eye Center, Sun Yat-sen University, China, the 2017-2018 US-ASEAN J. W. Fulbright Scholar to Johns Hopkins University, the founding member of the American Academy Ophthalmology (AAO) AI Taskforce committee and serves in several editorial boards, including Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology Retina, British of Journal of Ophthalmology and Asia-pacific Journal of Ophthalmology.
To date, he has published over 180 papers/book chapters/conference abstracts, including 30 AI articles in JAMA, NEJM, Nature Medicine, Nature Digital Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Lancet Digital Health, Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, Ophthalmology, etc. At the global AI ophthalmology setting, Daniel led two major AI review articles with most experts (e.g. Google AI Health) in the field, summarizing the state-of-art AI technologies, the key technical and clinical aspects, the unmet needs, and future directions in AI ophthalmology. He has patented two deep learning systems, one of which has received approval from the Singapore Health Service Authority (HSA), and the European CE Mark. Furthermore, he also co-founded a spin-off company (EyRIS Pte Ltd (URL: https://www.eyris.io/), and the deep learning system is now clinically deployed in more than 20 optometry practices.
Dr Ting has won several awards, including the ARVO Bert Glaser Award for Innovative Research in Retina (2020), USA Macula Society Evangelos Gragoudas Award (2019), Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Young Ophthalmologist’s Award (2018), the Asia-Pacific Tele-Ophthalmology Society (APTOS) Young Innovator Award (2017), SingHealth Distinguished Young Researcher Award (2018), and Singapore General Hospital Young Investigator Award (2017). Academically, he maintained the first ranking nationally in the US-based exam, Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program-International (OKAPI), for three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious UK FRCOphth McCartney Prize, an award given to the world’s highest score in Ophthalmic Pathology. He is also the inaugural SNEC Richard Fan Gold Medal Award winner in 2014. Throughout his residency years, he has won a total of nine SingHealth RISE Awards, including the Outstanding Chief Resident Award and Young Inspiring Resident Award. He also graduated as the valedictorian of the entire graduating cohort of 86 residents in 2016. In December 2019, he was also rated as one of the four thought leaders by the top eye magazine in London, The Ophthalmologist, in the deep learning fields for ophthalmology (URL: https://theophthalmologist.com/subspecialties/ophthalmic-frontiers-ai)
Nina Hautala
• Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Oulu • Chief Physician in the Department of Ophthalmology in Oulu University Hospital • Specialized in medical retina, diabetic retinopathy, screening programs for DR and AMD • President of the Finnish Association of Ophthalmology • Vice Chairman of the Board of Finnish Medical Society Duodecim Oulu • Member of the Board of Finnish Medical Society Duodecim • Member of the Doctoral Committee of the Finnish Diabetes Association • Member of the Working Group for Current Care Guideline for DR by Finnish Medical Society Duodecim • Member of Optomed’s Clinical Advisory Board
Nina Hautala is Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oulu and Chief Physician in the Department of Ophthalmology in Oulu University Hospital. She also has a degree in Administration in Health Care. She has specialized in medical retina, diabetic retinopathy, screening programs for diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. She is responsible for organizing screening, treatment, and follow-up of diabetic retinopathy in Oulu University Hospital as well as in EyeMo (eye mobility unit for screening of diabetic retinopathy). She is responsible for both undergraduate and postgraduate training in Ophthalmology in Northern Finland.
Currently, she is the President of the Finnish Association of Ophthalmology, Vice Chairman of the Board of Finnish Medical Society Duodecim Oulu, Member of the Board of Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, Member of the Doctoral Committee of the Finnish Diabetes Association, and Member of the Working Group for Current Care Guideline for Diabetic Retinopathy by Finnish Medical Society Duodecim.
She leads several research groups according to her main areas of clinical and scientific interest: diabetic retinopathy, screening of diabetic retinopathy, image analysis, artificial intelligence (AI) in diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, medical retina, uveitis, and ocular inflammatory diseases. She is a supervisor of several post-doctoral scientists, PhD studies, and medical students for advanced diploma.
The developments in screening and timely treatment of diabetic retinopathy during the recent years in Oulu University Hospital were noticed by the Quality Award of the Finnish Medical Association. Professor Hautala has research grants from several research foundations and institutions.
Tunde Peto
• MD, PhD, Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at Queens University Hospital, Belfast • Consultant Ophthalmologist in Medical Retina • Clinical Lead of the Northern Irish Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Screening Programme
Tunde Peto is Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at QUB, Clinical Lead of the Northern Irish Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) Screening Programme, and a Consultant Ophthalmologist in Medical Retina. Her membership of international organizations includes Vice President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetic Eye Complications (EASDec), Board member of EU-EYE and ECV, and member of the Global Burden of Disease Eye Epidemiology Group. She is the founding member of the European Eye Epidemiology group that brought 27 epidemiological studies together to build collaboration and build further research platforms in Europe. She specializes in chronic blinding diseases, ophthalmic image analysis, epidemiology, and statistics and is internationally renowned for setting up and managing diabetic retinopathy screening and training programs, including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Trust Fund (DR Section). As Head of the Belfast Ophthalmic Reading Centre and Director of The Central Administrative Research Facility (CARF), a unique facility coordinating the grading of ophthalmic images collected for clinical research studies, Professor Peto has expertise in overseeing a wide range of studies, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and population-based studies, training graders to use a variety of imaging platforms and interpreting the images. Professor Peto has participated in numerous studies overseeing budgets of up to £2 million. Projects have been financed through a wide range of funders including MRC Newtown, NIHR, NIH, Wellcome Trust, British Council and other charities for projects such as UK Biobank, Clarity, VICI, Meira, LEAVO and REACH-DR. Professor Peto was recently named among the UK’s most influential researchers who study diabetes complications.
Dan Milea
• MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology, DUKE-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore • Head of the Visual Neuroscience Group, at the Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore • Senior Consultant in the Neuro-Ophthalmology Department of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC).
Professor Dan MILEA, MD, PhD is a clinician-scientist, currently Head of the Visual Neuroscience Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and a Senior Consultant in the Neuro-Ophthalmology Department of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC). He is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Angers University (France) and Affiliate Professor at the Copenhagen University, (Denmark).
He has completed his medical education and a fellowship in Neuro-Ophthalmology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. He has a PhD in Neuroscience, conferred by the Collège de France and the Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris.
As a practicing clinician-scientist in Neuro-ophthalmology, he has strong research interests in applied Artificial Intelligence methods to Neuro-Ophthalmology, among other research areas in Visual Neuroscience. For these purposes, he was awarded several competitive multimillion research grants in Europe and in Singapore. Author of several industrial patents, he has also written or contributed to several textbooks and book chapters in ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmology. He has been an invited speaker at more than 200 national and international meetings in ophthalmology.