Keeping an Eye on Care of the Future

While in university, Dr. Khaldon Abbas had a deeply moving experience as a volunteer with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) that changed the trajectory of his life and career.

The community-based organization helps victims of war and torture, and Abbas, whose family immigrated to Canada from Iraq a little more than a decade before, wanted to share his skills as a translator and tutor with newcomers.

“I came to Canada when I was 12. I had limited English, we had no family or friends here, and it was really hard to acclimate,” says Abbas. “I wanted to give back to the community and to be there for immigrant families who were facing similar challenges that my family had to deal with.”

During one shift with CCVT, Abbas was paired with a family from Syria, whose nine-year old daughter was losing her eyesight. She was living with retinal dystrophy, a degenerative disorder that can progress to complete blindness.

Witnessing the impact the eye disorder had on the young girl and her family inspired Abbas to further his own education and set a goal to become an ophthalmologist.

That was eight years ago. Since then, Abbas spent several years working as a clinical research coordinator and completed four years of medical school at the University of British Columbia.

Today, he is a clinical research fellow at the Ivey Eye Institute of St. Joseph’s Health Care London (St. Joseph’s) – a position supported through St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation thanks to the generosity of donors.

During the next year, Abbas’ research will focus on improving patient care and outcomes for people with eye diseases and disorders.

Drs. Phil Hooper, Verena Juncal and Tom Sheidow, all retinal surgeons at Ivey Eye, are the impetus behind the fellowship and now serve as Abbas’ mentors. Through the fellowship, the trio wanted to expand their clinical research program which is heavily focused on clinical trials. Their goal was to delve into quality improvement projects and explore, among other things, patient data, referral patterns and wait times – information that could guide Ivey Eye in refining care to better understand how to improve the overall flow of patient care.

As surgeons at the largest single-site eye care centre in Canada committed to innovative care, the Ivey Eye physician leaders felt a responsibility to make this work a reality.

“We started talking about this about three years ago,” says Sheidow. “We were familiar with similar roles at other academic eye care centres and we were fortunate to have some funding, so we brought the idea to the foundation and started to craft the terms of reference,” he adds.

Abbas is the second physician in this fellowship, following in the footsteps of Dr. Amy Basilious, who is now in her second year of residency at Ivey Eye.

“Amy did an exceptional job as our inaugural fellow and we were looking for someone with similar characteristics – bright, curious, motivated, a self-starter and a passion for ophthalmology,” says Sheidow. “Khaldon has all of that and more,” he adds, referring to Abbas’ interest and background in clinical trial work.  

Even before arriving in London for the fellowship, Abbas began working with his new team to generate research project ideas and shape a research plan. Among the projects he will tackle is one that will assess the effectiveness and complications of lens exchange surgeries, and another in collaboration with Basilious focused on macular hole repairs.

He will also spearhead two quality improvement studies aimed at streamlining the referral process to Ivey Eye for optometrists and enhancing education and information resources for patients with eye diseases and disorders. Through his work, Abbas is excited to build his research skills, forge new professional connections and see some of his research translated into tangible improvements in patient care.

He’s grateful to Hooper, Juncal and Sheidow, along with St. Joseph’s and the Foundation, for their vision and spirit of innovation in establishing the fellowship.

“Everyone has been extremely welcoming and supportive of me, especially my mentors and fellow co-workers” he says. “There’s a real family environment at St. Joseph’s. I feel like this is my new home away from home.”