DAVID PATON LECTURE
The annual lectureship was started in 2014 in honor of David Paton, MD, founder of the ORBIS flying eye hospital. Every year we invite an individual who has had profound impacts on eye care in the majority world to share their experiences and achievements in bringing resources those most in need. During this event the Wills Eye residents present on their experiences with the WIRE program abroad, and the CAGO fellow provides a year-end summary of the department's activities over the previous academic year. We invite all interested individuals to join us in learning from these champions of global health.
Previous Paton Lecturers
2019
Dr. Wanjiku ‘Ciku’ Mathenge
Founder, Rwanda International Institute of Ophthalmology
Kigali, Rwanda
2018
John Cropsey, MD
Professor of Ophthalmology at Hope Africa University
Kibuye, Burundi
2017
Gullapalli N. Rao, MD, FACS, D.Sc, D.Med
Founder-Chair
LV Prasad Eye Institute
Hyderabad, India
2016
Richard L. Abbott, MD
Thomas W. Boyden Health Sciences Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology
Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology
University of California
San Francisco, CA
2015
R.V. Paul Chan, MD
Professor of Pediatric Retina
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Retina Service
Weill Cornell Medical College
New York, NY
2014
David Paton, MD
Founder and former Medical Director of Project ORBIS International
History
David Paton, MD, is an internationally recognized academic ophthalmologist, a humanitarian and founder of several non-profit organizations dedicated to providing eye care to the citizens of developing countries. Now retired, Dr. Paton is the founder and former medical director of Project ORBIS International, the world's only Flying Eye Hospital and mobile teaching hospital.
Dr. Paton is a 1952 graduate of Princeton University and a 1956 graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After completing a medical internship at Cornell University Medical College's New York Hospital, he spent two years in ophthalmology research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He completed his five-year residency in ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital's Wilmer Eye Institute. Inspired by his father, the late Dr. R. Townley Paton, also an ophthalmologist and founder of the world's first eye bank in 1944, Dr. David Paton established one of the earliest eye banks in the Middle East. He was decorated for his efforts by King Hussein of Jordan.
Dr. Paton has received numerous accolades for Project ORBIS, which since its creation has carried out more than 1,000 program in 88 countries, enhanced the skills of more than 288,000 eye health care personnel, and helped provide quality eye care treatment to more than 15 million people. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and was made Chevalier in the French Legon of Honor in 1988.