Sheila West
Born
Sheila Kay West

(1946-09-15) September 15, 1946
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California, San Francisco
Johns Hopkins University
University of California, Santa Barbara
California State University, East Bay
Scientific career
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Wilmer Eye Institute
ThesisRisk factors for congenital heart defects (1980)
Notable studentsBonnielin Swenor
Websitewww.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/about/employees/sheila-west.html

Sheila Kay West (born September 15, 1946) is an American ophthalmologist who is the El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute.[1][2] She is also the vice-chair for Research.

Early life and education

West was born in Salt Lake City. She started her academic career at the University of California, Santa Barbara, then moved to the California State University, East Bay for graduate studies, before joining the UCSF Medical Center. She worked toward her first doctorate in pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, then moved to the Johns Hopkins University for her second doctorate, where she majored in epidemiology and studied congenital heart defects.[3]

Research and career

After her PhD she was appointed program director of pharmaceutical studies. After four years teaching medicine in the University of the Philippines, West returned to the United States. West joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – Wilmer Eye Institute Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology. She developed a surveillance system to monitor disparities in eye health, vision loss and access to ophthalmology.[4] She became interested in cataract, the leading cause of vision impairment.[5] She was the first to report the relationship between nuclear cataracts and smoking.[6] Her research informed the Surgeon General of the United States's report on smoking and eye disease.[7] In 2001, she was the first woman to be made President of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.[8]

West launched the Salisbury Eye Study, a longitudinal study of people on the Delmarva Peninsula.[9] The population were racially diverse, and West identified differences in age-related macular generation between Americans of different ethnicities. This study prompted her interest in health disparities. She identified that the leading cause of blindness among Mexican Americans was glaucoma.

Alongside her work on cataracts, West was interested in the most common source of infectious eye disease, trachoma.[5] She demonstrated that face washing is a simple and effective strategy to get rid of trachoma.[8][10] Her efforts on trachoma started in Tanzania. She evaluated the success of trichiasis surgical techniques, and contributed to the World Health Organization's SAFE strategy. West has served as a mentor for several high-profile scientists.[11][12]

Awards and honors

  • 2016 Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology Joanne G. Angle Award[13]
  • 2017 International Blindness Prevention Award[14]
  • 2018 Al Sumait Prize for Health[15]
  • 2019 Fight for Sight Weisenfeld Award[8][13]
  • 2020 Vision Excellence Award[16]

Selected publications

  • Susan M Friedman; Beatriz Munoz; Sheila K West; Gary S Rubin; Linda P Fried (August 1, 2002). "Falls and fear of falling: which comes first? A longitudinal prediction model suggests strategies for primary and secondary prevention". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 50 (8): 1329–1335. doi:10.1046/J.1532-5415.2002.50352.X. ISSN 0002-8614. PMID 12164987. Wikidata Q51041479.
  • O D Schein; B Muñoz; J M Tielsch; K Bandeen-Roche; S West (December 1, 1997). "Prevalence of dry eye among the elderly". American Journal of Ophthalmology. 124 (6): 723–728. doi:10.1016/S0002-9394(14)71688-5. ISSN 0002-9394. PMID 9402817. Wikidata Q39457390.
  • Susan M Friedman; Beatriz Munoz; Sheila K West; Gary S Rubin; Linda P Fried (August 1, 2002). "Falls and fear of falling: which comes first? A longitudinal prediction model suggests strategies for primary and secondary prevention". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 50 (8): 1329–1335. doi:10.1046/J.1532-5415.2002.50352.X. ISSN 0002-8614. PMID 12164987. Wikidata Q51041479.

References

  1. ↑ Sheila West publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. ↑ Sheila West publications from Europe PubMed Central
  3. ↑ West, Sheila Kay (1980). Risk factors for congenital heart defects (PhD thesis). OCLC 8398901.
  4. ↑ Navitsky, Callan (2013). "CDC-Convened Panel Calls for Vision Surveillance System". Retina Today. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Dr. Sheila West | Ophthalmology, retrieved November 1, 2022
  6. ↑ "Patients must be told of links between smoking and eye disease". healio.com. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes – Prevent Blindness North Carolina". January 10, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 Sommer, Alfred (2019). "Introducing Sheila K. West, the Recipient of the 2019 Weisenfeld Award". Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 60 (14): 4803–4804. doi:10.1167/iovs.19-28630. PMID 31743937. S2CID 208184810. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  9. ↑ Impairments, National Research Council (US) Committee on Disability Determination for Individuals with Visual; Lennie, Peter; Hemel, Susan B. Van (2002). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. National Academies Press (US).
  10. ↑ Sk, West (November 2003). "Blinding trachoma: prevention with the safe strategy". The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 69 (5 Suppl): 18–23. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2003.69.18. ISSN 0002-9637. PMID 14692676. S2CID 11784508.
  11. ↑ "Sheila West and the Art of Mentoring". hopkinsmedicine.org. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Get to Know Dr. Mona Kaleem". waeh.org. World Association of Eye Hospitals. May 12, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  13. 1 2 "The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology- ARVO Awards Recipients: Alphabetical". arvo.org. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  14. ↑ "2017 International Blindness Prevention Awardee: Sheila West, MD – American Academy of Ophthalmology". aao.org. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  15. ↑ "The joint winners of Kuwait's Al-Sumait Prize for African Development for 2018 received their prizes from His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait". Mynewsdesk. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Vision Excellence Awards: Sheila West". The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
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