MSU BOARD OKAYS NEW DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY AND OPHTHALMOLOGY

March 24, 2000

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State University Board of Trustees has approved the creation of a new Department of Neurology and Ophthalmology, a unit that will enhance teaching, research and clinical care in the field of the neurosciences.Approved by the board at its Feb. 15 meeting, the new department will work to build on the successes of the existing MSU Center for Clinical Neuroscience and Ophthalmology."The creation of this department represents five years of the center’s staff and faculty working together toward this common goal," said David I. Kaufman, D.O., who will head the department. "It will give MSU the national visibility required to recruit and retain more world-class faculty. It also will create new residency opportunities for our students and will produce new clinics on campus that will benefit area patients."Our goal is to develop a true ‘center of excellence’ for improving health care in mid-Michigan and beyond."Although combined departments of neurology and ophthalmology are not common, the disciplines are related, Kaufman said. Neurology is the study of muscle, synapse, nerve, brain and spinal cord structure and function. Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine concerned with the eye. Neuro-ophthalmology is the study of the eye’s relationship with the brain.A unique aspect of the department is that researchers will use the eye as a simplified model of the brain to speed the evaluation of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and stroke, or the potential side effects of cancer therapies such as the drug Tamoxifen.Researchers in the new department are already investigating topics such as Alzheimer’s disease, innervation of arteries and veins, degenerative and metabolic disorders of the brain and central nervous system, and substances that can provide neuro-protection to the brain."Dr. Kaufman and colleagues have put together a true academic/clinical department," said Allen W. Jacobs, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine. "It’s a department that will do research, do clinical service and outreach, and education. It will serve to strengthen the fine work that’s already done in the neurosciences on this campus."The department will be jointly administered by the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the College of Human Medicine, with osteopathic medicine serving as the lead college. This will be the first such jointly administered department at MSU to be led by an osteopathic physician.The Center for Clinical Neuroscience and Ophthalmology is already drawing upon faculty from all five of MSU’s biomedical colleges, Kaufman said. It has on-going relationships with 14 MSU academic units.Regional institutions with which it has collaborated include Sparrow Hospital, Ingham Regional Medical Center, the Michigan Institute for Neurologic Diseases of Southfield and the Field Neuroscience Institute in Saginaw.The Center also helped organize a statewide residency program in ophthalmology with participants in Grand Rapids, Flint and the Detroit area. It also helped create a consortium to train young physicians to become neurologists.

"The faculty of this new department are deeply indebted not only to Dean Jacobs and Dean William Abbett of the College of Human Medicine for their on-going help," said Kaufman, "but also to Provost Lou Anna Simon for her inspiration regarding the importance of biomedical research."

By: Tom Oswald