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Education Qualifications: MD, PhD (UIC, USA)

Dr. Donny Hoang is a Senior Consultant in the Surgical Retina Department of the Singapore National Eye Centre and heads a laboratory group focused on High and Pathologic myopia with a clinical and research focus on extreme short-sightedness. He is funded by an NMRC Clinician Scientist Award and as a project PI and Co-I for a 36 million SGD A*STAR IAF-ICP grant to support the SERI- Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Joint Research Programme for Myopia.

He graduated from Northwestern University, in Chicago, USA where he received a triple major with honors in Chemistry, Biology and Integrated Science in 1997. He then received his joint Medical Degree (M.D.) and Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Biophysics from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was awarded the 2006 Top Thesis Award in the Life Sciences. He undertook Ophthalmology training at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago under Drs. William Mieler and Dmitri Azar where he won the Top Research Awards in 2009 and 2010. 

Dr Hoang subsequently completed a 2-year vitreo-retinal fellowship at the Columbia University Medical Centre and the Vitreous, Retina, Macula Consultants of New York (VRMNY) in 2012. Working under the supervision of world-renowned specialists Profs. Stanley Chang, Lawrence Yannuzzi, Richard Spaide and Bailey Freund, he was trained in vitreo-retinal surgery and medical retina. Since 2012, he split his time between clinical work as a vitreo-retinal surgeon and Director of the High Myopia Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City where he received a Clinician Scientist Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr Hoang is a member of the prestigious Macula Society, Retina Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology and American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS). He has received numerous awards, including both the ASRS Honour award and selection as one of America's Top Ophthalmologists in 2016. He is a well-published physician scientist with over 50 peer-reviewed articles in major international ophthalmology journals, including Ophthalmology, IOVS and JAMA Ophthalmology and is a reviewer for 9 of these journals. 

At SNEC and Duke-NUS, his work profile is divided between clinical work (seeing patients) and research, with both endeavours mainly focused on extreme short-sightedness, an important blinding condition in Singapore. Although minimal levels of short-sightedness are considered a minor inconvenience, pathologic myopia occurs at extreme levels of lifelong, progressive eye elongation and subsequent eye wall thinning, which allows for localized deformations (called staphyloma), and subsequent vision-threatening changes.

As a clinician scientist, he feels it is his patients who ultimately fuel his passionate focus on advancing treatments and cures for retinal disease and other blinding disorders. He treasures his time with patients, and strives to provide the best possible care, which includes both treatments that currently exist as well as developing novel treatments in the laboratory. 

Dr Hoang’s current research focuses on clinical studies employing cutting-edge non-invasive multimodal imaging to identify patients at greatest risk of vision loss from short-sightedness. Concurrently, he is continuing laboratory-based studies aimed at discovering novel treatments to stunt short-sightedness and avoid vision-threatening changes, including scleral collagen crosslinking to selectively strengthen areas of the eye wall. These techniques have the potential to benefit millions of highly myopic individuals who are at high-risk of eventual vision loss. 

Dr Hoang holds concurrent appointments as Assistant Professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Clinical Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, USA.

Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships:

• Member, Macula Society (2017 - present)
• Member, Retina Society (2017 - present)
• Member, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (2015 - present)
• Member, American Society of Retina Specialists (2011 - present)
• Member, American Association of Ophthalmology (2007 - present)
• Member, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (2005 - present)

Awards:

• Clinician Scientist Award, NMRC (2019)
• Inaugural Mark W. Lunde Memorial Lecturer, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Eye and Ear Infirmary (2019)
• Inductee, The Macula Society (2017)
• Inductee, The Retina Society (2017)
• Honour Award, American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS)(2016)
• NIH/NEI, K08 Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (2014 - 2017)
• NIH R21, Co-investigator (2015 - 2017)
• Research to Prevent Blindness Career Development Award (2014-2017)
• John Cushman Private Grant (2016-2017)
• Joseph Connors Private Grant (2014)
• NIH K12 Clinical Translational Sciences Career Development Award (2013-2014)
• AR Peacock and JR Peacock Trust Private Foundation Grant Award (2013-2015)
• Top Resident Research Award, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary (2010)
• Top Graduate Thesis Award in the Life Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago Graduate College (2006)
• Grass Fellowship in the Neurosciences (2005)
• Top Speaker, National Student Research Forum, Anatomy/Neuroscience Division, USA (2004)
• Top Speaker, 35th Midwest Student Biomedical Research Forum, USA (2004)
• NIH/NIDDK T32 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32DK007739) (2003)
  

Leadership positions / roles in Education: 

He has provided mentorship to more than 25 juniors, including medical and graduate students, medical officer, residents and registrars, post-doc and clinical fellows, and junior clinician scientists, including a former trainee who is Medical Director, Dept. of Ophthalmology in California, USA.