Patrice Marie Hicks, Ph.D, MPH, (l) and Bushra Usmani, MD.

NEW YORK—The Glaucoma Foundation (TGF) and Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) have announced two awardees for the TGF (sponsored by Patricia Hill) / RPB Fellowships in Glaucoma. The fellowships one-year, $10,000 supplemental awards target underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities—as defined by the National Institutes of Health—who are fellows in departments of ophthalmology engaged in substantive glaucoma research, according to the announcement. This year's awardees, both ophthalmic epidemiologists, were selected in December. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution patterns and determinants of diseases in a defined population.

Patrice Marie Hicks, Ph.D, MPH is an ophthalmic epidemiologist in the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School. The long-term goal of her research is to develop an independent and interdisciplinary research program to understand how social determinants of health affect vision outcomes, ultimately informing policy and intervention. Her research portfolio includes several studies on glaucoma, and she is currently focused on identifying facilitators and barriers to glaucoma medication adherence. One of Hicks' ongoing studies is evaluating the inclusion and accuracy of sex and gender, as well as race and ethnicity, in artificial intelligence (AI) applications in ophthalmology.

The research focus of Bushra Usmani, MD, a member of the department of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is on exploring the epidemiology of ophthalmic diseases. Her particular interest involves preventable blinding or high-morbidity ophthalmic conditions. Dr. Usmani's approach is to identify the disease, explore the epidemiology, identify risk factors, costs, and resources utilized for care and disparities in the affected populations over a 10-year period to identify trends. The goal has been to identify ways to protect and prevent these causes of blindness.