DIETIKON, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND, April 30, 2020: Recognizing the most influential people around the globe in ophthalmology, The Ophthalmologist, an internationally recognized magazine, named Prof. Farhad Hafezi MD, PhD, FARVO of the ELZA Institute, Dietikon, Zurich, Switzerland for the fourth consecutive time to its biennial Power List, listing those 100 people who are the most influential in ophthalmology.
More than 36,000 readers across Europe and North America vote for their peers for inclusion in this annual list. Receiving this accolade is an acknowledgment by his contemporaries that Prof. Hafezi’s contributions to the advancements in ophthalmology are only expected to grow in influence over the next decade.
“I’m extremely honored to be included in this accomplished list of ophthalmologists and to be seen by The Ophthalmologist’s readers as one of the innovators in the field,” said Hafezi.
“I enjoy changing the way ophthalmology is practiced. ELZA has two components: research and clinical practice. What we learn from the former informs the latter.
Our goal is to integrate our research knowledge with the newest technology and outcomes analysis to push medicine forwards and improve patients’ outcomes. It has – and continues to be – an honor to be Medical Director of ELZA”
During his 28-year career to date, Prof. Hafezi has made significant advancements in the field; he was part of the Zurich group that developed corneal cross-linking (CXL), has determined multiple ways of safely cross-linking thin corneas, and has led the charge of bringing CXL to the slit lamp, and using it as a potentially antibiotic-free method of treating corneal infections.
His other accomplishments include:
- Keratoconus Global Award (2009) for his work on CXL technology.
- Carl Camras Award 2014 for translational research (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology [ARVO])
- The 2014 IIRSI Gold Medal for his efforts in introducing CXL into clinical ophthalmology
- Member of The Ophthalmologist Power List Top 100 (2014, 2016, 2018 – biennial list; ranked every time the Power List has been run)
- Casebeer Award (2014) of the International Society for Refractive Surgery.
- The 2016 El-Maghraby International Award for his contributions to ophthalmology
- The 2016 Gold Medal of SAMIR for his pioneering work on corneal cross-linking
- Elected as an honorary member of Hungary’s SHIOL (Societas Hungarica Ad Implantandam Oculi Lenticulam) in 2016
- Appointed FARVO (Fellow of ARVO) in 2019
Farhad Hafezi is one of the most cited ophthalmologists of his generation, with an h index of 46 and a total of more than 8,700 citations in the scientific literature.
