• Press Release

Richard Rosen, MD, Receives Prestigious Award From the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS)

Distinguished Mount Sinai professor given top honor for his contributions to advancing vitreoretinal surgery, treatment, research, and patient care

  • New York, NY
  • (July 19, 2024)

The American Society of Retina Specialists is honoring Richard B. Rosen, MD, ScD (hon), FACS, FASRS, FARVO, CRA, the Belinda Bingham Pierce and Gerald G. Pierce Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with the prestigious Founders Award for 2024. He received this award at the 42nd ASRS Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, during a special ceremony on Friday, July 19. 

The ASRS Founders Award recognizes Dr. Rosen’s significant contributions to the advancement of vitreoretinal surgery, treatment, research, and patient care, and his dedication to the field of ophthalmology. He is the first ophthalmologist from Mount Sinai to receive this annual award. 

“I am most grateful to the nominating committee and leadership of the ASRS for this honor. I have been a member of the society since completing my retina fellowship in 1991 under the preceptorship of Dr. Thomas Muldoon and Dr. Joseph Walsh at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE). It’s particularly gratifying to me since Dr. Muldoon was the faculty advisor to the Founders, Jerry Bovino, Roy Levit, and AllenVerne, and encouraged them to create the Vitreous Society, which eventually grew into the ASRS. Their contribution of including the wider community of retinal specialists within our country and beyond has expanded access to education, the latest treatment techniques, and professional camaraderie, which has had immense benefits for our patients, our trainees, and our profession,” says Dr. Rosen. 

Dr. Rosen also serves as the Surgeon-Director, Chief of Retina Services, Vice Chair of Research, and Director of Retina Fellowships at NYEE. There, he has created one of the most advanced ocular imaging centers in the United States. This center uses novel technologies to explore the vascular basis of retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinal trauma, and to examine the retina at a cellular level, which can lead to earlier detection and treatment of a range of blinding eye conditions. Dr. Rosen helped develop the first combined en face optical coherence tomography (OCT)/confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope instruments, which were the forerunners of today’s non-invasive OCT angiography systems. This fostered the translation of other novel imaging systems to the clinical setting. Dr. Rosen lectures worldwide and has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals on topics including new treatments for macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, along with innovations in diagnostic retinal imaging and vitreo-retinal surgical instrumentation. 

At ASRS, Dr. Rosen’s Founders Lecture focused on using dynamic OCT angiography and quad-fusion adaptive optics to identify subclinical sickle cell activity, undetectable with traditional clinical examination, in order to appreciate earlier disease and subtle treatment effects as they appear in individual patients. 


About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.

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