RohitVarmaMDMPH

Summary

• An expert on glaucoma and how it affects the optic nerve, Rohit Varma, M.D., M.P.H., has helped to develop implantable devices that measure intraocular pressure and drainage. He has also contributed to changes in public health policy that take into account the needs of different racial and ethnic communities. Currently, Dr. Rohit Varma focuses much of his time on developing novel imaging techniques that will allow ophthalmologists to diagnose optic nerve damage from glaucoma in its early stages. A physician-scientist, he serves as a principal investigator on several major projects, including the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Diseases Study, the Chinese American Eye Study and the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study. The studies are funded through the National Institutes of Health. In addition, Dr. Varma is a principal investigator with the World Health Organization, where he leads research on blindness and vision impairment.
  
  The recipient of a number of honors for his research and clinical practice, Dr. Rohit Varma serves as Director of the Southern California Eye Institute at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. Previously he was professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, where he also held the Grace and Emery Beardsley Chair in Ophthalmology. In 2016, the American Academy of Ophthalmology presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In the same year, he was named among the “Best Doctors in America” for the second consecutive year. He has also earned recognition as a “Top Doctor” from Castle Connolly and Pasadena magazine.
  
  After earning his doctor of medicine from the University of Delhi in India, Dr. Varma relocated to the United States, where he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Wills Eye Hospital at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and received a master of public health from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore.