Moran Eye Center, P C

Objective This study assesses a new departmental role—a professionalism mentor—who receives sexual harassment reporting, liaisons with campus resources, and organizes educational sessions. Study Design Multicenter randomized controlled survey study. Methods Academic ophthalmology departments in the United States were randomized to a professionalism mentor group (n = 9) and a control group (n = 7). Among both pre- and postsurveys, 605 faculty and trainee responses were received and 546 were complete. The intervention group was assigned a professionalism mentor with educational session for a 6- to 10-month period. Sexual harassment and reporting rate change over time were compared between the two groups. Results Among 546 anonymous responses, 16% experienced workplace sexual harassment during the prior 10 months. Location in the South or Midwest was a risk factor (p < 0.001). Victims were mostly women (76%), including residents/fellows (46%) and academic attendings (49%); perpetrators included patients (35%) and academic attendings (35%). Departments with and without a professionalism mentor had stable harassment from pre- to postsurvey (p = 0.95 comparing change). The professionalism mentor group had an increase in reporting to an authority from pre- to postsurvey (7–23%), whereas the control group had a decrease (27–12%; p = 0.07 comparing change). Most faculty and trainees in the interventional arm of this study recommended instituting a professionalism mentor with educational session (66% presurvey and 68% postsurvey), compared with educational session alone (25% presurvey and 23% postsurvey), or neither (9% presurvey and 9% postsurvey). Residency program directors in the professionalism mentor group even more strongly supported instituting both a professionalism mentor and educational program (100% presurvey and 100% postsurvey) as opposed to educational program alone (0% presurvey and 0% postsurvey) or neither (0% presurvey and 0% postsurvey). Conclusion This study identified a high sexual harassment rate in academic ophthalmology departments over a brief period. The presence of a professionalism mentor was viewed favorably and may lead to increased reporting.

The Utah Project on Exfoliation Syndrome (UPEXS) study was created to investigate the association between exfoliation syndrome (XFS) and systemic disorders or pathologies. The study utilizes the resources of the Utah Population Database, which is linked to the Utah genealogy, a compilation of large pedigrees extending back 3 to ≥11 generations, representing most families in the state. These family members medical and health records are linked to vital records and can be used effectively to identify familial clustering of disorders, like XFS, with comorbid diseases or health-related data. There is growing evidence that XFS patients have an increased risk for systemic disorders that may reflect the systemic tissue involvement of this disease. Epidemiologic studies of individuals with XFS have reported an increased risk of various pathologies that have abnormalities in extracellular matrix metabolism and repair. For this reason, the UPEXS has focused on disorders that involve the extracellular matrix in general and elastin specifically, such as pelvic organ prolapse, atrial fibrillation, inguinal hernias, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this paper we present our results from the analysis of pelvic organ prolapse, as well as, preliminary data for atrial fibrillation.

Nuclear hormone receptors play a major role in the development of many tissues. This study uncovers a novel role for testicular receptor 2 (Tr2, Nr2c1) in defining the early phase of retinal development and regulating normal retinal cell patterning and topography. The mammalian retina undergoes an overlapping yet biphasic period of development to generate all seven retinal cell types. We discovered that Nr2c1 expression coincides with development of the early retinal cells. Loss of Nr2c1 causes a severe vision deficit and impacts early, but not late retina cell types. Retinal cone cell topography is disrupted with an increase in displaced amacrine cells. Additionally, genetic background significantly impacts phenotypic outcome of cone photoreceptor cells but not amacrine cells. Chromatin-IP experiments reveal NR2C1 regulates early cell transcription factors that regulate retinal progenitor cells during development, including amacrine (Satb2) and cone photoreceptor regulators thyroid and retinoic acid receptors. This study supports a role for Nr2c1 in defining the biphasic period of retinal development and specifically influencing the early phase of retinal cell fate.