MEDICOLEGAL-OPHTHALMOLOGY - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Principal Investigator or Co - Investigator

A New York native, Dr. Sher received his BA and MD degrees with honors from Boston University at the age of 22. After an internship at the University of Minnesota Hospitals, he entered the U.S. Public Health Service as a commissioned officer in 1972 and served in the USPHS as a staff associate at the National Institute of Health. He spent the next three years at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, performing tumor immunology and immunotherapy and vaccine research and authoring a number of papers in that field. At the NIH, he became interested in ocular immunology and decided to train in ophthalmology. He then completed ophthalmology residency at the University of Minnesota followed by additional fellowship training in corneal and external disease at Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London, UK. Returning to Minneapolis in 1979, he went into private practice with the late Irving Shapiro, MD and Robert Warshawsky, MD. The group became Eye Care Associates and grew to 65 employees with several offices in Minneapolis. Dr. Sher left clinical practice in Minneapolis in June 2020 and has relocated to downtown Chicago. Dr. Sher was an attending surgeon at the Phillips Eye Institute where he was a founding member in 1984 and has served as Chief of Ophthalmology. Active in teaching other doctors and students, Dr. Sher has been on the adjunct faculty of the University of Minnesota Medical School since 1979 and currently holds the rank of Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology. Since 1980, Dr. Sher has performed thousands of anterior segment eye surgeries including cataract and corneal transplant surgery. He has devoted considerable time to studying and working in the field of refractive surgery. He holds several patents on related medical devices. He has authored or co-authored more than 75 scientific papers and book chapters, is a frequent lecturer, and is a reviewer for a number of scientific journals. In 1994, Dr. Sher was the first American to be awarded the prestigious Troutman Award by the International Society for Refractive Surgery for his paper on the control of pain using diclofenac after PRK. He is the editor of two textbooks entitled Surgery for Hyperopia and Presbyopia, and Surgery for Hyperopia, He authored a monograph on postoperative care after laser corneal surgery (PRK) and edited an Atlas of Refractive Surgery for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Dr. Sher has been the principal investigator or co-investigator for a number of ophthalmologic clinical trials of drugs and devices as well as a consultant for a number of ophthalmic-related companies. He has served as a member of the Preferred Practice Patterns Panel of the American Academy of Ophthalmology for Refractive Errors and Refractive Surgery. Additionally, he has served on the editorial board of EyeWorld and Clinical Signs in Ophthalmology. He has considerable experience in the evaluation and screening for eye injury after mass exposure to toxic gases such as ammonia and chlorine. He has evaluated and been involved with litigation for complex eye injuries ranging from auto accidents, workplace accidents to criminal assaults. Dr. Sher has developed software for the complex and time -consuming quantification of visual disability. The professional achievement he is most proud of is his donation of laser vision correction surgery to over 900 soldiers in the National Guard and Reserves who were deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. For these contributions, he has received numerous awards and recognitions from the National Guard and other branches of the armed forces.