Dr Kevin Gillmann is an ophthalmologist, glaucoma specialist and researcher. He shares his clinical work between Geneva and London, where he is an honorary fellow of Moorfields Eye Hospital. He graduated from Newcastle University Medical School in 2013 (MBBS) and became a Fellow of the European Board of Ophthalmologists in 2018. In 2019, he completed his residency within Professor André Mermoud’s glaucoma unit and graduated a Medical Doctorate (MD) on Minimally-Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS) from the University of Lausanne.
His research with Stanford University and the Swiss Glaucoma Research Foundation focuses primarily on minimally invasive glaucoma surgery, neuroprotection and personalised glaucoma therapies. His work was featured on the frontpage of several magazines and in high-impact journals such as Nature’s Eye and the British Journal of Ophthalmology, and received grants from the BrightFocus Foundation. With over 50 peer-reviewed articles, contributions to several book chapters and international guidelines, he was recently ranked amongst the top 0.5% glaucoma experts worldwide by ExpertScape.
Dr Gillmann is also the editor of the upcoming Elsevier textbook „The Science of Glaucoma Management”. He frequently gives lectures both nationally and internationally, including at the University of Liverpool and the University of London, where he was awarded a prize for academic achievements. Aside from his activities as a clinicians and educator, Dr Gillmann has also devoted some of his research to the study and improvement of patient experience in healthcare services. He was awarded a postgraduate certificate in Media and Medicine from Harvard Medical School, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with distinctions from the University of London, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Paris LaVillette where he wrote a thesis on the interconnections between hospital design, patient perception and society.”
Synopsis:
A good understanding of the pathophysiology of glaucoma is key to its management. In recent years, there has been growing interest in integrated theories of glaucoma pathogenesis suggesting that mechanical and vascular mechanisms may jointly contribute to the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) responsible for glaucoma.
While raised intraocular pressure was found to place biomechanical stress on the lamina cribrosa and RGC axons, causing axonal damage and optic nerve degeneration, vascular mechanisms also appear to play a crucial part in the pathophysiology of glaucoma. For instance, an elevation in intraocular pressure was shown to affect the perfusion of ocular structures such as the optic nerve head, both in post-mortem and in-vivo studies. These theories are supported by the discovery of widespread changes to the microvasculature of the retina and optic nerve head in all stages of glaucoma regardless of the intraocular pressures, leading to a renewed interest in the study of the correlations between systemic cardiovascular conditions and glaucoma.
This talk will illustrate the vascular mechanisms in glaucoma and review the role of systemic vascular risk factors in glaucoma.”