Sharon Fekrat, MD

Sharon Fekrat, MD is a board-certified, fellowship-trained vitreoretinal surgeon and has been part of the Duke faculty for 20 years since completing her training at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions where she was the first female Assistant Chief of Service on call continuously for 365 days.

Dr. Fekrat has co-authored over 140 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and over 45 textbook chapters. She is Senior Editor of Duke Eye Center’s All About Your Eyes, Wolters Kluwer's Duke Manual of Vitreoretinal Surgery, and both editions of SLACK's Curbside Consultation in Retina. Over the last decade, she has held various leadership roles at Duke's VA affiliate, the Durham VA Medical Center, including Chief of Ophthalmology, Interim Chief of Surgery (leading 80 Duke surgeons), Interim Deputy Chief of Staff, and is currently Associate Chief of Staff. Fekrat sits on the Editorial Board of Retinal Physician, Ophthalmology Times, Ophthalmic Surgery Lasers Imaging Retina, Retina Times, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (AAO) EyeNet and is Executive Editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

She has received many prestigious awards including the Ronald G. Michels Award, Heed Award, Heed-Knapp Award, Rhett Buckler Trophy, AAO's Senior Achievement Award, American Society of Retina Specialists' Senior Honor Award, and the Golden Globe Award from the Duke Ophthalmology Residents. She has been selected by her peers to Best Doctors in Business North Carolina annually since 2005. Fekrat was selected as one of 150 retina doctors leading retinal innovation by Ocular Surgery News.

Dr. Fekrat is Director of the Duke Vitreoretinal Surgery Fellowship Program, Director of Ophthalmology Faculty Career Development, Co-Director of Duke Neurodegenerative Disease Retinal Imaging Repository, and is Past President of the North Carolina Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. In addition to mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows in clinical research from her large retinal vein occlusion and endophthalmitis databases, Dr Fekrat is studying alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone in eyes with geographic atrophy from dry age-related macular degeneration.

She leads an international multidisciplinary clinical research team evaluating multimodal retinal and optic nerve imaging for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerations with her colleague Dr. Dilraj Grewal and is collaborating with Duke engineers to train a deep learning model for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Their team's work has been featured on ABC, CBS, Fox, Reuters, Newsweek, and several hundred news outlets around the world. She recently gave testimony on this work to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.