Each year, MEDx highlights an innovator at the intersection of engineering and medicine. This year, Dr. Mark Humayun, former Duke Ophthalmology Resident, talked about his experience in working at this interface and his work to develop advanced retinal implants. Dr. Humayun’s talk "Advanced Retinal Implants" highlighted medical technologies, retinal implants and applying engineering to solve problems in medicine.
Dr. Humayun is an internationally recognized pioneer in vision restoration. He assembled a team of multidisciplinary experts to develop the first FDA approved artificial retina, Argus II, for sight restoration. He has more than 100 patents/patent applications and more than 200 peer reviewed publications. He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Medicine, Engineering, and Inventors. He was named top 1% of ophthalmologists by the U.S. News & World Report. For his extraordinary contributions he was awarded the United States' highest technological achievement, the 2015 National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama. Dr Humayun is an IEEE Fellow and the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award. He currently serves as the director of the USC Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics and co-director of the USC Roski Eye Institute.