Bo Wang, M.D., Ph.D., joined the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine faculty in August 2023 as an assistant professor of ophthalmology. A Wilmer residency class of 2022 alumnus and pediatric ophthalmology specialist, Wang sees patients at Wilmer’s pediatric clinic and Patient Access Center for the Eye in East Baltimore (PACE), as well as at Wilmer’s Green Spring Station location.

What attracted you to the field of ophthalmology?

For me, the biggest draw to ophthalmology has always been how much impact you can have in a patient’s life. Vision is one of our most important senses and I love being able to help improve or preserve my patients’ eyesight. In addition, I love working with my hands and really enjoy the intricate surgeries in ophthalmology.

How did you become interested in your specialty?

As a medical student, I was always interested in pediatrics because I had a lot of fun working with kids. They often brought so much joy to my day. Pediatric ophthalmology is also very impactful, as we have the potential to provide the children we care for with a lifetime of good vision. In addition, helping my older patients with double vision and eye misalignment is very gratifying because it makes such a huge difference in their quality of life.

What drew you to Wilmer?

As a resident, I wanted to train at a world-class institution where I would learn everything you need to know about clinical and surgical management of ophthalmology from leaders in the field. Due to my strong research interest in non-invasive imaging of the eye, I wanted to go to a place that had a lot of support for clinicians interested in research and advancing the field. This is what drew me to Wilmer first as a resident, and then again after I finished my fellowship.

It's also the mentors and people I have had a chance to work with that really drew me back. The people at Wilmer are amazing at what they do and are very passionate about the three pillars of academic ophthalmology: clinical practice, teaching and research. It is inspiring to go to work every day with amazing colleagues who are moving the field forward. Ultimately, for me, it was a pretty easy choice to come to Wilmer.

What are you working on right now and how will it contribute to the advancement of ophthalmology?

My research focuses on early onset childhood glaucoma. It’s a devastating disease that causes vision loss and oftentimes permanent disability for a child. In addition to causing visual disability to the child, vision loss often causes a lot of difficulties for the families who are caring for these vulnerable children. Currently, I'm using non-invasive imaging to study the outflow tract of the eye to understand why the pressure goes high in those kids, causing them to lose vision — with the idea that it could potentially be used to help evaluate children at risk for developing glaucoma and understand why surgeries to open the outflow tract may fail in these children.

Where do you see opportunities for advancement or innovation in your specialty?

I think that pediatric ophthalmology can really benefit from embracing new technologies to provide more accurate and earlier diagnosis for diseases affecting children. For example, non-invasive imaging can tell us there are subtle abnormalities of the optic nerve or retina that are interfering with a child’s ability to see, which is often difficult to detect through standard examination. In addition, one of the things I'm working on is using virtual reality headsets, which children often find enjoyable to use, to assess the degree of vision loss in kids.