Fellowship Program
The Ophthalmology Department has offered a fellowship training program in neuro-ophthalmology since 1971. It was one of the earliest fellowship programs established at Downstate, and it remains one of only four fellowships offered in Neuro-ophthalmology in New York City. Currently the neuro-ophthalmology fellowship program has one fellow, based primarily at the department’s Kingsbrook Medical Center affiliate, where training and supervision is provided under the leadership of Arthur Wolintz, MD, fellowship trained in both general and neuro-ophthalmology. Dr. Wolintz, a former chairman of Ophthalmology at SUNY Downstate (1983-1996) is a distinguished teaching professor and director of the Neuro-ophthalmology Division at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. Patients at Kingsbrook cared for by the neuro-ophthalmology fellow and three attending physicians represent a wide range of acute and chronic neurological disorders with ocular manifestations. Many patients are older, presenting a variety of age-related neurological problems and dementia, but pediatric cases also are well represented. Kingsbrook receives referrals from hospitals and medical schools throughout the New York metropolitan area for evaluation of neuro-ophthalmologic problems of brain-injured children, and children are also referred by the Board of Education for evaluation of learning disorders.
In addition, Kingsbrook has a brain trauma center offering fellows outstanding opportunities for learning and practice. The fellow participates in daily care of inpatients and conducts four weekly clinics at Kingsbrook, with 30 to 35 patients per session, in conjunction with attendings. The fellow also participates with Dr. Wolintz in neuro-ophthalmologic consults and resident and medical student teaching and supervision at other SUNY Ophthalmology Department affiliates. Outreach, including a weekly diabetes interdisciplinary program, is another component the neuro-ophthalmology fellowship training program. The neuro-ophthalmology program’s graduates achieve expertise in diagnosis and management of patients with a wide range of conditions, including optic nerve disease, cranial neuropathologies, neurovascular problems, neuromuscular dysfunction, intracranial and orbital tumors, and disorders of visual perception. Most have gone on to lead distinguished careers at top institutions throughout the U.S.
