Founder, Former President, and now President Emeritus(2024), Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation
Dr. Foster was born and raised in West Virginia on a farm. His parents decided that to further his education they would move to Charleston, West Virginia. It proved to be effective as he went on from Charleston High to receive his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry at Duke University, with Distinction and Phi Beta Kappa in 1965, and received his Doctor of Medicine Degree at Duke University Medical Center, in 1969, being elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He trained in Internal Medicine at Duke University Hospital from 1969-1970, and at the National Heart and Lung Institute, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1970 to 1972, during which time he also taught Internal Medicine, with an appointment as Instructor in Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. In 1972, Dr. Foster entered his Ophthalmology Residency training program at Washington University (Barnes Hospital), in St. Louis, Missouri, and having completed that in 1975, traveled to Boston to do two additional Fellowship trainings in Cornea and External Diseases, and in Ocular Immunology. He completed this training in 1977 and was invited to join the full-time faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology of Harvard Medical School, where he was a member of the Cornea Service and Director of the Residency Training Program at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Eventually he became known for his treatment of ocular inflammatory disease and he was getting increasingly more referrals for all manner of ocular inflammatory conditions in his cornea clinic. Eventually, his cornea fellows complained they were seeing too many noncorneal inflammatory cases. As a result, his chairman, said he should start a uveitis service. Cornea, being Dr Foster’s first love, decided instead to recruit a uveitis specialist but his friend and colleague at NIH declined and his chairman said “you are it”. In 1981, he then became Founder and Director, Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Service Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI). He quickly initiated a dedicated uveitis fellowship and founded two research laboratories to study ocular inflammation. From these beginnings he has developed an expertise that has had a profound impact on every aspect of ocular immunology including the efficacy of diagnosis and treatment.
After 30 years on the full time faculty of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, he left to establish his own private institution in 2005 – The Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institution(MERSI) in addition to founding the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation(OIUF) at the same time. OIUF was the vehicle through which he could continue to teach fellows from all around the world, continue his research and direct his research, pathology laboratory in ocular inflammation. Dr Foster’s full-time faculty position at Harvard Medical School was retitled to Professor of Ophthalmology, Part-Time, when he left MEEI and remained so until November 2025 when he retired it. He retired from clinical practice in December 2023.
He began his independent research in 1977 and has since been continuously funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere. He has authored over 1,000 published papers and 14 textbooks, all to improve the quality of care of patients with ocular inflammatory disease and prevent blindness. As of 2023, his work had been cited over 42,000 times. He was ranked in 2024, #1695 in the United States among Best Scientists by Research.com.
Highlights from Dr Foster’s career not only includes his saving the sight of many patients but also the development of the “step ladder approach to care” for treating patients with ocular inflammatory disease. This standard of care in treating uveitis/OID was published in July 2015 as the preferred practice patterns in the Journal of Survey of Ophthalmology. He also developed the standard of care for treating the blinding disease of ocular cicatricial pemphigoid with the leading dermatology expert Dr. Razzaque Ahmed, publishing a breakthrough treatment for Ocular Cicatricial Pemphigoid (OCP) in 2010. This article demonstrated the benefits of Rituximab and Immunoglobulin therapy in halting this blinding disease. In 2024, his novel grading system for Conjunctival Inflammation in OCP was published.
In award highlights, Dr Foster received the American Academy of Ophthalmology Award in 1983, the Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator Award in 1995, and Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology in 2005. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Ophthalmology in 2007. In 2019, Foster was named as one of America’s top doctors in ophthalmology for the 19th consecutive year. Dr. Foster is named the #1 Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid Expert in the world by Expertscape in 2021, honoring his decades of groundbreaking work. This placed him in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about the disease over a decade-long period.
Professional Affiliations
Awards and Honors:
1960 Bausch and Lomb Science Prize
1960 National Merit Scholar
1961 Beta Omega Sigma Leadership Honorary
1965 Phi Beta Kappa
1965 Graduation with Highest Distinction in Chemistry
1965 Chemistry Prize
1969 Alpha Omega Alpha
1979 Sigma XI
1985 Hippocrates Medal, Swedish Royal Academy of Medicine
1986 American Ophthalmological Society
1994 The Best Doctors in America: Town and Country Magazine
1995 Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator Award
1996 The Best Doctors in America: American Health Magazine
1996 The Best Doctors in America: Ophthalmology Times
2000 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2001 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2002 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medial Ltd.
2002 Kingston’s National Registry of Who’s Who – Life Member
2002 America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals
2002 The Best Doctors in America
2003 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2003 The Diaz Caneja Medal
2003 The International Ocular Inflammation Society Award
2004 The Clinical Uveitis Research Award
2004 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2004 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2005 Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Outstanding Performance: ARVO
2005 Top Doctors: Boston Herald
2005 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2005 The Marquis Who’s Who Publication Board
2005 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2006 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2006 The Best Doctors in America
2006 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2007 American Academy of Ophthalmology Life Achievement Award
2007 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2007 The Best Doctors in America
2007 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2008 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2008 The Best Doctors in America
2008 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2008 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2009 The Clinical Uveitis Research Award
2009 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2009 The Best Doctors in America
2009 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2009 McLean Medal
2009 Patients’ Choice Award, American Registry
2009 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2010 America’s Top Doctors Award
2010 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Silver Fellow Award
2010 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2010 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2010 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2011 Patients’ Choice Award, American Registry
2011 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2011 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2011 Patients’ Choice Award, American Registry
2011 America’s Top Doctors Award
2011 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2012 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2012 America’s Top Ophthalmologists: Consumer Research Council of America
2012 Patients’ Choice Award, American Registry
2012 America’s Top Doctors Award
2012 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2012 Academy of Ophthalmology, Life Fellow Award
2012 Vitals, Most Compassionate Doctor Award
2013 America’s Top Doctors: Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.
2013 Patients’ Choice Award, American Registry
2013 America’s Top Doctors Award
2013 Top Doctors: Boston Magazine
2013 Vitals, Most Compassionate Doctor Award
Major Committee Assignments
International
1999-Present International Society of Ocular Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics – Organizing Executive Committee
1999-Present International Ocular Inflammation Society – Executive International Council
2003-Present International Uveitis Study Group
National
1992-Present American Uveitis Society, Executive Committee
1994-1997 American Uveitis Society, Director, AUS Course on Uveitis, American Academy of Ophthalmology
1994-Present American Uveitis Society, Executive Committee
1998-Present American Uveitis Society, Chairman, Committee on Investments
1999-Present American Uveitis Society, Director, Scientific Meeting
1999-2000 American Uveitis Society, Subcommittee on Immunomodulatory Therapy for Ocular Inflammatory Diseases
2000-Present Medical Advisory Board, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Foundation
2003-Present American Academy of Ophthalmology – Director- Uveitis Subspecialty Day
2004-2008 American Academy of Ophthalmology, Basic and Clinical Science Course – Faculty
2011-2013 President Elect American Uveitis Society
2013-2015 President American Uveitis Society
 |
|
|
|
