Ophthalmic Pathology

The UAB Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory is a division of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alabama School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Submit a Specimen | Our Staff | Contact Us

Our laboratory has a three fold mission:

  • Service
  • Education
  • Research

Service in the Laboratory is centered around the provision of diagnostic ophthalmic pathology services to the physicians of UAB, including the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital and the surrounding region.The Laboratory regularly receives consultation requests from other pathologists and institutions. The UAB Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory employs the latest techniques in microscopic diagnosis as well as emerging technologies of molecular diagnostic pathology. These techniques enhance our pathologists ability to make difficult diagnoses, utilizing such processes as flow cytometry, the polymerase chain reaction, gene rearrangement studies, as well as immunohistochemistry. The rich collaborative environment that exists on the UAB campus allows consultations to be obtained from the UAB Department of Pathology if needed. The Laboratory has an alliance with the Laboratory Corporation of America to provide ophthalmic pathology services to their large constituency of laboratories and hospitals across the eastern United States.

As evidence of the Laboratory's commitment to quality, we have been accredited for more than 20 years by the College of American Pathologists. The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is widely recognized as the "gold standard" for laboratory accreditation and has served as a model for various federal, state, and private laboratory accreditation programs throughout the world.

Submission of Specimens to the Laboratory To submit specimens to the Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory, download the submission form (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.) Please complete the form in its entirety. Note that the patient's date of birth is now REQUIRED for submission. Seal the specimen container securely and ship by overnight courier to the address indicated on the form.

Education in the Laboratory is carried out via multiple mechanisms, including one-on-one review of pathology slides at the Laboratory's multihead microscope. Residents from the Department of Ophthalmology's residency program are the primary focus of the educational efforts of the laboratory, but multiple individuals may participate in sign-out, including UAB Department of Pathology residents, UAB and visiting medical students, and other faculty. The staff of the laboratory gives a rotating series of lectures on all aspects of ophthalmic pathology.

Research in the Laboratory is varied and benefits from being part of UAB, a major biomedical research institution that is consistently ranked in the top 20 funded by the National Institutes of Health. Collaborative projects are currently underway with faculty in other departments including Cell Biology and Microbiology, as well as within the Department of Ophthalmology. Current projects include the role of the innate immune system in experimental ocular inflammatory disease. The Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory also provides histopathology consultative services to the UAB Age Related Maculopathy Histopathology Laboratory, and our Director, Russell W. Read, MD, is on the ARM Shared Tissue advisory board. Members of our laboratory have presented work at many national meetings, including the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and American Association of Ophthalmic Pathologists

Staff

Russell W. Read, MD    Director
James O. Powell, MD
Joyce Horn    Pathology Specialist

Contact Us

UAB Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory
Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital @ UAB
1720 University Boulevard
H-17 EFH
Birmingham, AL 35233

+1.205.325.8331
+1.205.325.8658 FAX
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