A Lasting Legacy
Olson’s tenure at the University of Utah began with a 1979 cold call to then-chair of surgery Frank Moody, MD. He had heard the single physician constituting the school’s ophthalmology division was leaving. Moody told him the University was planning to scrap the program, but Olson convinced him to take a chance.
"It turns out the division was $80,000 in debt," explains Olson. "My recruitment package was that they would forgive the debt and give me some working capital—essentially a loan. That was it."
Olson, who earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the U of U, turned down a fellowship at Harvard University and a full-time position at the University of California, Los Angeles, to build something new in his hometown. He would grow a one-person division into a world-class ophthalmic care and research center that attracts more than 170,000 patient visits annually and employs more than 600.
Today, the Moran Eye Center’s clinical care and academic programs rank among the nation’s Top 10. The center has more than 50 specialists, 11 satellite clinics, more than 20 research labs and centers, and the largest global outreach program of its kind.
"It’s a pretty amazing adventure when you think about him as the one and only chairman in the history of the Department of Ophthalmology and all that’s been done on his watch. It’s impressive."
Known for his optimism and drive to innovate, Olson has unflinchingly taken on and solved some of his field’s biggest challenges.
A renowned expert in cataract surgery, Olson pioneered research that improved care for millions of patients. When artificial intraocular lenses, now used during cataract surgery, were introduced in the 1980s, there were no standards for manufacturing or using the devices and the National Institutes of Health had declined to fund related research. So, Olson co-founded what is now Moran’s Intermountain Ocular Research Center in 1982 to vet lens design, materials, and surgical complications.
Olson’s landmark research made cataract surgery safer and more effective and led to some of the field's first evidence-based practices. It also forced the removal of harmful lenses from the market and identified small-incision surgical techniques that greatly reduced recovery time and infection risk for patients. Today, the center is a worldwide clearinghouse vetting lens design, materials, and complications.
In 1986, Olson proposed the construction of an eye center at the University that would provide highly skilled subspecialty care and education and focus on finding cures for blinding diseases. The center would work to achieve his bold vision: that no person with a blinding condition, eye disease, or impairment should be without hope, understanding, or treatment.
Through generous philanthropy, most notably from John A. Moran, the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences moved into the first Moran Eye Center in 1993. Groundbreaking for the current center building took place in 2004, and the facility held its grand opening in August of 2006.
While academia has long been slow to translate and commercialize research discoveries into viable new cures and treatments, Olson reimagined the process when he created what is now Moran's Sharon Eccles Steele Center for Translational Medicine (SCTM) in 2009 as a synergistic model of partnerships between university departments, international academic collaborators, and private industry that allows multiple phases of the drug discovery process to run simultaneously. Its first gene therapy for age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness for adults 55 and older, is now in clinical trials.
“He’s visionary, and he’s a communicator. We all wanted an eye center, a place to call home where we could grow our specialties. But it was Dr. Olson’s vision that was critical because without someone having the vision and having it come to fruition by meeting the right people and working with John Moran, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Encouraging his faculty to pursue their passions and think big, under Olson the late Alan S. Crandall, MD, established the country’s largest academic global outreach program. Today the Global Outreach Division works to expand access to care in Utah and around the world, having worked in more than 25 countries.
In 2021, Olson created the Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation. Bringing together the field’s top minds and leveraging unique resources, the center is working to develop better diagnostics, safer and more effective therapies and surgical devices, a deeper understanding of glaucoma and its genetics, and expanded access to care.
Olson has earned most of his field’s highest honors, and in 2021, the University of Utah awarded him the rank of Distinguished Professor.
University of Utah Health is conducting a national search for Olson’s successor. Olson plans to step down once a new chair has been selected in 2025.
Congratulate Dr. Olson
Celebrating 46 Years
1979
Randall J Olson, MD, becomes the sole physician in the University of Utah’s Division of Ophthalmology in the Department of Surgery. He recruits his first two specialists.
1981-82
The Division grows to include Alan S. Crandall, MD; electrophysiologist, Donnell J. Creel, PhD; and two other specialists. Research professors Richard A. Normann, PhD, and Helga Kolb, PhD, take second appointments in Ophthalmology. Dr. Olson earns the division departmental status. Soon after, he co-founds the world-renowned Center for Intraocular Lens Research.
1983
Dr. Olson is named department chair. The team works in cramped quarters out of University Hospital.
1987
Moran continues a period of growth with new hires that include retinal specialist Michael P. Teske, MD, and neuro-ophthalmologist Kathleen B. Digre, MD.
1991
Moran establishes its Patient Support Program for people experiencing vision loss.
1992
Dr. Alan S. Crandall creates Moran’s outreach program with the goal to eliminate preventable blindness around the world. The program is now the largest of its kind at any U.S. academic institution and has worked in 25 countries.
1993
The original 85,000-square-foot John A. Moran Eye Center opens thanks to a donation from University of Utah alumnus John A. Moran and gifts from patients, friends, donors, and organizations. The center houses operating rooms, triage, a pharmacy, and the Utah Lions Eye Bank.
1998
Moran opens its first community clinic. Today, Moran serves as the largest ophthalmology clinical care and research facility in the Mountain West, with more than 60 faculty members, 700 employees, and 10 satellite clinics. Moran supports 20 laboratories and research centers and its faculty are training about a dozen fellows, 12 residents, and four interns each year.
2001
Patient services expand with a new retina clinic and refractive surgery laser suite.
2002
Moran opens its first optical shop, located on the University of Utah campus.
2006
After raising $54 million, including additional funding from John A. Moran, a new 210,000-square-foot eye center opens, housing the Dr. E.R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Clinical Pavilion and the L.S. and Aline W. Skaggs Research Pavilion. The building includes five bridges that literally and symbolically connect research labs to clinics.
2009
Gregory S. Hageman, PhD, is recruited to head Moran’s first Center for Translational Medicine. The center, which works to find new therapies for blinding eye conditions, is later renamed the Sharon Eccles Steele Center for Translational Medicine.
2011
Moran announces the formation of The Vision Institute, a new University status that broadens its mission beyond ophthalmology to include other campus departments working in coordination to translate research discoveries into new therapies and medical devices.
2011
The Robert E. Marc Laboratory builds the world’s first map of the circuitry of the retina.
2018
The SCTM develops a treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), based on years of genetic research, that demonstrates AMD is at least two biologically distinct diseases. Moran and a health care investment firm commit approximately $50 million to fund a first clinical trial.
2020
In 2020, the Moran Eye Center breaks into the published rankings of the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals for Ophthalmology at No. 13 nationwide. In the same year, an Ophthalmology Times survey of top leadership at eye centers across the country ranks Moran No. 10 for having the best overall program. Doximity continues to rank Moran among the nation’s Top 10 residency programs.
Notable Rankings
- U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals for Ophthalmology, No. 10 nationwide (2023)
- Doximity Residency Program Navigator, No. 6 nationwide (2023)
- The Ophthalmologist Power List, Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC, No. 1 worldwide (2024)
Key Resesarch
- First pathoconnectome showing retinal circuitry altered by disease (Bryan Jones, PhD, 2020)
- A new type of neuron in the retina (Ning Tian, PhD, 2021)
- Successful testing of a visual prosthesis (Richard Normann, PhD, 2021)
- Human testing begins for a new age-related macular degeneration therapy (Gregory S. Hageman, PhD, 2022)
- Methods for reviving photoreceptors in organ donor eyes (Frans Vinberg, PhD, 2022)
New Centers Open
- The Utah Retinal Reading Center, led by Steffen Schmitz-Valckenberg, MD, opens in 2020.
- The Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation, headed by Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC, opens in 2022.
Services Expand
- The Utah Thyroid Eye Disease Program, a collaborative program designed to treat thyroid eye disease to offer patients access to highly customized treatments, including a delicate endoscopic surgery, opens in 2021.
- Moran and Huntsman Cancer Institute open an ocular oncology service for adults and children in 2022.