Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics (CPOB)

Ebenezer Daniel, MBBS, MS, DO, MPH, PhD

Ebenezer Daniel, MBBS, MS, MPH, PhD

Ebenezer Daniel received his undergraduate MBBS degree from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India in 1980, Master in Ophthalmology degree (MS) from the Madras Medical College in 1987, doctoral degree (PhD) in 2010 from the Madras MGR Medical University, India and an MPH in Public Health Ophthalmology and International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 2001. He had been a lecturer in Ophthalmology both at Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai as well as the Schell Eye Hospital at CMC, Vellore.

Dr. Daniel was head of the Ophthalmology department and the Margaret Brand chair at the Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Center, South India from 1990 to 2004.  During this period, he was the principal investigator of a WHO sponsored Longitudinal Study of Ocular Leprosy (LOSOL), the only ocular longitudinal study done on a cohort of newly diagnosed multi-bacillary leprosy patients followed through their 2-year multi-drug therapy and five years thereafter. Results of this study published in various ophthalmic and leprosy journals have provided care givers in leprosy a comprehensive knowledge on the ocular complications that can occur in leprosy. Dr. Daniel was awarded the JALMA gold medal by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and was inducted into the National Academy of Medical Sciences of India for excellence in ocular leprosy research. He gives invited lectures on ocular leprosy annually at seminars held by the National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Clinical Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Dr. Daniel completed four years of research fellowship in the department of Ocular Immunology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 2004 to 2008.  He worked with Prof. John Kempen on the Systemic Immuno-suppressive Therapy for Eye Diseases (SITE) cohort study.  Dr. Daniel joined the ophthalmology department of the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. As the Director of the Ophthalmology Reading Center, he has played an important role in several large scale ophthalmology studies including Comparison of Age Related Macular Degeneration Treatment Trial (CATT), Retinopathy in Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (RCRIC) study, telemedicine in retinopathy of pre-maturity (e-ROP) study, DRy Eye Evaluation And Management (DREAM) study, Evaluation of Alpha Lipoic Acid as a Potential Treatment for Geographic Atrophy in subjects with Age-related Macular Degeneration (GALA Study), Evaluation of mobility videos of genetic intervention studies and several other industry sponsored studies. He has developed new scales for measuring bulbar redness and for studying meibomian gland morphology in dry eyes.

Dr Daniel is a reviewer for several leading ophthalmology journals and has more than 120 publications in the areas related to glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, retinopathy of prematurity, uveitis, dry eyes, and ocular leprosy. He continues to mentor ophthalmology residents and students from the school of medicine and to work with ophthalmologists and scientists from industry who are principal investigators of important ophthalmic studies.

Director, Reading Center
Phone: 215-615-1523
Fax: 215-615-1533
E-mail: ebdaniel@pennmedicine.upenn.edu