USC Eye Institute Director Rohit Varma, MD, MPH, accepts a letter of commendation from Arcadia Mayor John Wuo at the grand opening of the institute’s Arcadia clinic on Dec. 1, 2014.

The USC Eye Institute, one of the nation’s Top 10 ophthalmology departments according to U.S. News & World Report, celebrated the opening of its new clinic in Arcadia.

The state-of-the-art clinic two miles north of its previous location expands services in a 3,161-square-foot space. The ophthalmology clinic has served the San Gabriel Valley community for 20 years and is one of six locations in Southern California where USC Eye Institute experts practice.

The Dec. 1 grand opening welcomed 150 people. It was hosted by USC Health Senior Vice President and CEO Tom Jackiewicz, Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean Carmen Puliafito, MD, MBA, and USC Eye Institute Director Rohit Varma, MD, MPH. Arcadia Mayor John Wuo and Chamber of Commerce CEO Scott Hettrick also attended.

“Keck Medicine of USC is dedicated to bringing our exceptional medical care to the local communities of greater Los Angeles by expanding our clinic locations. We want to be closer to where our patients live. Two miles is not a far move, but this new location is closer to the soon-to-be-built Metro station, making it more convenient for the local community to receive great patient care,” Jackiewicz said.

Varma, who also is professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is a glaucoma specialist and has dedicated his career to studying the development of eye diseases in minority populations. He is the principal investigator for multiple National Institutes of Health-funded epidemiological studies, including the Chinese American Eye Study.

“We specialize in understanding and treating both the common and the most complex and challenging eye diseases that other eye centers may not be able to manage,” said Varma. “Asian-Americans should pay special consideration to eye conditions such as myopia, narrow-angle glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. We want our community in Arcadia and the surrounding cities to know that we have the expertise in the early diagnosis and treatment of these conditions before they can become blinding.”

Other ophthalmologists who will see patients at the Arcadia clinic include Linda Lam, MD (retinal diseases); Bibianna Reiser, MD (corneal disease, cataract and refractive surgery); Jonathan Song, MD (corneal disease, cataract and refractive surgery) and Sandy Zhang-Nunes, MD (oculo-facial plastic surgery).

— Alison Trinidad