Kuldev Singh
The Power List 2020 – Power List
Professor of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA
Your three wishes?
Global: Climate change is addressed before it is too late for future generations.
Local: Less divisiveness amongst people and the recognition that we are more similar than different.
Personal: to stay healthy and spend more time with family and friends.
The most serendipitous moment of your career?
A few years ago I recognized a longstanding patient from California on the London underground and went over to say hello. He did not recognize me and, in fact, moved away thinking that I must be a strange intruder. Upon returning home a week later, he reached out to me to let me know that he later realized it was me who he had seen in London and that this experience finally convinced him that he needed cataract surgery, which I performed a few weeks later.
The most unexpected turn your career took?
One unexpected turn in my career was an opportunity to collaborate with FDA leaders to support innovation in ophthalmic drugs, devices and biologics. Such collaboration has included joint research projects with the Center for Devices and Radiologic Health (CDRH), the development of an Innovations in Regulatory Science Summit, and advocacy for the creation of a new Division of Ophthalmology in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) which became official earlier this year. Regulators, like physicians and scientists, want to support safe and effective innovation. Improved efficiency in regulatory processes aids in helping our patients get access to the very best treatments.
