Justis P. Ehlers

About Justis P. Ehlers

What major industry/global trends are catching your attention right now?

Multiple emerging therapeutics for both dry AMD and for exudative disease, such as neovascular AMD and diabetic eye disease, that are targeting novel mechanisms of action. In the next several years, our portfolio of therapeutic offerings for patients may dramatically increase. One area of continued need will be to move towards precision medicine in retinal disease management where the “right drug” can be identified for the “right patient.” In addition, opportunities for sustained delivery and reducing the current visit/treatment frequency burden continues to be a critical need for the future.

In what ways do you think AI and machine learning will impact ophthalmic innovation?

AI and machine learning are likely to have some touchpoint in the vast majority of ophthalmic innovations. Whether it is enabling more rapid design processes, more intelligent approaches to innovation, and creating specific opportunities for solutions, AI and machine learning technologies will likely help propel the field forward in exciting ways. Already we know that these technologies are being utilized for intelligent drug design, for novel analysis tools, and for enabling enhanced phenotyping of specific disease biomarkers. Given the fields’ significant dependence on imaging technology, ophthalmology is a field that will likely significantly benefit from a number of AI-enabled technologies.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Take the opportunity to truly learn from the paths that your mentors navigated throughout their career and towards their successes. I have been blessed to have my career and training cross paths with some of the truly great minds and pioneers in ophthalmology and retina. Although every day, there are echoes from many of those mentors in how I try to navigate my career, the knowledge and experience that they carried is truly a treasure and I would have just reinforced that even more to my younger self.