07-06-2005   Portland, Ore.

MICHAEL BONAZZOLA, M.D., F.A.C.P.

The OHSU Medical Group announces the appointment of Michael Bonazzola, M.D., F.A.C.P., as its new Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Bonazzola received his bachelor of science degree from Lewis and Clark College, and his medical degree from the OHSU School of Medicine. He completed residency training in internal medicine at OHSU and was chief medical resident at St. Vincent Hospital.

Dr. Bonazzola comes to OHSU from Adventist Medical Group in Portland, where he was medical director of the physicians' practice group and chief medical officer of the physician-hospital organization associated with Portland Adventist Medical Center. He is board certified in internal medicine and is an assistant professor of medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. Dr. Bonazzola has held numerous physician leadership roles in the community, and is currently on the board of directors for the Albertina Kerr Centers. For nine years he was a familiar face on television stations in Eugene, Klamath Falls and the Rogue Valley,  providing morning and evening medical reports and commentary.

ALVIN EISNER, Ph.D.
Oregon Health & Science University researcher Alvin Eisner, Ph.D., has been appointed to the advisory board of the Women's Eye Health Task Force, based in Boston.  The Task Force provides an education and outreach program aimed at preventing visual impairment and blindness in women worldwide.

Eisner, a senior scientist at OHSU's Neurological Sciences Institute and a research associate professor at OHSU's Casey Eye Institute, studies health factors and medications that can impact the visual system.  His current studies concern the effects that breast cancer medications, such as tamoxifen, have on vision and the eye.  Eisner also studies the visual changes that occur across the menstrual cycle of some women, with a special emphasis on the role of premenstrual syndrome.  Some of the previous studies in Eisner's lab focused on the effects of high blood pressure on vision.  Dr. Eisner's work is funded by the National Eye Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health.

"It is an honor to be chosen to serve on the advisory board for the Women's Eye Health Task Force," said Eisner. "Some health conditions occur only for women, or are far more prevalent in women than in men.  Once there is evidence that these conditions or their medications can affect the visual system, the effects need to be documented and understood.  I first became motivated to study the effects of female hormones after having observed age-related differences in the vision of the men and women whom we tested for our studies of macular degeneration and glaucoma in the 1980s and early 1990s.  Over time, it has become clear that some of the problems women experience are underappreciated."
 
Another OHSU researcher, William D. Mathers, M.D., of the Casey Eye Institute, already serves on the Women's Eye Health Task Force advisory board.  The advisory board has an international membership, consisting of 33 eye researchers who are considered outstanding in their field.

The mission of the Women's Eye Health Task Force is to educate people regarding those eye diseases that:
* Are more prevalent in women
* Occur more often in women because they live longer than men
* Are exacerbated by nutritional habits, smoking and/or environmental insult
More information about the Task force can be found at www.womenseyehealth.org/.

For more information about Dr. Eisner's research on women's vision, please call 503-418-2592.