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Randy H. Kardon, MD, PhD

Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

Introduction

Randy Kardon M.D. Ph.D., is tenured Professor of Ophthalmology, served as Director of the Neuro-ophthalmology Service and Neuro-ophthalmology Fellowship Director for over 20 years, and has been faculty at the University of Iowa and Veterans Administration Health Care System for 35 years. He holds the Pomerantz Family Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology and is Director of the Iowa City Veterans Administration Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss, competitively funded by the Rehabilitation, Research and Development Division of the Veterans Administration for the last 15 years. The VA Vision Center grant has recently been renewed through June 2029 for $6M in core funding. Dr. Kardon has published over 20 chapters, co-authored a textbook, and has published 265 peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Kardon has been fortunate to have had continuous Federal grant funding for 34 years and is presently the Principal Investigator and Co-investigator on 5 major grants externally funded by the Veterans Administration and NIH. Dr. Kardon currently teaches and mentors undergraduate students, medical students, residents and fellows and has received a University of Iowa Collegiate Teaching Award for his teachings and commitment to education. His main areas of current research interest include use of facial features to diagnose and monitor eye and neurological disorders, pupil and eyelid physiology and its clinical application, diagnosis and treatment of light sensitivity and traumatic brain injury, and therapeutic interventions for preserving vision in blinding eye diseases. Dr. Kardon currently investigates structure-function relationships in the visual system using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and deep learning, ocular blood flow using laser speckle flowgraphy, image analysis, and MRI. Dr. Kardon is actively involved in the development of telemedicine tools for objectively evaluating the status of the visual and neurological systems for testing in remote locations and home testing.

Current Positions

  • Tenured Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
  • Pomerantz Family Chair in Ophthalmology
  • Director, Iowa City VA Center of Excellence for Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss

Education

  • BS in Pharmacology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • MD in Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • PhD in Pharmacology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • Internship in Medicine, Gundersen Clinic & Lutheran Hospital, LaCrosse, WI
  • Fellow in Ophthalmology Research Fellow, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • Resident in Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • Fellow in Neuro-Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Graduate Program Affiliations

Center, Program and Institute Affiliations

Research Interests

  • Characterization of abnormalities of retinal and optic nerve blood flow using laser speckle flowgraphy in both ocular and systemic disorders
  • Pharmacology of the central and peripheral pupillomotor pathways
  • Development of low-cost retinal imaging device and automated analysis for telemedical diagnosis and monitoring of eye diseases
  • Development of optical imaging of retinal function
  • Relationship between structure and function of the optic nerve in optic neuropathies
  • Development of a no-touch, eye movement monitoring instrument to diagnose disorders of eye movement in clinical patients and to assess visual function objectively in verbal and non-verbal patients
  • Relationship of visual dysfunction to pupillomotor responsiveness to light
  • Current Projects
  • Risk factors in the pathogenesis of optic nerve diseases
  • Autonomic disorders of pupillary function

Licenses & Certifications

  • Iowa Controlled Substance
  • Federal DEA
  • ABO Certification, American Board of Ophthalmology
  • State of Iowa Medical License, Iowa Board of Medicine

Selected Publications

  • Wang JK, Johnson BA, Chen Z, Zhang H, Szanto D, Woods B, Wall M, Kwon YH, Linton EF, Pouw A, Kupersmith MJ, Garvin MK, Kardon RH. (2025). Quantifying the spatial patterns of retinal ganglion cell loss and progression in optic neuropathy by applying a deep learning variational autoencoder approach to optical coherence tomography. Front Ophthalmol 4:1497848. DOI: 10.3389/fopht.2024.1497848. PMID: 39963427. PMCID: PMC11830743.
  • Szanto D, Wall M, Chong LX, Woods B, Elze T, Wang JK, Garvin M, Kardon R, Kupersmith MJ. (2024). Archetypal Analysis Reveals Consistent Visual Field Patterns for Stimulus Sizes III and V in Glaucoma and NAION. Transl Vis Sci Technol 13(12):15. DOI: 10.1167/tvst.13.12.15. PMID: 39666357. PMCID: PMC11645746.
  • Linton EF, Ahmad NU, Filister R, Wang JK, Sohn EH, Kardon R. (2025). Laser speckle flowgraphy reveals widespread reductions in ocular blood flow in non-exudative age-related macular degeneration. Am J Ophthalmol 30:S0002-9394(25)00028-5. ONLINE AHEAD OF PRINT. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajo.2025.01.012. PMID: 39892803.
  • Sivaraman VB, Imran M, Wei Q, Muralidharan P, Tamplin MR, Grumbach IM, Kardon RH, Wang JK, Zhou Y, Shao W. (2025). RetinaRegNet: A zero-shot approach for retinal image registration. Comput Biol Med 186:109645. ONLINE AHEAD OF PRINT. DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.109645. PMID: 39813746.
  • Yorek M, Davidson E, Yorek M, Coppey L, Holmes A, Poolman P, Kardon RH. (2016). Corneal Sensitivity to Hyperosmolar Eyedrops: A New Behavioral Assay To Assess Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences 57:6157.
  • Ledolter J, Gramlich OW, Kardon RH. (2020). Display of Data. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 61(6):25. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.61.6.25. PMID: 32531059. PMCID: PMC7415299.
  • Chen JJ and Kardon RH. Pupillary Signs of Neuro-ophthalmic Disease. Chapter 9.2. Editors: Myron Yanoff, Jay Duker. Ophthalmology. 6th edition, 2022 Elsevier.
  • Kardon RH and Linton E. Regulation of Light through the Pupil. Chapter 25. Adler’s Physiology of the Eye. Editor Levin L. 12th edition.2023 Elsevier
  • Gilmore C, Lim K, and Kardon RH. Visual Impairments following Traumatic Brain Injury. Oxford Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury 2024. In Press.
  • Holwerda SW, Kardon RH, Hashimoto R, Full JM, Nellis JK, DuBose LE, Fiedorowicz JG, Pierce GL. (2020). Aortic stiffness is associated with changes in retinal arteriole flow pulsatility mediated by local vasodilation in healthy young/middle-age adults. J Appl Physiol 129(1):84-93. DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00252.2020. PMID: 32437246. PMCID: PMC7469231.