Biography

Dr. Weiss is one of the few refractive surgeons who began to use the excimer laser since 1995 which was prior to FDA approval leading to broad distribution of the lasers. She was only one of four ophthalmic surgeons in the United States chosen to be principle investigators of the FDA approved clinical trials of the Meditec scanning excimer laser. She subsequently served as an investigator for the Lasersight scanning excimer laser in FDA approved clinical studies.

Because of her clinical and scientific expertise; the FDA selected her as one of six experts chosen nationwide to serve as a regular member of the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel. This Panel votes on which ophthalmic devices, including excimer lasers, receive FDA approved for use in the United States. Dr. Weiss was appointed Chair of the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel from 2002 to 2004 and is now a consultant to the panel. She was awarded the US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee Service Award in “recognition of distinguished service to the Ophthalmic Devices Committee”.

When the American Academy of Ophthalmology decided that refractive surgery would become a required part of ophthalmology residency programs and they appointed Dr. Weiss as Chair of the newly created Basic and Clinical Sciences Course Committee on Refractive Surgery. As such, Dr Weiss was Editor and a contributing author of the Basic and Clinical Sciences Course on Refractive Surgery that became the basis of teaching refractive surgery to all ophthalmology residents in the entire United States.

Dr. Weiss has many firsts in the field of LASIK vision correction. She was the first surgeon in Michigan to perform LASIK for a patient who had previous corneal transplantation surgery performed in that eye. She was the first surgeon in Michigan to use the Hansatome microkeratome in LASIK which subsequently became a standard device many refractive surgeons use in their LASIK procedures.

Dr. Weiss graduated Mt. Sinai Medical School in New York with honors and completed her ophthalmology residency training at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami with subspecialty fellowships at Harvard Medical School in Boston in ocular pathology and Emory University in Atlanta in corneal diseases and refractive surgery. She was chosen to be a Fulbright lecturer in Ophthalmology at the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine in Zimbabwe and a Visiting Professor of Ophthalmology at TriService General Hospital in Taiwan. In 1986 she joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Medical School as Director of Corneal Diseases. In 1995, Dr. Weiss was recruited to the Kresge Eye Institute of Wayne State University to direct the Refractive Surgery Service.

Dr. Weiss is board certified in Ophthalmology and licensed in Michigan. Because she is internationally regarded for expertise, she has been appointed in leadership positions in many ophthalmology organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Cornea Society and is on the editorial board of their journal, Cornea. She is on the Medical Advisory Committee as well as serving as the Scientific Program Director for the Eye Bank Association of America. She is the Chair of the Basic and Clinical Sciences Course Committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology overseeing over 100 ophthalmology specialists who author the 13 books used to teach ophthalmology residents in the US, is a member of the Preferred Practice Plans for Cornea and External Eye Disease and the Scientific Government Relations Committee for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. She serves as an editorial board member of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and also helped create and is Chair of the International Committee for Classification of the Corneal Dystrophies. Most recently she was elected to membership of the prestigious organization, the American Ophthalmology Society.
Dr. Weiss has published over 83 articles, chapters and abstracts. She has been an invited lecturer nationally and internationally in the field of refractive surgery and has been quoted in the scientific and popular press and on radio and television.
Dr. Weiss is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist, licensed in Michigan. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and is a member of over a dozen professional societies including the International Society of Refractive Surgeons. Her biography has also been selected for inclusion in Who's Who.