Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Naples Welcomes Cornea Specialist Dr. Jamie D. Martinez

Dr. Jamie D. Martinez

The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Naples welcomed Dr. Jamie D. Martinez in May 2020. He and his wife made the move to Naples right amid COVID-19 with their four-year old twin girls, and baby boy set to arrive July 2020.

Dr. Martinez completed his ophthalmology residency at one of the best eye centers in Latin America Asociación para Evitarla Ceguera, Mexico City in March of 2017.

After his residency, he became part of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute family and completed his one year research fellowship and continued for two years of training on Cornea, Cataract and External disease with Bascom Palmer.

In 2018 Dr. Martinez received the Gillingham Pan-American fellowship award for his research efforts. The funding propelled his research fellowship and allowed him to explore his interests of of corneal infections, ocular corneal surface disease, and high-risk corneal transplants.

Dr. Martinez has great interest in infectious keratitis and seeks to develop novel therapies for this challenging disease. Currently, he is conducting research on the use of Rose Bengal Photodynamic Antimicrobial therapy (PDAT). He reports the progress has been successful in understanding the new treatment along with its application, and there remain many aspects to continue to study and develop.

His latest work has explored the safety of this technique in a rabbit model which has successfully treated several clinical cases of severe unresponsive corneal infections resistant to standard medical therapy. The treatment of PDAT resolved the keratitis, preventing the need for emergent therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty.

Dr. Martinez looks forward to continued innovations in the field of corneal infections and exploring new methods and techniques to combat this challenging disease. He has always envisioned himself as a clinician scientist and to be a part of a team where he can provide excellent clinical care, participate in research endeavors, and be actively involved in teaching residents and medical students. Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness across the world.

Throughout the past three years, Dr. Martinez has been doing international cataract surgery missions trying to help the fight against blindness.