Kim Tae-woo, a professor of ophthalmology at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, has received the grand prize at the 5th Kim's Eye Hospital Myeongok Clinical Medicine Award. The ceremony was held Sunday at Myeongok Hall in Kim's Eye Hospital as part of the 24th Kim's Eye Hospital Symposium.
The Myeongok Clinical Medicine Award was established in 2022, when Kim's Eye Hospital marked its 60th anniversary, to identify and support medical researchers who have contributed to the advancement of ophthalmology and clinical medicine.
Kim was recognized for his consistent research into the precise diagnosis and personalized treatment of glaucoma, as well as for establishing diagnostic and prognostic indicators for clinical use — work that has contributed to the development of precision medicine for the disease.
Glaucoma is a condition in which the optic nerve is gradually damaged, progressively narrowing the visual field, and is considered one of the leading eye diseases that can cause blindness. Kim has continued to investigate the mechanisms behind optic nerve damage, including microstructural changes in the lamina cribrosa and microvascular abnormalities.
More recently, he has expanded his research into prognostic prediction — developing a model to identify patients at high risk of rapid glaucoma progression and devising a quantitative index to assess the degree of optic nerve damage in myopic patients. These advances are credited with helping clinicians detect glaucoma earlier and build treatment strategies tailored to individual patients.
"Since the rate of disease progression and response to treatment differ from patient to patient, identifying the right timing and method of treatment for each individual is the challenge ahead," Kim said. "I will continue to work on research into precise diagnosis and personalized treatment."
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