Justis Ehlers, MD

Justis P. Ehlers, MD serves as the Norman C. and Donna L. Harbert Endowed Chair for Ophthalmic Research at the Cole Eye Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. He is also the Director of the Tony and Leona Campane Center for Excellence in Image-Guided Surgery and Advanced Imaging Research. He earned his medical degree at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and completed his ophthalmology residency at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Ehlers then pursued a vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the Duke Eye Center in Durham, North Carolina as a Heed Fellow and Ronald G. Michels Fellow. 

Since 2010, Dr. Ehlers has been at the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic where his laboratory focuses on translational intraoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, image-guided surgery, advanced image analysis and imaging biomarker discovery. Dr. Ehlers has authored over 190 peer-reviewed publications, 25 book chapters and over 200 scientific abstracts. He has also been the senior editor for three books and given over 75 invited lectures. His work has also resulted in multiple issued patents. 

Dr. Ehlers has been recognized through numerous awards, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Senior Achievement Award, the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) Presidential Award, the Macula Society Young Investigator Award, the ASRS Young Investigator Award, the AAO Secretariat Award and the Power List Top 40 Under 40. Dr. Ehlers has served on the ASRS Board of Directors and on the AAO Council since 2019. He has also been engaged in multiple leadership positions at the Cleveland Clinic, including serving as the Medical Director for Continuous Improvement, the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Faculty Council and the Cleveland Clinic Professional Staff Advisory Council.