JORGE L. ALIO MD, PhD, FEBOpthhal.
Alicante , Spain
PROFESSIONAL BIOSKETCH AND SUMMARIZED CV:
Prof. Dr. Jorge Alio, has been Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology since 1987, first at the University of Alicante and since 2002 at the University Miguel Hernandez de Elche, also in Alicante, Spain. Currently he is academically serving in Universidad Miguel Hernandez as Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology and Director of the Iberia Biobank and Biodata created jointly with the funding of the National Network of Clinical Research (OFTARED, National Health Institute Carlos III), where he is the Coordinator of Eye Diopter Research. His clinical services as an ophthalmic clinician and surgeon are provided in Vissum Instituto Oftalmológico de Alicante (Founded by Dr Alio in 2004), now incorporated in Grupo Miranza.
He has been Graduate with Honors from Universidad Complutense, Madrid (1976). PhD, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (with Honors & Award of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology) and Ophthalmology degree in Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (1980), Postdoctorate Fellow at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University (1985-86), Assistant, Professor Universidad Autónoma, Madrid and Salamanca University (1976-83), Full Professor Universidad de Salamanca (1983-86), Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology University of Alicante (1987-97) and finally Prof and Chairman Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Alicante Spain (1997-present).
Since the beginning of his professional career, he has been vocationally involved in Ophthalmic Academic and Research activities in combination with an intense clinical and surgical practice. He has an extensive background of professional education in many areas of ophthalmology due to his academic career and the clinical responsibilities he has undertaken, including neuroopthalmology, ocular motility and strabismus, uveitis and intraocular inflammation and retinal surgery. However, his main dedication over the last 25 years has been to Cataract, Cornea and Refractive Surgery. As a clinician and ophthalmic surgeon, and has performed over 55.000 ocular surgeries during his surgical career.
In 1995 Professor Alió founded the Instituto Oftalmológico de Alicante, later on becoming Vissum Corporation, a large clinical company dedicated exclusively to ophthalmology and clinical research, with over 50 centres in Spain, and collaboration with international clinics. In 2019, Vissum was incorporated into Miranza, a large Spanish project including the most important clinical facilities in Spain, aiming to be a clinical reference in Europe in ophthalmology. Over all this time, Professor Alio has provided his clinical and surgical services from Vissum and now Vissum Miranza.
Throughout his career and arising from his clinical research activities, he has been the author or co-author of 710 peer review papers (World of Science peer review indexed international scientific journals), 405 book chapters, 99 books (as editor or co-editor), and over 2.114 presentations and invited lectures in international meetings. The Hirsch factor 2022 (h-factor) is 70 (Scopus) and 84 (Microsoft Academic https://research.com/scientists-rankings/medicine/es). He has received over 100 international and national awards and recognitions and he actively collaborates in a number of Executive Boards and Editorial Boards of international scientific ophthalmological publications.
Prof Alio, academically also holds Chairs at the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and the European Academy of Ophthalmology. He is also member of the American Ophthalmological Society (AOS) in which he was accepted with his second doctorate in Regenerative advanced therapies in Corneal Regeneration in 2019.
He has directed a total of 76 PhD doctorate university projects. He is the Founder and Director since 2016 of the online University Specialization Course ‘Refractive, Cataract and Cornea Surgery’ (University Miguel Hernandez) which involves 275 multimedia teaching activities in a 500 hour course at the acknowledged certified level of University Expert by the University Miguel Hernandez (Spain) and the ISRS/AAO.
As a clinical ophthalmic scientist, he was listed he has been acknowledged as the author with the highest impact factor in clinical research in the subject of Cataract over the last 5 years by The Ophthalmologist, February 2014, 2016, 2018. He was listed as the author with the highest impact factor in the field of keratoconus over the last 5 years by The Ophthalmologist, June 2014. Also, he was listed in the Power List as one of the 100 most influential doctors in Ophthalmology (The Ophthalmologist, 2014, 2016 and 2018). Prof. Alio has been recently acknowledged in 2019 by Expertscape (www.expertscape.com) as listed number 1 in scientific reference publications in Refractive Surgery, Cataract Extraction, Cornea, Anterior Eye Segment, Intraocular Lens Implantation, Ophthalmological Surgical Procedures, and number 2 in Refractive Errors, Visual Acuity, Laser Corneal Surgery, Laser therapy and LASIK.
In May 2022, Professor Alio has entered into the group of the 1000 Top International Scientists in the field of Medicine by Research.com, a prominent academic platform for scientists. He has been ranked #88 in Spain (https://research.com/scientists-rankings/medicine/es) as well as #7071 in the world ranking (https://research.com/scientists-rankings/medicine) using the H-index data gathered by Microsoft Academic and includes only prominent scientists with an H-index of at least 70 for scientific papers published in the field of Medicine (Prof Alio currently has a Microsoft Academic index of 84 (https://research.com/scientists-rankings/medicine/es)).
He has recently been promoting and involved in the emerging topic of Corneal Regeneration, conducting the first worldwide clinical trial for the treatment of corneal dystrophies and particularly Keratoconus with autologous mesenchymal stem cells, publishing a serie of important scientific papers on this innovative type of corneal surgery.
Concerning humanitarian services, he is the Founder of the Foundation that bears his name, dedicated to the promotion of the prevention of blindness which carries out its activities both in Spain and on international levels, particularly in Mauritania where a Center for Sight (UBASO) was created in 2010. Since 2018 to the present moment this project evolved into the Nouadhibou Vision Project/Fundacion Jorge Alio Foundation, offering humanitarian ophthalmic services in the only Eye Center existing so far in Mauritania. He is the Honorary President of the patient´s association for the assistance of the visually handicapped ‘Acción Visión España’ and has been also involved and is today active in many social national and European civilian organizations.
Prof Alio is member of Rotary Club International. He has been twice President of the Rotary Club of Alicante and has received 4 times the Paul Harris Rotarian Fellowship award and the “Llama Rotaria Award” for distinguished services.
He is married to Maria Lopez and is father of 4 children, one of them also an MD PhD academic and clinical Ophthalmologist.
Jorge ins a global pioneer in corneal and lens based Refractive Surgery. He was the first to introduce excimer laser refractive surgery in Spain, studying the outcomes of PRK and LASIK. His analysis led to several important papers published in peer reviewed ophthalmology journals, with a total of 157 scientific papers on LASIK and 21 papers on PRK. Among his contributions is a noteworthy description of the long-term outcomes of LASIK and PRK at different refractive error levels. His work helped confirm the limits of corneal refractive surgery with excimer laser and helped establish its limits regarding safety, efficacy and predictability in Myopia, Hyperopia and Astigmatism.
His in-depth global knowledge about corneal refractive surgery complications was compiled in a classical book jointly edited with Dr Dimitri Azar MD, now in its second edition. Book chapters have been frequent contributions of Prof. Alió with a total of 410 book chapters published to date, an extraordinary achievement.
Dr. Alió has actively participated in the development of modern phakic intraocular lenses. Initially, he worked in cooperation with Georges Baikoff MD implanting the first series of modern anterior and posterior chamber intraocular lenses beginning in the late 1980s. He developed a unique intraocular lens implant (the Morcher ZSAL PIOL 123), and with one of his mentors, Charles Kelman MD and published on the initial outcomes. He later published for the first time in the ophthalmology literature the 10 year and longer outcomes of these intraocular lenses, describing their visual results and complications. He compiled all the current knowledge about phakic IOLs in another book, already in its 2r edition.
In the field of cataract surgery, Jorge helped introduce and popularize phacoemulsification in Spain. He coined the term Micro-Incisional Cataract Surgery (MICS) and developed MICS in parallel with other international surgeons. On this topic he was also widely published with many relevant papers. For decades he has supported the advantages of decreasing the incision size to the minimum, with important benefits for lens surgery outcomes and in the surgical induction of astigmatism. His published contributions have been particularly relevant in this area and he co-edited with I Howard Fine MD, a book which is a classic on the topic. More recently, another book on cataract surgery in complex and complicated cases is also about to be released.
In the area of intraocular lenses, he has developed or co-developed several models and investigated the initial diffractive intraocular lenses. He published one of the first reports on diffractive these lenses and in total has 23 papers on this topic including the first diffractive bifocal and trifocal lenses, varifocal refractive, EDOF, and accommodation IOL' s including the description of a new method to evaluate in vivo the quality of retinal image. He is one of the most frequently referenced authors on the topic. Prof. Alió has described the outcomes and reasons for failure of multifocal intraocular lenses and recently described specific surgical techniques to treat such failures, especially neuroadaptation failures. This topic has been the subject of an important recently published report. In addition, Jorge has created the only biobank of explanted lenses in Spain, with initial study outcomes already published and new updated results after 20 years of development in press.
Dr. Alió has been extremely active in refractive cataract and intraocular lens meetings. He has been particularly active in the American Academy of Ophthalmology, where he recently received one the most outstanding distinctions: the Lifetime Achievement Award. To date he is the only one to receive this award in Spain. He is active in the International Society of Refractive Surgery and the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, the World Congress of Ophthalmology, and the Asia Pacific Congress of Ophthalmology. He was first Secretary and then President of the International Society of Refractive Surgery from 2006-2008. He has been a longstanding contributor on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Refractive Surgery and the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and has been an active reviewer for these 2 journals for over 15 years.
Professor Jorge L. Alió is Professor and Chairman first in Alicante University and then in Miguel Hernandez University. He has had a longstanding academic career, starting in 1980 until now on a continuous basis. Professor Alió started his academic career very early, becoming Honorary Associate Professor of Ophthalmology while he was in his term of residency in the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, in the Autonoma University of Madrid. Following this, he was clinical research fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Health, with the rank of Associate Professor of Ophthalmology (1980-1983). From this position he became Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Salamanca (1982- 1983), followed by Full Professorship achieved in the same university (1983-1986), and then Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology in the University of Alicante since its initial years (1986-1997). In parallel to this he has developed research activities in each of the universities in which he has been located, establishing important relations and cooperation with the industry bringing funds and resources to the universities with which he has created most of his scientific work. He has received important grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health, the most important being the CENIT, in which he was the principal investigator with a grant of 11 million euros which was successfully accomplished in the years (2 009-2012) and more recently a grant from the European Union' s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for the development of an artificial intelligence project, entitled "Virtual eye model system for personalised refractive surgery treatment" (VEMoS), as coordinator for the project.
Related to his relevant scientific contribution, Professor Jorge L. Alió has one of the highest impact factors in ophthalmology in Europe (70 Scopus). This, together with the high number of his publications (710), books published (99) has made him relevant to become elected member of the Academia Ophthalmologica lnternationalis and European Academy of Ophthalmology, American Ophthalmological Society, among other relevant academic international positions. He has been Honorary Professor at Louisiana State University, USA mentored by Herbert Kaufman as well as receiving Hono rary or Visiti ng Professorships at the Universities of Seville, Spain (1986), La Habana, Cuba (1998), Massachusetts Eye and Ear Institute (2000) and Mansoura University, Egypt (2015) and Wenzhou Medical University, China (2015).
Among the many academic activities conducted by Prof Jorge Alió I have to highlight his contribution to continuous medical education in Ophthalmology in his country, developing the first CME program in the specialty in 1999, the creation of the most relevant on-line university specialization course in Refractive, Cataract and Cornea surgery, already in its 8th edition with over 500 teaching hours in multimedia format on these topics, which is contributing immense ly to the formal education of junior doctors in such areas.
His contribution to ophthalmology has been acknowledged by over 100 awards, both in Spain and inte rnati onally. He is act ive member of over 20 scientific societies and has presented a total of 2800 presentations, lectures and courses. He is Honorary and Visiting Professor of 5 international universities. This outstanding contribution has been definitely coming from his vocation and dedication to ophthalmology and continuous medical education for his peer colleagues.
Finally, just recently in May 2022, Professor Alió has entered into the group of the
100 Top International Scientists in the field of Medicine by
Research.com, a prominent academic platform for scientists. He has been
ranked #88 in Spain as well as #7071 in the
world ranking using the H-index data gathered by Microsoft Academic and includes only prominent scientists with an H index of at least 70 for scientific papers published in the field of Medicine.
Professor Alió has been included and acknowledged for over 10 years among the 100 most influential ophthalmologists by the independent professional journal "The Ophthalmologist" and by ExpertScape in the first position in eight categories of ophthalmology: refractive surgery, implantation of intraocular lenses, ophthalmological surgical procedures, myopia, intraocular lenses, multifocal intraocular lenses, laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and phacoemulsification.
Finally, just recently in May 2002, Professor Alió has entered into the group of the 1000 Top International Scientists in the field of Medicine by
Research.com, a prominent academic platform for scientists. He has been ranked #88 in Spain as well as #7071 in the world ranking using the H-index data gathered by Microsoft Academic and includes only prominent scientists with an H-index of at least 70 for scientific papers published in the field of Medicine.
The main areas of research of Professor Alió are related to his academic activity. He started with clinical immunology and inflammation and neovascularization, creating the International Ocular Inflammation Society and the Journal of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation jointly with Dr BenEzra, Hadassah University, Israel. Later on, he moved to Alicante, where he changed his research activities to anterior segment due to the local available resources and the demand for research. Anterior segment became his focus and he started academic research in refractive surgery, when this was almost without any scientific support, this research was initially created jointly with George Waring Ill who was at that moment the mentor of Professor Jorge Alió. Following this trend, he entered into modern cataract and refractive surgery, starting phacoemulsification, the first intraocular lenses in Spain in the late 80's and related to this he developed a large number of clinical studies partially sponsored by the industry, independent from academic resources, making the initial studies of most of the intraocular lenses, monofocal, multifocal, toric and others, including telescopic lenses for macular degeneration, which led to the initial development of most of these technologies.
During his career he has been the director of a high number (76) of PhD doctorates and international fellows (54) have been under his direct supervision. He has mostly developed his academic activities in Spain, where he developed the first continuous medical education in ophthalmology in Spain in 1999. Along his academics career has been the author or coauthor of 710 (WoS) scientific publications in peer review journals, contributing to an important number of journals as member of the editorial board or section editor, becoming even editor in chief of one of the first open access journals. This contribution to the scientific literature has been continuous since the beginning of Professor Jorge L. Alia's career and I especially know this activity because of my position as Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Ophthalmology to which he is section editor. He has participated in the foundation of several journals such as Clinical Immunology and Inflammation, Journal of Ocular Inflammation and Infection, Asia Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology, Eye and Vision, among others.
Recently, I have to acknowledge that Professor Jorge L. Alió has developed for the first time worldwide, the first clinical study on corneal regeneration, a topic in which I am participating with my institution in a multicentrical study. The list of publications of Professor Jorge L. Alió on this topic goes back for over 14 years, from basic laboratory sciences, preclinical studies (3-9) and finally, the first international clinical study on corneal stromal regeneration performed in the human being. At this moment, the multicentrical study is confirming the results already published by Professor Jorge L. Alió on a grant that has been obtained from the Spanish Research and Development Ministry of Science.
