Wills Eye Hospital Opens the J. Arch McNamara, MD Ophthalmic Education Center Named in Memory of Wills Eye Surgeon, Pioneer and Friend

Philadelphia – Wills Eye Hospital is pleased to announce the opening of the new J. Arch McNamara, MD Ophthalmic Education Center, a transformational destination for global learning and innovation based at Wills Eye Hospital. The Center is named for Dr. J. Arch McNamara, a beloved surgeon on the Wills Retina Service, clinician investigator, educator, and leader in the field, who passed away in 2010. 

Dr. McNamara, who was educated through medical school at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and trained in vitreoretinal surgery at Wills Eye, remained on the Wills Retina faculty throughout his career. He is particularly renowned for his landmark work on laser photocoagulation for the blinding eye disease retinopathy of prematurity. Dr. McNamara’s work gave new hope to families around the world with premature babies afflicted with this disease. 

“The new J. Arch McNamara, MD Ophthalmic Education Center is a deeply touching tribute to Arch and his legacy in medicine and at Wills Eye. Having Arch’s name be part of this next exciting educational chapter speaks to how much he believed in and supported the work at Wills and what he had envisioned for the future,” said his wife Judith Melick, MD, also a Wills-trained ophthalmologist. 

The McNamara Center is a dynamic hub of innovative learning and teaching engaging physicians, residents, fellows, visiting academic faculty, researchers, healthcare professionals and members of industry. It will inspire, challenge, and enrich the practice of ophthalmology, making lasting impact on patient care outcomes at Wills and around the world.

The McNamara Center provides an educational nexus that leverages Wills faculty and facilities for innovative approaches to next-generation ophthalmic education, including specialized hands-on simulation-based training on the newest surgical techniques, instrumentation, and devices. National and international programs will include wide-ranging frontline integrative curricula and an extensive calendar of events and learning applications. The synergy created by the McNamara Ophthalmic Education Center and the new William Maul Measey Ophthalmic Surgical Training Laboratory generates new opportunities for the Wills Eye educational pillar as the destination and virtual home for healthcare and academic partnerships around the world.

“We are so grateful to Dr. Melick for her generosity. Our new J. Arch McNamara, MD Ophthalmic Education Center now infuses the indefatigable spirit of Dr. McNamara into the power and purpose of our premier educational programs at Wills Eye. Arch was an extraordinary teacher, physician, surgeon and human being, who made a lasting impact on everyone he touched. It is so fitting that he be memorialized forever in this way, continually inspiring us with his dedication to excellence and learning, exhorting us to advance our academic programs to that boundless next level,” said Julia A. Haller, MD, Ophthalmologist-in-Chief, Wills Eye Hospital. 

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