#IamMGHresearch – Meet Dr. Edsel Ing

#IamMGHresearch tells the stories of our researchers. Meet Dr. Edsel Ing, Ophthalmic Surgeon and Researcher at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH).

“I have worked as a physician and surgeon at MGH for 17 years. I am passionate about learning and research – especially clinical research that can help my patients.

My enthusiasm for learning is ongoing. I went to medical school at the University of Toronto and did my fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, Wills Eye Hospital and Allegheny General Hospital. I’ve also completed three master’s degrees in public health, political science and medical education and have a PhD in diagnostic prediction models. This March, I hope to complete my MBA.

When I was in medical school, I was very interested in the neurosurgery but wanted to work in an area where there was more potential to fix problems, so I specialized in orbit and eyelid surgery, strabismus surgery and neuro-ophthalmology. Throughout the course of my career, I have focused 100 clinical research papers in these areas.

One of my largest collaborative projects, which also happened to be the subject of my PhD thesis, focused on giant cell arteritis (GCA). GCA is an inflammation of the arteries in elderly patients that can lead to blindness, stroke or aortitis. The diagnosis of this condition can be difficult – symptoms and blood tests are often not specific enough and as such, physicians usually have to do a biopsy of a blood vessel from the temple. Additionally, the treatment of this condition requires long-term steroids which can have side effects. A large part of my PhD research was spent analyzing data from MGH and 13 other universities and medical centers to create a neural network mathematical model to predict the risk of GCA. This model allows patients and their care teams decide whether a biopsy and/or steroids are required.

More recently, like many of my MGH research colleagues, I shifted gears to work on COVID-related research. I was very interested in mask use early on in the pandemic and worked with colleagues from the United States to show that countries that implemented public masking policies quickly had lower mortality rates. I also worked on another project which looked at the use of safety shields for eye microscopes, in addition to regular PPE, to better protect individuals from COVID-19 transmission.

With the increasing number of medical publications by multiple authors, ensuring the authenticity of medical research has become more important. As a part of my Masters of Education, I developed a method to improve the integrity of medical research papers by numerically quantifying the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors criteria for authorship. I now serve as a director-at-large for the World Association of Medical Editors.   

I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of the research community here at MGH – it’s a kind and supportive institution. I feel proud and grateful to work alongside some incredible people such as Dr. Wesibrod, Dr. Wedge, Dr. Nianiaris and Dr. Gasser.

Research is such an important part of medicine and helps us ensure that we provide the best evidence-based care to our patients. My advice to all those who may be interested in clinical research is to get a good grounding in statistics and consider programs such as the Harvard Global Scholars Research Program, which I personally found very useful. Life-long learning is important. Take courses and read what you can, whenever you can. There’s always something new to learn.”