Wilmer Eye Institute receives $10 million donation from James and Heather Gills

Peter McDonnell, MD, left, and James Gills, MD. (Image credit: Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine)

The Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine has received a $10 million donation from James and Heather Gills to establish the James P. Gills Jr., M.D., & Heather Gills Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at Wilmer.

James Gills trained at Wilmer as a resident in the 1960s, and is a renowned surgeon credited with making small incision cataract surgery and intraocular lens implantation the standard of care in cataracts treatment.

Previously, the couple gifted funds to Wilmer to endow a number of professorships such as the James P. Gills Professorship in Ophthalmology (currently held by its inaugural recipient, Beil Bressler, MD), and the James and Heather Gills Rising Professor of Ophthalmology (currently held by Michael Sulewski Jr., MD).

The latest donation will support the development of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center, a collaborative hub with the goal of preserving the vision of patients with various eye conditions and eliminating blindness.

T.Y. Alvin Liu, MD, on the retina faculty at Wilmer and a nominee to be the inaugural James P. Gills Jr., mD, and Heather Gills Rising Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Ophthalmology, will lead the center.

“What sets Wilmer apart is the breadth and depth of our current AI endeavors, from fundamental model development to translational implementation of AI clinical tools to advocacy for AI policies at the national level,” Liu said in a news release. “This truly transformational gift will greatly expand the velocity and scope of Wilmer’s AI footprint, thus securing our leadership position in this once-in-a-lifetime AI revolution.”

According to the news release, the center brings together scientific, clinical and infrastructure resources for researchers to apply artificial intelligence in research, medical education and patient care.

According to the center’s leaders, it will be anchored by core values such as openness to all, sustainability and collaboration.

“We are grateful that Jim and Heather have decided to provide this gift to support future generations of innovators, and we are delighted to have the names of these two extraordinary individuals linked forever to the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,” Peter McDonnell, MD,director of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the William Holland Wilmer Professor of Ophthalmology at the school of medicine, said in the news release.

“For a century, the Wilmer Institute has advanced the field of ophthalmology and trained generations of leaders,” James Gills said in a statement. “My wife, Heather, and I are delighted to be able to provide this gift to accelerate the work being done at Wilmer to improve the eye care of future generations of Americans and others around the world.”