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Wichard A.J. van Heuven, M.D., chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology for a quarter-century until 2006, says the history of ophthalmology in South Texas is quite unique.
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SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 14, 2009) — Wichard A.J. van Heuven, M.D, retired professor and chairman of ophthalmology at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, has written a book titled “People of Vision, the Unique History of Ophthalmology in South Texas.”

The volume, almost 500 pages with 71 pictures, is distributed by Kugler Publications in the Netherlands. Dr. van Heuven’s co-author is Diana Kleiner, Ph.D., a professional historian from The University of Texas at Austin.

What was Dr. van Heuven’s motivation in writing such a focused history? He stated:

“I recognized, after I was in San Antonio about 10 years, that the history of ophthalmology in South Texas was unique. Ophthalmology did not come here or develop here like it did in the rest of the U.S.

“After a severe cholera epidemic [in Europe], there was a large influx of German immigrants to San Antonio in the 1860s, only 10 years after the ophthalmoscope had been invented in Germany. This invention catapulted ophthalmology into a more scientific discipline that was able to be transferred directly into South Texas, even before it was available in other frontier states.

“Subsequently, the city’s strong military history, especially during and after World War II, brought with it a tremendous amount of eye research, especially in aviation medicine and later in space travel and laser warfare. Much of this work was done at the Aerospace Laboratories at Brooks Air Force Base.

“The combination of advanced clinical ophthalmology and eye research helped lead to the development of academic ophthalmology at the Health Science Center and other UT medical schools.”

The book goes all the way back to 1500, when a Spanish explorer of Texas named Alivar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca described eye surgery, especially for cataract. The book also explores the influence of the Civil War and both World Wars on the field of ophthalmology in South Texas.

Dr. van Heuven, who was chairman of the School of Medicine’s Department of Opthalmology from 1981 to 2006, originally hired a professional interviewer, Sue McDonald from the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio. She interviewed and recorded the comments of dozens of people, many of whom are now deceased. These included ophthalmologists, historians, influential citizens, military leaders and others who provided a history previously unrecorded.

“Although this book is focused in its scope, this massive tome shows how modern medicine arrived from Europe and flourished, and how academic and military medicine developed,” Dr. van Heuven said. “It is a minihistory of South Texas and of American medicine, seen through the lenses of ophthalmology.”

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 26,400 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.