Tony Succar, PhD, MScMed (OphthSc), is Director of the innovative Master of Science in Clinical Trial Management program:
Dr. Succar completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Department of Ophthalmology and supervises Doctor of Regulatory Science candidates and Doctor of Pharmacy Scholarly Projects. He is passionate about applying his regulatory, clinical and translational research experience to teaching the next generation of clinical trialists and regulatory specialists. His research interests focus on developing strategies for optimizing complex clinical trial designs for investigating:
- Pharmaceuticals
- Stem cell and gene therapies
- Medical devices
- Combination products
He earned his Master of Science in Medicine (Ophthalmic Science) from The University of Sydney, in the development of a bionic eye. His research involved designing a first-in-human clinical trial investigating bioelectrical stimulation parameters: frequency, pulse duration and amplitude of currents within the visual system, for eliciting the perception of phosphenes – a form of artificial vision. Blind participants who perceived phosphenes as a result of the bioelectric stimulation were ideal candidates for the implantation of the bionic eye. He was subsequently awarded The University of Sydney Postgraduate Scholarship in Vision and Eye Health Research, where he completed his PhD in the development of a Virtual Ophthalmology Clinic (VOC) on which medical students can sharpen their clinical reasoning skills by formulating a diagnosis and treatment plan on virtual patients with simulated eye conditions. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed and conducted to evaluate its educational effectiveness versus traditional instruction, and he was honored to receive the Best Oral Presentation in Educational Research at the Annual Nepean Scientific Day for this research, as well as receiving the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia (HERDSA) Conference Grant. At Sydney Medical School, Dr. Succar served as a Clinical Associate Lecturer and was later promoted to Clinical Senior Lecturer. Driven by his passion to help people with incurable blindness, he travelled to the United States to pursue his clinical research endeavors with the development of a virtual vision rehabilitation program for restoring functional 3D vision for people living with macular degeneration and central vision loss. This invention resulted in his first patent awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). His postdoctoral fellowship at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, involved investigating structure-function correlations of retinal diseases, the leading causes of blindness and vision impairment, as well as pre-screening potential participants for a novel retinal stem cell therapy clinical trial. He was then recruited by Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, as a Clinical Research Project Manager, involved in conducting multicenter national and international, industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated greater than minimal risk clinical trials, and a mentor in the Harvard Ophthalmology URM Mentorship Program. He recently served as Principal Instructor in the Master of Science in Regulatory Affairs program at Northeastern University, where he received the 2024 CPS Excellence in Teaching Award Nomination. He has disseminated his research widely at national and international medical conferences, peer-reviewed scientific journals and chapters in academic textbooks, including: (1) Digital Teaching, Learning and Assessment: The Way Forward, (2) In Their Own Words: What Scholars and Teachers Want You to Know About Why and How to Apply the Science of Learning in Your Academic Setting, and (3) Strategies for Fostering Inclusive Classrooms in Higher Education: International Perspectives on Equity and Inclusion. Dr. Succar was a recent recipient of the Best of Journal of Academic Ophthalmology (JAO), awarded to the best 3 research articles published each year, and was invited to receive this award and present this research at the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO) Conference in San Diego, 2023.