Dr. Sample is a professor of Ophthalmology at the Shiley Eye Center of University of California, San Diego and Director of Clinical Vision Research for the Hamilton Glaucoma Center with one of the world’s leading research laboratories in visual psychophysics of glaucoma. She is the Principal Investigator of a National Eye Institute (NEI) funded ongoing longitudinal study of visual function in glaucoma that was begun in 1990, the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study: Visual Function (DIGS). Dr. Sample was the co-developer of a new diagnostic test, Short-Wavelength Automated Perimetry (SWAP). SWAP identifies glaucoma-related loss of visual function 3-5 years earlier than standard clinical perimetry and shows progressive damage 1-3 years earlier. The test is also superior for identification of vision defects associated with neuro-ophthalmic disease, age-related macular degeneration, migraine, optic neuritis, diabetes, and HIV infection. Comparing results of new visual function specific tests for glaucoma, two of which were developed in her laboratory, Dr. Sample has found that all retinal ganglion cell subtypes are affected early in glaucoma but tests that isolate sub-populations of these cells are more sensitive for early detection.

Additionally, Dr. Sample is the Principal Investigator of the NEI-funded, multicenter “African Americans with Glaucoma Study: Structure and Function (AAG).” This is the first prospectively designed study to follow this higher-risk cohort equating factors such as access to quality care, access to prescribed glaucoma medications, and study protocol to match the DIGS, which primarily follows white participants. This study is currently enrolling and is currently funded for four years of follow-up. The comparisons between the two cohorts, AAG and DIGS, should clarify our understanding of the differences suggested by population-based studies where a variety of factors may have contributed to observed differences between these two groups.

Dr. Sample is co-Investigator on another NEI-sponsored grant, Medical Advice from Glaucoma Informatics, with the principal investigator, Dr. Michael H. Goldbaum, and other members of the Hamilton Glaucoma Center and scientists from the Salk Institute. This research uses machine learning classifiers for interpretation of vision test results and for better identification of progressive change in vision due to glaucoma.

Dr. Sample is internationally recognized in her field and has contributed her expertise to many panels, committees, boards, and global conferences. She is an elected member of the Glaucoma Society of the International Congress of Ophthalmology. Active membership in this prestigious and exclusive society is limited to only 70 individuals from throughout the world. She was a 1999 recipient of the Lew R. Wasserman award for Outstanding Achievements in Vision Research from the Research to Prevent Blindness Association. She is a member of the board of directors for the International Perimetric Society and the editorial board for the Journal of Glaucoma, a past member of the ethics committee for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and for a data safety and monitoring committee for the National Eye Institute-sponsored retinitis pigmentosa study. She was editor of Assessing Visual Function in Clinical Practice and section editor for the most recent edition of Adler’s Physiology of the Eye. She was a past panel member for development of the National Eye Institute’s five year Vision Research Plan. In 2002 she received the UCSD Earl Warren College Outstanding Faculty Award for Undergraduate Mentoring.