About the program
Excellence in eye care is not a modern invention, it is an inheritance.
The IMHOTEP Vision Scholars Program carries a 4,500 year old standard of excellence into the training of tomorrow's eye care physicians.
Our story
Our namesake
Its roots trace back to Ancient Kemet (Egypt), between 2667 to 2600 BCE, where Imhotep I stands as history's earliest physician known by name. Imhotep served as chancellor to Pharaoh Djoser and as high priest of Ra during Kemet's Third Dynasty, and he is credited as the architect of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the world's first monumental cut stone structure. So profound was the influence of Ancient African Nile Valley learning that even the Greek historian Herodotus, writing centuries later in his Histories (Book II), documented his admiration for Egyptian medicine.
That same standard of excellence produced a monument specific to eye care. During Kemet's Fifth Dynasty (2498 to 2348 BCE), the physician NY ANKH DOUAOU became the earliest recorded physician in the world associated specifically with ophthalmology. His mastery was so respected that his name was placed under the protection of the deity Duoaou, a divine force of vision and healing invoked by physicians and patients alike throughout the Old Kingdom.
It is in the spirit of this extraordinary lineage that The Advanced Eye Care Centers of New York proudly presents the Imhotep and NY ANKH DOUAOU Innovative Module Higher Ophthalmology Training, Excellence in Practice Vision program, carrying a 4,500 year old standard of excellence into the training of tomorrow's eye care physicians.
Medu Neter/ Hieroglyph
NY ANKH Douaou
Imhotep
The acronym
- IInnovative
- MModule:
- HHigher
- OOphthalmology
- TTraining,
- EExcellence in
- PPractice
Mission & vision
Why we exist
Mission. To cultivate the next generation of eye care professionals through structured, mentored clinical experience in community based practices, with deliberate focus on students who have historically been shut out of the ophthalmology pipeline.
Vision. A profession in which the physicians caring for Black and African descended patients reflect and are accountable to those communities, and in which every private practice can serve as a credible training site.
Values. Our work is grounded in the program's moral traditions: truth, justice, balance, harmony, reciprocity, and propriety. These are not decoration, they set the expectations for how scholars conduct themselves with patients, mentors, and each other.
Strategic pillars
The three strategic pillars, expanded
Mentored Clinical Experiences
Scholars learn in real exam lanes and ambulatory surgery centers, paired with practicing ophthalmologists who supervise every encounter.
Training Program Development
A repeatable curriculum, competency checklists, and compliance framework any private practice can adopt as a training site.
Visionary Leadership
Scholars are prepared to lead, through research output, community outreach, and the moral traditions of truth, justice, balance, harmony, reciprocity, and propriety.
Training environment
Why private practice and ambulatory surgery centers
Academic medical centers frequently cannot accommodate premedical observers: credentialing queues, institutional liability policies, and limited teaching capacity close the door before a student ever reaches an exam lane. Community based private practices and ambulatory surgery centers can move faster, with clear supervising- physician accountability and a documented observer agreement.
- Direct supervising physician relationship rather than a multiple layer credentialing office
- Observer agreements, HIPAA acknowledgment, and waivers handled at the practice level
- Ambulatory surgery center observation with a defined orientation and sterile field protocol
- Continuity, the same mentor across the exam lane, imaging suite, and operating room
- Practices located in the communities scholars come from
Leadership
Program leadership
Daniel Laroche, MD
Founder & Program Director
Glaucoma and cataract surgeon, Director of Glaucoma Services at Advanced Eye Care Centers of New York, and a national voice for early lens extraction and health equity in eye care. Dr. Laroche founded the program to open private practice training doors that institutions have historically kept closed.
Program Coordinator
Scholar Operations & Compliance
Manages applications, onboarding, HIPAA and immunization documentation, mentor matching, monthly check ins, and the outcomes tracking that feeds the annual program report.
NMA Visionary Leadership Ophthalmology Initiative
Affiliation
The program operates in alignment with the National Medical Association's Ophthalmology Section and its Visionary Leadership initiative to expand the pipeline of Black eye care physicians.
Partners
Partners & affiliations
- National Medical Association (NMA), Ophthalmology Section
- Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and MAPS chapters
- Health Professions Recruitment & Exposure Program (HPREP)
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Rabb Venable Excellence in Ophthalmology Research Program
- Community organizations: churches, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA, 100 Black Men, Jack and Jill of America, National Urban League
Carry the standard forward
Apply as a scholar, open your practice as a training site, or fund a scholar's summer.