A Research Citation History
To date, Thomson Scientific has indexed over 200 articles, abstracts and other publications by Dr. Humayun in journals covering subjects ranging from ophthalmology and geriatrics to biomedical engineering, applied electronics, and signal processing.
Dr. Humayun, publishes between 10 to 15 research reports per year, and presents nearly as many abstracts at meetings, which are important vehicles to communicate research in engineering and medicine.
Dr. Humayun's Publication and Citation History Since 1990.
Papers and abstracts published by Dr. Humayun, to date, have been referenced over 1115 times by subsequent research reports. Not only have his papers directly influenced the fields of ophthalmology, engineering, neuroscience and transplantation, but have had a ripple effect in other fields. And, the over 600 papers that have referenced one or more of Dr. Humayun’s works have themselves been cited over 5100 times. Considering the generally slow accretion of citations, this is an extraordinary rate of expansion.
Dr. Humayun's Most Cited Article
1996: Archives of Ophthalmology, "Visual perception
elicited by electrical stimulation of retina in blind humans," reports
on a technique to by-pass the photoreceptors of a patient's damaged retina and
use direct electrical stimulation of the deeper retinal layers. This almost
miraculous procedure resulted in restoration of light perception. While this
cannot, at the present time, actually restore sight, it can provide a level
of environmental and object perception that was completely missing from people
with retinal disease. The technique was applied to patients with complete loss
of sight from retinal diseases such as Macular Degeneration, and Retinitis Pigmentosa.
This paper has been cited 14 times so far in 2005.
The statistics for the prevalence of Macular Degeneration show that 14.4% of
patients between the age of 55 and 64 are suffering from this condition; 19.4%
of the population between 65 and 74; and 36.8% in people over 75 years of age.
Patients blinded through disease have become one of the largest areas of unmet
medical needs, with more than 50 million patients in the US alone.
Macular Degeneration is the main cause of blindness in the elderly in the Western
world, affecting 30% of those over seventy. Worldwide, it is estimated that
25 million people are afflicted. Retinitis Pigmentosa is one of the most common
inherited causes of blindness in people between 20 and 60 years of age, affecting
1.6 million people worldwide.
There are currently no established treatments for Retinal Degenerative diseases,
with existing therapies focused on preventing further degeneration using antioxidants
or vitamins. Experimental cell and gene therapies have been in existence for
some time, however. Eye surgery is commonplace today, and surgeons in the field
believe that cell transplantation therapies should be no more difficult than
more conventional surgical treatments.
Expanding Rings of influence around Dr. Humayun's top 5 most-cited
articles in Ophthalmology and Neurosciences
In addition to Dr. Humayun's undeniable influence in scientific research, he
is listed the inventor or co-inventor for 19 inventions that also show an impressive
rate of citations. For instance his 1992 patent ‘US5109844,’ which
deals with a method for stimulating a retinal ganglion cell in a retina without
penetrating the retinal basement membrane, to date has amassed 28 direct citations
and those patents have been cited an additional 237 times.
For more information on Dr. Humayun's 19 inventions, click here.
