Lihteh Wu, MD

Asociados de Macula Vitreo y Retina de Costa Rica
Primer Piso Torre Mercedes
Paseo Colon
San Jose, 10102
Costa Rica map
+50 6-2222-1115 office
+50 6-2222-1443 office

Professional Affiliations

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor University of Costa Rica
Visiting Professor Illinois Eye & Ear Infirmary University of Illinois Chicago

Education and Training

Retinal fellowship: The National Retina Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Baltimore, MD, USA
Ophthalmology residency: Mt Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
Internship: Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY, USA
Medical School: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
College: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Biography

Following the completion of his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, where he graduated with distinction in all subjects, Dr Wu went on to Tulane University School of Medicine to pursue his medical education. During this time he was awarded a Pew Research Fellowship that allowed him to spend a year at the Rockefeller University in New York. He then trained at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City (internship), the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City (ophthalmology residency), and the National Retina Institute in Baltimore under the mentorship of Drs Bert Glaser and Robert Murphy (vitreoretinal fellowship). Dr Wu is currently certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. In 1999, Dr Wu returned to Costa Rica.
Despite the difficulties involved in conducting research in Latin America, particularly in a private practice setting, Dr Wu has risen to the challenges and keenly pursued clinical research in several vitreoretinal diseases. Dr Wu has also devoted time to mentoring medical students and ophthalmology residents. He has actively involved many of them in his research projects and many of them have presented at major scientific meetings such as ARVO and the AAO. Dr Wu has been interested in MacTel2 for many years. He has published extensively on the subject, particularly on the importance of multimodal imaging in this condition. His most recent project is a multicenter collaboration with several of his Latin American colleagues where they characterize the multimodal imaging characteristics of MacTel2 patients from Latin America. They then proceeded to use these findings to validate a new disease severity scale that was recently published by another group of MacTel2 experts.
Since his return to Costa Rica Dr Wu has excelled academically which is reflected in his H-index of 40, despite his private practice setting. He has authored and co-authored more than 170 peer reviewed articles indexed in PubMed, more than 50 chapters and has edited 5 books. Dr Wu is a founding member of the Pan American Collaborative Retina Study (PACORES) Group. He has been awarded the Senior Honor Award (2007) by the American Society of Retina Specialists, Achievement (2006) and Senior Honor Award (2010) by the Greek Vitreoretinal Society and the Senior Achievement Award (2013) by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2018 he was inducted into the Retina Hall of Fame. He has delivered the 2014 Sociedad Panamericana de Retina y Vitreo GLADAOF Lecture, the 2017 American Journal of Ophthalmology Lecture at the PAAO meeting and the 2022 Sociedad Panamericana de Retina y Vitreo Founders Lecture. He sits on the editorial board of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina Cases and Brief Reports, Journal of VitreoRetinal Diseases and the International Journal of Retina and Vitreous among others. He currently holds a visiting professorship at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary of the University of Illinois Chicago School of Medicine.
Dr Wu is actively involved with professional societies such as the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Club Jules Gonin, Macula Society, Retina Society, Vail Vitrectomy, Retina World Congress, ARVO, Pan American Association of Ophthalmology, Sociedad Panamericana de Retina y Vitreo and the American Society of Retinal Specialists. In all these societies he has served in different leadership roles. For instance he served as a member of the AAO Board of Trustees, President of the Sociedad Panamericana de Retina y Vitreo, Vice-President and Spanish Language Secretary of the PAAO, President-Elect of the Retina World Congress, International Committee Chair of the Macula Society, President of the Asociación Oftalmológica de Costa Rica (2 periods), member of the Executive Committee of the Club Jules Gonin, member of the Credentials Committee of the Retina Society, Chair of the Retina Section Annual Meeting Program Committee of ARVO and member of the Programming Committee of Vail Vitrectomy.