Thomas Stokkermans, OD, PhD

About

Thomas Stokkermans, OD, PhD, has been with University Hospitals since 1998 and serves as the director of the Optometry Service and co-director of the Dry Eye Center of Excellence. He is an assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Dr. Stokkermans was born in the Netherlands, and also lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, prior to moving to the United States at the age of 22. He graduated from the Jakarta International School with an International Baccalaureate Diploma and then completed a M.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. His M.Sc. included research at the Dutch biotechnology firm, Mogen International, and as a visiting scientist at Kent State University, Ohio. Dr. Stokkermans then completed his Ph.D. in molecular, cellular and developmental Biology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, after which he did a brief post-doctoral fellowship at Tromso University, Norway, in the same field as his Ph.D., followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in parasitology at the Dartmouth Medical School, Department of Pathology, in Hanover, N.H. Dr. Stokkermans completed his clinical training at the top-ranked New England College of Optometry in Boston, completing internships at, among others, the Bedford Veteran Administration Hospital and the Joslin Diabetes Center Beetham Eye Institute. After graduating with honors, he finished a one year optometric residency in ocular disease at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report) after which he started his current position at University Hospitals.

Clinical Interests

Dr. Stokkermans provides comprehensive eye care for adults and children over the age of 10 years, including specialty contact lens care for patients with corneal disease and care for patients with complex refractive needs such as prism fitting for strabismus and solutions for anisometropia. He also manages a wide variety of non-surgical medical eye conditions of the eye, including dry eye, eye infections and inflammation and mild to moderate glaucoma and provides triage and referral services to the different surgical sub-specialists at the University Hospitals Eye Institute. He has had a long standing interest in low vision care, has pursued additional training at the New York Light House, New York, and has been a consultant in low vision care for the Cleveland Veteran Administration Hospital System and the Cleveland Sight Center. Dr. Stokkermans sees patients at UH Eye Institute’s UH Cleveland Medical Center facility as well as the Landerbrook, Westlake and Hudson satellites.

Teaching Interests

Dr. Stokkermans is an attending faculty and does rounds with and teaches primary eye and contact lens care to our ophthalmology residents, optometry student externs from The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), Western University of the Health Sciences (Pomona, Calif.) Colleges of Optometry, Indiana University College of Optometry (Bloomington, Ind.) and ophthalmic assisting students from Cuyahoga Community College. He is the chief preceptor for the optometric externship programs. Besides clinical teaching, he heads the didactic optics program and also lectures in optics to the ophthalmology residents and ophthalmic technicians at the UH Eye Institute. Dr. Stokkermans directs and regularly lectures at the UH Eye Institute optometric continuing education program provided to private optometrists in the Cleveland area and has also lectured on ocular disease, contact lens and low vision topics at regional ophthalmology, optometry and opticians conferences.

Research Interests

In addition to his main interest of caring for patients, Dr. Stokkermans has participated in over 30 clinical trials while on staff at UH Eye Institute. These clinical trials consist of studies on the safety and efficacy of contact lenses, contact lens solutions, and ophthalmic medications, the Argus II retinal implant, the Ivantis Hydrus glaucoma implant, and the role of accommodation in eye pressure. These studies include the largest study to date on keratoconus, Food and Drug Administration approval studies for most of the soft contact lenses and of the only hybrid (a combination of a soft and rigid gas permeable) lens on the market today and Food and Drug Administration approval studies for the therapeutic use of two different contact lenses. Several of these studies were to monitor ocular side effects of experimental systemic medications. Dr. Stokkermans has also researched the use of different commercially available prisms for homonymous hemianopia (peripheral field loss).

Dr. Stokkermans has published 27 peer-reviewed articles in the scientific and optometric literature and has appeared in the local and national media to comment on ocular disease, contact lens and low vision topics. He is the editor-in-chief and a contributing editor for the StatPearls Optometry-Advanced Medical Care Section, an educational website for health care providers.

Other Notable Achievements

Dr. Stokkermans is a fellow and member of the American Academy of Optometry, vice-chair for Communication of the American Medical Center Optometrists Special Interest Group, a member of the American and Ohio Optometric Associations, and the Beta Sigma Kappa International Optometric Honor Fraternity. He is co-chair of the Operations Committee of the University Hospitals Eye Institute tasked to enhance patient experience. He has also been a volunteer for at the Northeast Ohio Vision Care Outreach Program of Prevent Blindness Ohio, Lake County Division, providing free eye exams to the medically indigent or homeless and has volunteered his services in Jamaica. He is on the board of The Optical Foundation, an international organization that helps provide optometry students with educational opportunities and helps fund and organize vision screenings in Ghana. He is currently the optometrist for the Cleveland Browns team and provides vision care to players, coaches and staff.