James and Heather Gills Donate $10 Million to Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Newswise — James and Heather Gills have donated $10 million to the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine, for establishment of a new center at Wilmer: the James P. Gills Jr., M.D., & Heather Gills Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center. 

James Gills, who trained at Wilmer as a resident in the 1960s, is a renowned surgeon credited with making small incision cataract surgery and intraocular lens implantation the standard of care in cataracts treatment.

The couple previously gifted funds to Wilmer, endowing multiple professorships such as the James P. Gills Professorship in Ophthalmology (currently held by its inaugural recipient, Neil Bressler, M.D.), and the James and Heather Gills Rising Professor of Ophthalmology (held by Michael Sulewski Jr., M.D.).

The latest gift from the Gillses will support creation of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center, a collaborative hub with the goal of preserving the vision of patients with various eye conditions and eliminating blindness. The center will be led by T.Y. Alvin Liu, M.D., who is on the retina faculty and has been nominated to be the inaugural James P. Gills Jr., M.D., and Heather Gills Rising Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Ophthalmology.  

“What sets Wilmer apart is the breadth and depth of our current AI endeavors, from fundamental model development to translational implementation of AI clinical tools to advocacy for AI policies at the national level,” says Liu. “This truly transformational gift will greatly expand the velocity and scope of Wilmer’s AI footprint, thus securing our leadership position in this once-in-a-lifetime AI revolution.”  

The center will bring together clinical, scientific and infrastructure resources for investigators to apply artificial intelligence in research, medical education and patient care. The center’s leaders say it will be anchored by core values such as openness to all, sustainability and collaboration.

“We are grateful that Jim and Heather have decided to provide this gift to support future generations of innovators, and we are delighted to have the names of these two extraordinary individuals linked forever to the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,” says Peter McDonnell, M.D., director of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the William Holland Wilmer Professor of Ophthalmology at the school of medicine.

“For a century, the Wilmer Institute has advanced the field of ophthalmology and trained generations of leaders,” says James Gills. “My wife, Heather, and I are delighted to be able to provide this gift to accelerate the work being done at Wilmer to improve the eye care of future generations of Americans and others around the world.”