Meet Dr. Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed
Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC, directs the Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation and personally oversees its surgical therapeutics initiative.
Early in his career, he completed a glaucoma fellowship at the Moran Eye Center with his late mentor—surgeon and humanitarian Alan S. Crandall, MD.
Dr. Ahmed is widely regarded as one of the foremost leaders in ophthalmology and healthcare innovation globally, including being recognized as the No. 1 most influential ophthalmologist in the world on the Ophthalmology Power List by the news magazine The Ophthalmologist. He is an active clinician-scientist with dual practices in Canada and the United States, renowned for his skills in the management of highly complex eye diseases — particularly glaucoma and advanced anterior segment surgery.
Therapeutics Innovator
Known as a disruptive thinker who values the power of the human spirit, passion, collaboration, and energy to challenge the status quo, Dr. Ahmed has been a defining voice in reshaping the field of glaucoma and cataract care.
He coined the terms “Interventional Glaucoma (IG),” “Micro-Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS),” and “Micro-Invasive Bleb Surgery (MIBS)” — frameworks that have fundamentally changed how surgeons worldwide approach and sequence treatment. In 2021, he became the founding director of the Crandall Center.
Embedded within the considerable resources, clinicians, and scientists at Moran, the center is tackling the global burden of eye disease by developing better diagnostic tools, designing safer and more effective treatments, and teaching and training. His lab at the Crandall Center focuses on next-generation surgical devices, lasers, and novel therapies for glaucoma.
A prolific researcher, Dr. Ahmed has published over 310 peer-reviewed papers and authored books on glaucoma surgery, intraocular lens surgery, and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery. As of 2025, his h-index is 75, placing him in the top 0.15% of scientists globally in ophthalmology and vision sciences, according to a Stanford University analysis. He has delivered over 2,200 scientific presentations worldwide, including 51 named lectures and 70 visiting professorships, and has won 12 film festival awards and 24 best paper of session awards at international meetings.
Dr. Ahmed has designed and developed innovative surgical devices, implants, laser therapies, and microsurgical instrumentation, and has performed numerous world firsts in glaucoma and cataract surgery. He has received research grants to study glaucoma diagnostics and therapies, anterior segment and retinal/optic nerve imaging, cataract surgical techniques and devices, and intraocular lens designs. He has served as principal investigator for numerous clinical studies and as medical monitor for pivotal trials, and consults for over 60 medical companies in the development of new devices and technologies.
Awards, Honors, and Leadership Positions
His career has been distinguished by numerous honors. In 2025, he was bestowed the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to medicine. He was selected as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Binkhorst medal at ASCRS — awarded to the world’s most prominent ophthalmologists for landmark contributions to the science and practice of the field. The American Glaucoma Society has honored him twice: with the AGS Surgery Day Lecture and, in 2025, the Innovator Award. He was named Innovator of the Year by the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in 2017 and received the Pearce Medal Lecture from the UKISCRS in 2015. At the University of Utah, he holds the John R. and Hazel M. Robertson Presidential Endowed Chair.
Dr. Ahmed is the director of the Glaucoma and Advanced Anterior Segment Surgery (GAASS) fellowship at the University of Toronto — one of the premier ophthalmology fellowships in the world — which has trained over 50 glaucoma and anterior segment surgeons now practicing globally. Dr. Ahmed is known to be a passionate educator, with membership in numerous international societies, and has founded and directed a wide range of meetings and courses. He sits on the editorial boards of leading journals, including Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology-Glaucoma, Journal of Glaucoma, and the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology, and has served as chief medical editor of Glaucoma Today since 2018.
Clinical Practices
Dr. Ahmed holds board certification in ophthalmology in both Canada and the United States. He maintains a large tertiary glaucoma and cataract practice at Prism Eye Institute and Trillium Health Partners in the Greater Toronto Area, and sees patients and operates at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Patients are referred to him locally, nationally, and from around the world, and he has been invited to perform surgery across four continents.