Barry Skarf, M.D. Ph.D. has been Staff Neuro-ophthalmologist and Director of the Neuro-ophthalmology Service at the Henry Ford Hospital and Medical Centers for over 30 years. A native of Montreal, Canada, he originally studied Physics at McGill University and then went on to complete a Ph.D. in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, where he first became interested in the visual system. His research there investigated the formation of neural connections between the eye and the brain, an area that continues to interest him. After completing his graduate degree, Dr. Skarf returned to McGill for medical school and graduated in 1977. This was followed by a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Toronto, and then fellowship training in neuro-ophthalmology with William F. Hoyt, MD, at UCSF. He undertook a second fellowship in clinical visual electrophysiology with Drs. Eliot Berson (at Harvard) and Sam Sokol (at Tufts) in Boston.
Dr. Skarf’s first academic staff position was at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, where he established a clinical and research visual electrophysiology unit. After coming to Henry Ford in 1987, he continued studying the development of the visual system in infants and young children for several years. While Dr. Skarf remains primarily interested in the visual sensory system, his clinical focus has been on the various conditions that affect vision by interfering with the normal function of both its sensory and ocular motor components.
Dr. Skarf has held academic appointments at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan. He has mentored over 20 Neuro-ophthalmology Fellows from the U.S., Canada, and several foreign countries who each completed at least one year of fellowship training at Henry Ford. Most of these fellows now occupy academic positions. As a director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Henry Ford, he has actively participated in training over 170 ophthalmology residents and over 100 neurology residents who have worked alongside him for 10 and 4 weeks, respectivey.
Dr. Skarf and Barbara, his partner for 48 years, have raised four children, who have rewarded them with thirteen grandchildren.