Current Environment:

Medical Services

Specialties

Programs & Services

Education

Undergraduate School

Rice University

1979, Houston, TX

Graduate School

PhD

Baylor College of Medicine

1984, Houston, TX

Medical School

Baylor College of Medicine

1987, Houston, TX

Internship

Transitional

Framingham Union Hospital

1988, Framingham, MA

Residency

Ophthalmology

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary / Harvard Medical School

1991, Boston, MA

Fellowship

Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus

The Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins University

1992, Baltimore, MD

Certifications

  • American Board of Ophthalmology (General)

Professional History

David G. Hunter, MD, PhD is Ophthalmologist-in-Chief and the Richard M. Robb Chair of Ophthalmology at Children's Hospital Boston, President of the Children's Hospital Ophthalmology Foundation, and Professor and Vice Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hunter obtained a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rice University and a PhD (in Cell Biology) and MD from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. After he completed an ophthalmology residency at Harvard's Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, he was a fellow at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins University, where he remained on faculty until he was selected to become Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Children's in the early 2000’s. During his time at Children's, the Department of Ophthalmology at Children's Hospital Boston has grown to become the largest pediatric ophthalmology department in the nation and perhaps the world, with 30 full-time faculty, including 15 full-time and 4 affiliated MD ophthalmologists and 6 pediatric optometrists, with pediatric subspecialists in nearly every aspect of ophthalmology, as well as 7 full-time research faculty. The department also has created 7 endowed chairs as well as an endowed international observership to support clinical and basic research, teaching, and the worldwide dissemination of advances in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus. Dr. Hunter is co-author of the textbook Learning Strabismus Surgery and of the best-selling review manual Last Minute Optics (now in its second edition.) His lectures on optics and refraction for ophthalmologists-in-training around the world are now available free of charge in podcast format.

Notable Resources

Q+A on Adult Strabismus

Watch Dr. Hunter perform strabismus surgery via “LoupeCam”

Read some patient stories

Media

Caregiver Profile

Meet Dr. David Hunter

Publications

Having trained as an engineer before going to medical school, I realized that the more we learn about how something works, the better we are able to fix it. As a doctor and surgeon, I try to use those same principles, taking each case as unique, trying to understand as much as possible the nature of the problem before setting out to try to correct it. That approach can, in some cases, lead to entirely new treatments. But I’ve also learned that listening and educating is as much a part of being a doctor as any sort of medicine or surgery. Not every condition can be cured, but if I can at least transmit my understanding of the diagnosis and of what to expect in the future, then the healing can begin.