Nathan Kim Dhablania (‘14) poses in front of a Loyola University Chicago sign. Dhablania was recently matched into opthtalmology. (Provided by Nathan Kim Dhablania)

Many modern medicines can treat causes of vision loss, but not all patients receive that care. For Nathan Kim Dhablania (’14), M.S., addressing patients’ access to basic vision care has become central to his work.

Now a fourth-year ophthalmology student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Dhablania focuses on the intersection of science and human impact. He traces that mission back to Harker, where biology and chemistry classes and volunteer work at Good Samaritan Hospital first exposed him to patient care.

“Medicine is one of the few fields where you can actually have a profound impact on someone’s life and some of your patients’ most vulnerable moments,” Dhablania said. “It is really powerful to be able to help people during those hard times.”

At the University of Southern California (USC) for his undergraduate degree, his interests broadened to ophthalmology. Majoring in health promotion and disease prevention, he explored public health while working in labs, with his research ranging from cardiothoracic studies on aortic aneurysms to stem cell work on kidney growth. 

“What I really valued about that experience at USC was being able to develop my own experiments from start to finish,” Dhablania said. “I would figure out exactly what kind of research question I want to develop and how I want to set up my experiment. I really appreciated the fact that we had so many different projects to do.”

While studying stem cell applications for retinal cells, he began to see a new, undiscovered potential for treating degenerative eye diseases. This research, coupled with his uncle’s progressive vision loss from undiagnosed diabetic retinopathy, solidified his interest in ophthalmology. 

That new curiosity carried into a research fellowship at the Southern California Eye Institute. Under the mentorship of Rohit Varma, Dhablania analyzed large datasets to study the prevalence and risk factors for various ocular diseases in underserved populations and published his results in prestigious journals, including JAMA Ophthalmology. 

“There are patients out there who do not have access to a primary care physician to get a referral to an ophthalmologist, or have a lack of transportation or health insurance issues,” Dhablania said. “These factors prevent them from getting the refractive care that they need, for example, glasses, and that leads to uncorrected refractive error.”

At Loyola, he carried his knowledge into both his clinical training and research, including a project on screening for retinal toxicity in veterans taking hydroxychloroquine, an antibiotic used to treat autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. 

“Because my grandmother was on this medication to manage her lupus, even if she never developed any sort of retinal toxicity, I felt like I had a personal connection to it,” Dhablania said. “It gave me a sense of purpose to do it, and that is the type of research I do at Loyola.”

As he prepares for his ophthalmology residency, Dhablania reflects on his journey to the discipline, noting that he is drawn to the field’s combination of surgical accuracy and impact on patients. 

“I took bits and pieces of my different clerkships, and it all led me back to ophthalmology,” Dhablania said. “It’s a field where you can help patients from birth all the way to the elderly — you’re doing surgeries, but you’re also managing chronic conditions. I really enjoy the fact that you can get dirty with your hands and you can see the impact your work is making.”

To young researchers, Dhablania suggests the value of not having a fixed plan, but staying open to where different experiences lead. 

“Continue to work towards what you want to pursue,” Dhablania said. “Be curious, stay hungry and be open to different specialties. You may never know what you want to pursue, and that’s totally okay.”