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Stephen M. Drance

Stephen Michael Drance OC, MD, FRCS, (born 22 May, 1925) is Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology, University of British Columbia. He was the head of Glaucoma service at the Eye Care centre of Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Drance was born on the 22nd of May 1925 in Bielsko, Poland. In the 1930s he emigrated to Great Britain where he finished the secondary school and later studied in Edinburgh. He completed his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1948 and one year later, in 1949, gained his clinical diploma (MD). In 1953 he obtained the diploma in Ophthalmology, in London. He continued his ophthalmological training in York, Edinburgh and Oxford.^[1]

In 1957 Drance moved to Canada, where he became an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1963 he became an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It was at this University in 1966, that he gained the position of Professor and in 1973 Head of the Department of Ophthalmology , which he held until his retirement in 1990.

Drance has more than 300 contributions to the glaucoma literature spanning half a century and address every conceivable aspect of the disease, along with being the co-author of five books. The Eye Care Centre was established in Vancouver in 1983 due to the eight million dollars Drance helped raise.^[2] For 18 years, he served as Chairman of the University of British Columbia's Department of Ophthalmology, and merged clinical care seamlessly into an environment of teaching and research. Professor Drance has trained 35 fellows, whose contributions continue to move glaucoma care forward. His accomplishments have been widely recognized, through numerous honorary fellowships, honorary degrees and awards. In 1987, Drance was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the highest honors his country bestows. His passion for music and the visual arts led him to found the Vancouver Summer Festival, and this year he received the Vancouver Arts Award in recognition of his philanthropy in the arts.^[3]

Drance's expertise has taken him around the world. He has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer across Canada and the United States as well as in Australia, New Zealand, France, Mexico, England, Panama, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Poland, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic and Hungary.