Karolinne Rocha, MD

Karolinne Maia Rocha, MD, PhD, is a sub-subspecialist in cataract, cornea, and refractive surgery. Dr. Rocha has received awards and distinctions for excellence in ophthalmology including the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Achievement Award in 2012, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Foundation Resident Excellence Award in 2012, and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Teaching Excellence Recognition Award in 2013. Dr. Rocha is a regular reviewer for the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Journal of Refractive Surgery, Cornea, and the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Dr. Rocha is also an associate editor for the Brazilian Archives of Ophthalmology (ABO).

Dr. Rocha completed her postdoctoral fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, in 2009, where she worked intimately with adaptive optics. She published one of the first clinical applications of adaptive optics characterizing the exact amount of higher-order aberrations that balances depth of focus with quality of vision, work that is widely cited in ophthalmic research. Dr. Rocha completed a second postdoctoral fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at Emory University in 2010, where she played instrumental roles in the lead investigational study on corneal collagen cross-linking, corneal biomechanics, and topography-guided laser ablation.

Dr. Rocha received her medical degree from the State University of Londrina in Paraná, Brazil in 2002. After obtaining her M.D., she completed training in ophthalmology at Federal University of São Paulo and was certified by the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology in 2005. As a second-year resident, she received the XXXIII Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology Surgical Skills Prize. After completing a fellowship in anterior segment surgery in 2007, she served as an assistant of ophthalmology at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Subsequently, she completed her PhD, “Optical aberrations in pseudophakic and cataractous eyes,” also at the Federal University of Sao Paulo. Dr. Rocha was the first ophthalmologist to be awarded the highest honor by the Brazilian government for her PhD thesis.

Dr. Rocha completed her second ophthalmology residency at the Cole Eye Institute-Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. She joined the faculty of MUSC/Storm Eye Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2014, and she is currently the director of the cornea and refractive surgery division.