Dr. Santa Heede joined McMaster University in November 2022. Find out about her illustrious career.


Dr. Santa Heede began her medical education at University in Riga, Latvia. She studied and received her medical degree from University of Hamburg, Germany. After completing her pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus fellowship in 2010 at Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary, Dr. Heede did a year locum at IWK Health Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax. She has since worked as a senior physician-consultant and has lectured at leading university hospitals in Germany.
Dr. Heede has extensive experience as a high volume of strabismus surgeon, from standard procedures to complex transposition and revision surgeries. Her particular interest and passion are complex paralytic strabismus cases in children and adults. She has published articles on strabismus surgery, with a recent submission to BMC about her newly developed modification procedure to enhance abducting force in sixth nerve palsy. For learning purposes, she contributed a comprehensive article about supranuclear eye movement disorders in the trade journal of the Professional Association of Orthoptists in Germany.
Dr. Heede has been teaching ophthalmology residents and orthoptic students. She officiates as an examiner for the European Board of Ophthalmology. Over the past 8 years Dr. Heede has collaborated with Stradins University in Riga, Latvia on a fly-in basis, lecturing on pediatric ophthalmology and complex strabismus cases to residents and general ophthalmologists, consulting on complex strabismus patients and performing complex surgeries.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Heede continues as medical director of screening and strabismus surgery projects in South and Central America for Volunteer Eye Resources International (VER International, https://www.verinternational.org).
We are thrilled to have Dr. Heede join our division this fall, and look forward to welcoming her into our broader ophthalmology community.
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