Dr. Gordon's research interests are in glaucoma and in biostatistical design of clinical studies. Dr. Gordon's research interests also include research design, patient compliance and measurement reliability. Her research also has investigated the impact of compliance on the cost and design of clinical studies.

Dr. Gordon serves as director of the Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Departmental Biostatistics Core Module. An important mission of the Biostatistics Core is to conduct pilot studies to provide a sound scientific foundation for larger, definitive studies.

Dr. Gordon collaborated with the University of California-Berkeley and Ohio State University to develop the first method for photodocumenting corneal scarring with good sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility. Without the development of a sound method of documenting corneal scarring, the definitive trial could not be implemented. In another example, Dr. Gordon collaborated with the University of California-Davis to refine criteria for defining visual field damage in glaucoma. This study entailed reexamination of over five years of visual field data of 241 ocular hypertensive patients and identifying parameters that most reliably characterized glaucoma damage. This work provided key data for the national Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study and will probably change standards by which ophthalmologists define glaucoma damage.

Dr. Gordon is director of the Coordinating Center for the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, a randomized clinical trial sponsored by the National Eye Institute that evaluates the efficacy and safety of medication treatment in preventing glaucomatous damage in individuals with ocular hypertension. The study involves 35 participating clinics across the country and 1,500 patients.

In addition, Dr. Gordon is director of the Coordinating Center for the first multi-center study funded by the National Eye Institute in Optometry. The five-year observational study will track the prognosis of 1,000 patients diagnosed with keratoconus.