Boston Foundation for Sight : Scleral Lens, Dry Eyes, Keratoconus, Corneal Transplant, Lasik, Optometrists, Ophthalmologist, Liquid Corneal Bandage, Severe dry Eye, Ocular Surface Disease

Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Who We Are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Donate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . News and Publications Newsletters Join Our Mailing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Site Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glossary	NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS April 2, 2003 BOSTON SIGHT FOUNDATION RECEIVES GRANT TO EXPAND AVAILABILITY OF SIGHT-RESTORING LENS Grant from VISTAKON® to Train Eye Care Experts on its Boston Scleral Lens Boston, MA., April 2, 2003 - Boston Foundation for Sight today announced that VISTAKON®, Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., will provide a grant to establish and train a network of eye care professionals in the United States and abroad who can help restore functional sight to patients with severe corneal disease. The grant will enable a $240,000 program to train Eye Care Professionals associated with academic eye care centers on the fitting technology of the Boston Scleral Lens, a specially designed contact lens device that provides a non-surgical means of restoring vision in eyes affected by many corneal disorders. The Boston Scleral Lens (BSL) developed by the Boston Foundation for Sight is made from an advanced oxygen-permeable plastic that permits the eye tissues to breathe through the lens. Designed to rest entirely on the white tissue (sclera) of the eye, it arches over the damaged cornea creating a space that is filled with artificial tears. The effect is to create a smooth optical surface over the diseased cornea that replaces its distorted surface that improves vision, often dramatically. This oxygenated compartment of fluid also protects the extremely sensitive and fragile corneas suffering from severe ocular surface disease from exposure to air and the friction of blinking, both of which can cause severe, debilitating pain and extreme photosensitivity. Dr. Perry Rosenthal, M.D., founder of Boston Foundation for Sight and assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, said there is a considerable need to increase the number of professionals who can help these patients and fit them with this life-altering contact lens. According to Rosenthal, scleral lenses had a checkered history and despite their unique advantages for eyes -more- with corneal disorders, they had been abandoned because of their propensity to cause serious and permanent complications. By incorporating the elements of advanced polymer chemistry and the flexibility and precision of state-of-the-art non-rotationally symmetrical lathe technology driven by a program based on advanced mathematical spline functions, the Boston Foundation for Sight has significantly advanced the successful use of gas-permeable scleral lenses. The Boston Scleral Lens incorporates unique radial channels in its bearing surface that facilitate fluid-tear exchange while excluding the intrusion of air bubbles. This has been critical to its success in managing some of the most devastating corneal diseases that had been previously refractory to all available treatment options. "Patients from all over the world come to our Foundation desperate for relief from devastating corneal disorders," he said. "The vast majority of our patients are young and in the prime of life and have exhausted all available treatment options. Vistakon's considerable gift will make a significant impact in helping the Foundation build a network of professionals trained in providing these sight-restoring contact lens devices for the patients, many of whom had been given no hope of regaining functional vision or finding relief from the unremitting eye pain and disabling photosensitivity that relegated them to living in the dark, both figuratively and literally." Dr. Rosenthal estimates that there are approximately 50,000 people in the U.S. who suffer from corneal diseases that can be helped by its Boston Scleral Lens when other modalities fail. Conditions such as keratoconus, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, anesthetic corneas, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, disabling dry-eye disorders, distorted corneal transplants, corneal scars, eyelid abnormalities and other corneal disorders have all been successfully treated with the BSL in Rosenthal's Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, clinic-currently the only site in the United States that can provide and fit the Boston Scleral Lens. "For many of the tens of thousands of people in the United States blind from corneal disease, the Boston Scleral Lens, currently manufactured exclusively at the Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts facility, is the only option for regaining functional vision," said Phil Keefer, President, VISTAKON® Americas "Until now the Foundation's outreach to those in need has been limited to patients who are able to travel to the Boston clinic for the fitting process that can take up to two weeks. Although the BFS turns no one away because of their inability to pay (since most health insurers refuse to accept fitting this lens a covered service, the BFS provides free care for almost 50% of patients), traveling to its clinic is still a hardship for many. We are proud that our grant will help establish a network of satellite clinics in the U.S. and abroad to substantially increase the availability of the device by practitioners skilled in this technology." The grant will help the Foundation prepare appropriate teaching materials and conduct intensive workshops to train eye care professionals on the technical details of fitting the BSL. Through the Foundation, the program will also offer a 6-week fellowship to selected tertiary eye-care centers abroad to help bring this sight-giving technology to patients around the world. In 2005, the Foundation expects to host its first annual symposium to provide practitioners with the opportunity to share experiences and advance the knowledge of caring for these patients. -more- About Dr. Perry Rosenthal According to Dr. Rosenthal, "The mission of the Foundation is to provide our vision-restoring contact lenses to the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who are visually disabled from corneal diseases and can benefit from our technology-regardless of the patient's ability to pay or where they live." Dr. Perry Rosenthal, president and founder of the Boston Foundation of Sight, assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary's Contact Lens Service, has developed a unique family of contact lenses that have rehabilitated the vision of hundreds of patients with corneal diseases, more than half of whom had no other option for recovering functional eyesight. Unlike conventional contact lenses, the quarter-size Boston Scleral Lens is the result of over 15 years of research that incorporates state-of-the-art polymer chemistry and a patented computer design/manufacturing program. Dr. Rosenthal's clinical team has achieved a success rate of over 80% in rehabilitating vision and eliminating the eye pain for people who suffer from the most painful of blinding eye diseases for which there had been no definitive treatment in the past. About Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. VISTAKON®, Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., pioneered the concept of disposable contact lens wear in 1987 with the introduction of ACUVUE® Brand Contact Lenses. The ACUVUE® Brand family of lenses is the most prescribed by Eye Care Professionals worldwide today. VISTAKON®, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., ### ACUVUE® is a trademark of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.	Perry Rosenthal, M.D. Founder and President 1244 Boylston Street, Suite 202 Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-2115 tel 617.735.8698 fax 617.735.9326 patient appt. 617.735.8810 info@bostonsight.org www.bostonsight.org Board of Directors Harry H. Birkenruth, Chair Bonnie H. Bader Nancy Comenitz Harry T. Daniels William A. Guthrie Rabbi Donniel Hartman Florence Koplow Brian Levy, O.D. Edwin Miller Richard D. Muzzy Thurman F. Naylor Steven Nevins Renée Rapaporte Robert E. Remis Hillary Salmons Robert Shapiro Cynthia A. Sheppard Alan J. Strassman Kazuo Tsubota, M.D. James Vanecko



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