The Boston Foundation for Sight

Background

Perry Rosenthal, M.D., founder of the Contact Lens Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, has developed a unique vision-restoring lens known as the Boston Scleral Lens. Nineteen years in development, it is the product of advanced polymer chemistry, a powerful computer-driven design program and state-of-the-art precision machining technology. This prosthetic device was approved by the FDA in 1994 and has restored vision in more than 600 patients, most of whom had exhausted all other treatment options. Dr. Rosenthal created the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit Boston Foundation for Sight to provide this technology to all who it can benefit. No one is turned away because of their ability to pay. Supported by Bausch & Lomb since its inception and by a $240,000 grant by Johnson & Johnson to train doctors in the special custom-fitting process, the Foundation’s mission is to establish a network of affiliated clinics in academic eye care centers in the U.S. and abroad

Why is the Boston Scleral Lens Unique?

The quarter-size highly oxygen-porous Boston Scleral Lens Prosthetic Device is designed to rest on the tough relatively insensitive white tissue of the eye called the sclera. The key to its effectiveness is the artificial tear-filled reservoir that it maintains over the diseased cornea, the principal focusing lens of the eye and the most sensitive tissue of the human body. By functioning as a soothing and healing liquid eye bandage, this device relieves the pain and light sensitivity of severe dry eyes and chronic corneal inflammation while nurturing the healing of erosions and ulcers even in eyes that have failed to respond to all other available treatments. It is no wonder that our patients call it their “Miracle Lens”.

The first generation of Boston Scleral Lens were very large to take advantage of the unevenness of the sclera in the deep recesses under the lids. This allowed tears to seep under the edge of the lens to prevent the lenses from becoming suctioned to the eye. However, the unpredictability of this design and the difficulty of inserting these huge lenses led Dr. Rosenthal and his team to develop a new generation of smaller Boston Scleral Lenses in the fall of 2003. Utilizing patented technology and powerful design software developed by the Boston Foundation for Sight, the new design incorporates precision-machined trenches in the lens to channel tears into the fluid reservoir of the lens while preventing the aspiration of damaging air bubbles. The Foundation’s success rate today exceeds 90%--a remarkable achievement considering that our patients suffer from some of the most devastating of blinding eye diseases.

The Foundation’s onsite laboratory enables us to custom design each lens on a computer, transmit the data to our state-of-the-art precision computerized lathe and have the lens in hand within 60 minutes rather than the two days that would be required if they were made in a commercial laboratory. Since the process of customizing the design of each lens to the shape of each eye requires us to fabricate an average of three to five devices for each eye (it is not unusual to require 12 or more) having our clinical and manufacturing facilities under one roof enables us to achieve an unparalleled rate of success in the most challenging eyes. The imminent delivery of a $400,000 state-of-the-art lathe/milling machine designed and programmed to meet our special requirements will enable us to extend its unique therapeutic and vision-enhancing potential to more people than ever before.

Because we refuse to compromise our efforts to achieve the best possible outcome, the custom fitting process is skill intensive, time consuming and costly. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution, a substantial part of the treatment costs are subsidized by our generous benefactors whose support enables us to treat all patients who we can help regardless of the actual cost of treatment or their ability to pay.

Who Can Be Helped by the Boston Scleral Lens?

Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States (and millions worldwide) visually disabled by corneal diseases and severe dry eyes can be helped by the Boston Scleral Lens. Most of our patients had exhausted all other treatment options. For others, our device replaced the need for corneal transplant surgery and its potentially serious complications, long recovery period and uncertain visual outcome. Moreover, it has been especially successful in recovering vision when corneal transplants become distorted during the healing process.
The Boston Scleral Lens can be effective when traditional rigid gas-permeable contact lenses are capable of improving vision but are not tolerated. This includes conditions such as keratoconus and other corneal degenerations, following corneal surgery such as transplants, laser procedures and injuries. However, the “miracle” of the Boston Scleral Lens is most dramatically epitomized by patients with severe ocular surface disease who in addition to their visual disability, suffer unremitting, agonizing pain and photosensitivity that are unresponsive to all other treatment strategies. Among them are victims of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a violent sensitivity reaction to medications and those with severe dry eyes associated with Sjogren’s syndrome, graft versus host disease following bone marrow transplants as well as other causes. These eyes have lost their ability to heal and their corneas are so vulnerable to ulcerating that some have had their lids sewn together. By creating a virtual liquid bandage over their raw, fragile corneas, the Boston Scleral Lens virtually eliminates their pain and light sensitivity and can greatly improves vision.

                    We need your support

Most of our patients, disabled for years, have exhausted their financial resources. Since many health insurers do not cover this service, the Foundation provides free care to those who cannot afford to pay. We have had to subsidize the $7,600 cost of fabricating and fitting our devices (two eyes), a process that in difficult cases can take 30 hours or more over a two to four week period.
Following the profiling of our work on national television (on The CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, and Oprah Winfrey’s Medical Miracles), as well as in newspapers and in papers published in peer-reviewed medical journals, the increased demand for our services is stretching the limits our clinic and manufacturing resources. The foundation must raise $12,000,000 over the next three years to meet the increasing need for subsidizing patient care, establish a network of clinics in the U.S. and abroad and fund our clinical and technological research programs.

The Mission of the
     Boston Foundation for Sight

We have
moved !!
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details!

Foundation awarded Johnson & Johnson Gift of Sight Grant for practitioner training.

Gift of Sight practitioner training grant....

Shouldn't everyone
have the right to see?

Most Health Insurers say no, and we need your help...

April 22, 2004:       We Were On Oprah again. It was a special, titled "Oprah Producers' Favorite Moments".  

As a result of that show, another blind woman named Helen learned about the Boston Foundation for Sight and was successfully fitted with the Boston Scleral lens.

Previously on Monday, Feb 3, Dr. Rosenthal and a few patients were featured in a Medical Miracles segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Tapes and transcripts are available on Oprah's site (click for more info).


The Tech Museum of Innovation Award

Dr. Rosenthal was inducted into the community of Tech Lauriets by the Tech Museum of Innovation at a formal ceremony in San Jose on November 7...

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