Restoring Sight - Reclaiming Lives
The Boston Foundation for Sight (BFS) is an internationally renowned not-for-profit eye healthcare organization dedicated to restoring vision and improving quality of life for our patients and their families. We strive to transform the understanding, treatment and care of complex corneal disease within the global medical community and the public at large. Since our founding in 1994, we have been innovative leaders in research and treatment of corneal conditions.
Our 12,000 square foot facility in Needham, MA, includes a state-of-the-art manufacturing lab, a medical institute staffed with seven doctors and a dozen technicians/trainers, a Clinical Research Center and a new Patient and Community Support Center. We enjoy educational partnerships with the renowned Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the New England College of Optometry; each year Cornea Fellows and Optometry Residents come to BFS to be educated in the latest in treatment of corneal disease, and they join our medical staff in cutting-edge clinical research on the next generation of tools in the fight against these insidious diseases of the ocular surface system.
Our Treatment Model
Prosthetic replacement of the ocular surface ecosystem (PROSE) is a pioneering treatment model developed by the Boston Foundation for Sight to restore vision, support healing, reduce symptoms and improve quality of life for patients suffering with complex corneal disease. PROSE vision rehabilitation uses FDA-approved custom designed and fabricated prosthetic devices to replace or augment the impaired ocular surface ecosystem function. For many of the thousands of patients with conditions such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome, chronic ocular graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), dry eye syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome, keratoconus, pellucid marginal degeneration, ocular trauma, complications of LASIK, or complications of cornea transplantation, PROSE can be the ideal, and sometimes only, treatment capable of restoring vision and dramatically reducing symptoms such as eye pain, dry eye, blurry vision and light sensitivity.
PROSE interdisciplinary treatment teams include a cornea specialist ophthalmologist, an optometrist who has completed an intensive 9-week PROSE Clinical Fellowship at BFS, medical assistants, trainers, and prosthetic device manufacturing engineers and technicians. PROSE treatment teams work with each patient, his/her support system and other medical providers to form a collaborative care network where all members work to understand each patient’s specific needs and reach treatment goals together.
PROSE Clinic Network
As of July 2010, we have established eight groundbreaking partnerships with top-ranked specialty eye care centers located in academic medical centers in the US and clinics abroad to offer PROSE. Two clinics are located in Texas: one at the Baylor College of Medicine’s Alkek Eye Center in Houston; the other, at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, serves active duty military personnel, including Wounded Warriors. There is a PROSE clinic at the University of Southern California’s Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles. Three international clinics are located in India in Hyderabad and Mumbai; and in Nagoya, Japan.
Our newest partners, the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center in Ann Arbor, MI and Weill Cornell Medical College’s Weill Cornell Eye Associates in New York, NY will begin seeing patients in September and October of 2010 respectively. Each PROSE clinic is independently operated by our partners who manage scheduling and insurance and provide ongoing care.