One of the nation’s leading nonprofits dedicated to saving eyesight through tissue donation and transplantation is expanding its reach to help bring the “Gift of Sight” to more than 12,000 additional men, women, and children, and improve eye healthcare for thousands around the world. Lions Eye Institute for Transplant and Research has forged an agreement to acquire SightLife of Seattle, Washington, one of the top eye banks in the nation. Combined, the nonprofit will be the largest eye bank, tissue recovery, and ocular research center in the world with nearly 300 employees.
“At Lions Eye Institute, our vision is simple: to help others see,” said Jason Woody, President, and CEO of Lions Eye Institute. “We are driven to improve visual outcomes and quality of life for people who are blind or visually impaired, and we make that happen by creating innovations—new technology, new procedures, and new ways to collect and transplant tissue from compassionate donors. This partnership with SightLife takes our ability to accomplish that mission to the next level.”
The new partnership will increase the number of vision-saving transplants Lions Eye Institute can support each year, strengthen connections to physicians treating the 12.7 million people living with corneal blindness worldwide, and provide more than 20,000 corneas to waiting recipients around the world.
“At SightLife, we are proud of our more than 50-year history of providing corneal tissue, international eye bank development, and prevention programs around the world,” added Jim McCorkle, Interim CEO of SightLife. “This new relationship with Lions Eye Institute will carry that vital tradition forward. We look forward to serving even more people around the United States and the world through corneal transplantation, innovation and research, and international eye banking.”
Source: SightLife
Read more: https://sightlife.org/lions-eye-institute-acquires-sightlife-expanding-mission-of-saving-eyesight-around-the-world/