There are few more moving moments, if any, than seeing someone whose bandages have been removed after eye surgery that is able to see again after the near loss of sight.
Founded as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (tax ID 31-1242592) by Francis Price, Jr., MD in 1988, the Cornea Research Foundation of America was established to make this experience a reality for thousands of people facing vision loss around the world.
What We Do
We identify problems associated with vision loss and research ways to improve surgical treatments, medications and more to give people the best possible vision. We emphasize education—to doctors, health care workers and even those with vision problems. As they say, knowledge is power and we strive to share our findings through many relevant channels in order to reach a global audience.
We have many strategic goals including:
- Pioneer improvements in corneal transplantation to improve outcomes for patients
- Provide new vision restorative treatments to patients through clinical studies
- Lead education for ophthalmic surgeons, optometrists and patients
Key Accomplishments
Through diligence in conducting more than 100 clinical research studies with a commitment to education, we’ve made many significant contributions to the eye care community. Here are just a few of the many ways in which we’ve made an impact:
- Successfully helped to pioneer a new cornea transplant method called endothelial keratoplasty (EK, DSEK, and DMEK). These methods dramatically improve outcomes for patients in terms of surgical healing time, optimizing visual recovery and reducing transplant rejections rates from 20 percent to less than 1 percent.
- Provide education to eye care professionals through the training of more than 600 ophthalmic surgeons on cutting-edge techniques to treat conditions such as Fuchs’ dystrophy, keratoconus, cataracts, and glaucoma.
- Provided thousands of hours of continuing education to optometrists throughout the Midwest on how to identify and treat conditions and when to refer patients to specialists.
- Published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters sharing key study results with eye surgeons around the globe.
- Played a key role in a number of research studies that have resulted in the approval and usage of modern medications and devices for the treatment of cornea transplants, cataracts, glaucoma, LASIK vision correction and much more!
Learn about our current research projects by visiting Research and Findings.
To receive a copy of our 5-year Strategic Plan, please email us.
To view our IRS-990 tax forms, visit our Guidestar.org profile.
We are proud to share that 89% of our funds go directly to programs (FYE June 30, 2020).
