Eyeworld

10 August 2014 EW NEWS & OPINION Send us your favorite app! Have a favorite app that helps you with business or personal activities? Email stacy@eyeworld.org with the app name and how it helped you. Apps selected will be published in Ophthalmology Business and their submitters will receive a $50 iTunes gift card. ASCRS Foundation continued from page 3 "If that is successful, my goal would be to expand to 50 centers across the U.S. by the end of 2015," said Dr. Lane. "Ideally these centers would be made up of physicians and surgeons who are ASCRS members and who desire to participate in these kinds of efforts." Industry support The ASCRS Foundation is also work- ing to involve all levels of industry in the new program. "Industry has been remarkably generous when it comes to supporting charitable care both internationally and here at home," said Jim Mazzo, chair of the ASCRS Foundation Corporate Rela- tions Committee, in a press release from ASCRS. "They do it quietly and without much recognition simply because it's the right thing to do. It's my belief that industry can offer an unmatched level of leadership and expertise that will be key to growing the Operation Sight program in the United States." Ophthalmic industry leaders have already made a significant commitment to the Operation Sight Network. Participating companies Abbott Medical Optics (AMO, Santa Ana, Calif.), Carl Zeiss Meditec (Jena, Germany), Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas), and MicroSurgical Technology (MST, Redmond, Wash.) will supply the network's volunteer physicians with the key technology and training needed to provide free, high-quality eyecare. The companies will donate IOLs, hold wet labs for training, and fundraise for the ASCRS Foundation's programs. "Providing this free access to great technology with great physi- cians across the United States is really the goal," Mr. Mazzo said in an interview with EyeWorld. In addition, the Corporate Relations Committee aims to raise $500,000 in support of the Foundation's programs by the end of the year, he said. The Operation Sight Network is a win for everyone involved, said Dr. Lane—for patients, physicians, industry, and the Foundation. "I'm very excited and very enthusiastic about this program," he said. "We talk about wiping out different dis- eases and different problems across the world, and while this is very laudable, it is almost impossible to achieve. My goal would be to wipe out cataract blindness in the United States by the year 2020—and I think that is a very attainable goal." EW Editors' note: Mr. Mazzo is chairman and CEO of AcuFocus (Irvine, Calif.), executive chair of Neurotech Pharmaceuticals (Cumberland, R.I.), and operating partner of Versant Ventures (Menlo Park, Calif.). Dr. Lane has no financial interests related to his comments. Contact information Lane: sslane@AssociatedEyeCare.com Mazzo: jmazzo@versantventures.com "I'm very excited and very enthusiastic about this program. … My goal would be to wipe out cataract blindness in the United States by the year 2020— and I think that is a very attainable goal." –Stephen S. Lane, MD

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