WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Miracles In Sight (MIS) hosted 22 surgeons from Latin America at its eye bank in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The surgeons were part of the first-ever International Duke-Latin America Workshop held April 1 – 2 and sponsored by Mexico-based Sophia Pharmaceutical Labs. Surgeons representing 11 Latin American countries participated in a wet lab and gained valuable hands-on experience working with DMEK, DSAEK and PKP surgical techniques. (more…)
Author Archive
A Fitting Tribute
by Dean Vavra
This is my thirty-seventh official year as an eye banker, but in a way eye banking has been a part of my life much longer than that. A genetic eye disease called granular dystrophy type 2 afflicted my grandmother, my mother and four of my brothers. (I was lucky enough to escape the condition.) This is a particularly cruel form of blindness that causes lesions to grow on the cornea, and even after a corneal transplant these painful opacities grow back into the graft tissue. So, my mother, grandmother and siblings all required multiple corneal transplants. In fact, in the early 1950s, before I was born, my mother and grandmother had two of the first corneal transplants performed in America. (more…)
Miracles In Sight Seeks to Expand Adoption of Innovative Surgery with Prepared DMEK Grafts
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Across the world, Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) is becoming the standard of care for endothelial dysfunction. Miracles In Sight (MIS), a nonprofit eye bank that recovers, processes and distributes ocular tissue, is helping reduce the learning curve for this new surgical technique by offering traditional, pre-loaded and free-floating DMEK grafts. (more…)
Miracles In Sight Contributes Corneal Tissue to Help Train Surgeons in Vietnam
(WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.) — Miracles In Sight (MIS), a nonprofit eye bank that recovers, processes and distributes ocular tissue, recently supported an effort led by UNC Eye to train ophthalmologists in Vietnam. MIS provided all the corneal tissues for the trip, resulting in 16 Vietnamese patients receiving the gift of sight. (more…)
Miracles In Sight Now Offers Options for DMEK Grafts To Facilitate More Successful Transplantation Procedures
At Miracles In Sight, we collaborate closely with our surgeon partners to determine what we can do to help them better serve their patients, and then we focus on meeting those needs. To achieve that, we are constantly looking for new and innovative techniques that allow surgeons to achieve more positive outcomes. That’s why we are adding both Pre-punched and Preloaded DMEK grafts to our tissue processing services.
Improving the Reimbursement Process
The health care system today is complex for both patients and providers. While patients are always the priority of any health care organization, we deal primarily with providers – ophthalmologists, hospitals and ambulatory service centers (ASC’s) – who work with patients. For that reason, we are focused largely on making their jobs simpler and easier, so they can do more for the patients they serve. One way we are doing that is by examining and improving what’s called “reimbursement.” (more…)
MIS PRESENTS NEW FINDINGS AT EBAA CONFERENCE
The Mission of Miracles In Sight is to support the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of sight through transplant, research and innovation. Those last two – research and innovation – are of paramount importance, leading to optimal outcomes for both patients and doctors. It is that goal which led MIS to partner with two leading medical centers on significant studies that have now concluded.
Supporting Cornea Research At Duke Eye Center
Everyone knows that the human eye is made up of distinct parts and regions — the cornea, the retina, the optic nerve, and so on. It is less commonly understood, says Daniel Saban, PhD, that funding for research and treatment of eye disorders tends to be similarly divided and compartmentalized.
Around the World in Saharanpur District of India
Miracles In Sight (MIS) and Jiti Foundation partner together to educate young women from rural India by training them as Certified Ophthalmic Paramedics (COPs). MIS supports their important work in preventing blindness in traditionally underserved regions of India and the world. Eighty percent of blindness in India is completely preventable with timely, basic health care.