The Eye Institute of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital opened in 1976 as one of only seven eye centers in the United States specializing in eye care, vision research and physician training in ophthalmology. Today, the Eye Institute is a nationally recognized referral center for the entire region with a far-reaching “vision” of service and education.
"According to the American Foundation for the Blind, someone in America will suffer from permanent loss of vision every seven seconds,” said Eye Institute Medical Director Dale K. Heuer, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology. “Eyesight is a precious and fragile gift and preserving it is the driving force behind the Eye Institute's clinical and laboratory research programs."
"The foremost goals at the Eye Institute are to improve, restore, and preserve sight,” said Dr. Heuer. “Even in the wake of incredible technology and therapies, sight loss remains a serious public health concern."
The Eye Institute staff works to address that concern on the clinical level in a variety of venues housed within the facility, including general and specialty clinics, diagnostic service areas, micro-surgery suites and ambulatory patient rooms.
Patient services include comprehensive ophthalmology, glaucoma service, neuro-ophthalmology, orbital and ophthalmic plastic surgery, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus service, retinal and vitreous surgery and vision rehabilitation.
A True “Institute” Focused on the Eye
“We do about 2,000 surgeries a year and we have about 50,000 outpatient visits,” Eye Institute Administrative Director Gary Colpaert told HealthLink. “What we see is what most other people aren’t able to handle. The eye is made up of several very specific specialties. For example, we do plastics, we have comprehensive ophthalmology, we do glaucoma services and studies. There isn’t just one engine that drives us.”
The medical staff at the Eye Institute includes 15 doctors, Colpaert said, all of whom also teach at the Medical College. Ten of the Institute’s doctors are listed in the annual peer survey, “Best Doctors in America.”
“There are two things that make us special,” said Colpaert. “One is the quality of people who are here, their training and their breadth of experience; another is the fact that you have all of the specialties related to the eye in one building. (Patients) are not being shifted around. They can come in here and get a comprehensive view of anything related to the eye, with state of the art equipment, in the same day.”
“The Eye Institute in Milwaukee is unlike anything else in the region. You can truly say that this is an ‘institute’ because we do research, surgery, and outpatient services all in the same building,” said Colpaert. “What really does distinguish us is the capacity to deal with virtually any eye-related issue with the faculty and staff that we have available to us.”
Research Produces New Knowledge and Treatment
Hundreds of people each year participate in medical studies at the Eye Institute as part of its wide-ranging role as a clinical research facility. Some of the ongoing studies include or have included work in the areas of general ophthalmology, glaucoma screening, ocular melanoma, congenital esotropia, procedures for persistent diabetic macular edema and for central retinal vein occlusion, vitreous hemorrhaging, photodynamic therapy and others.
"Since we opened our doors twenty-five years ago, Eye Institute researchers have diligently worked to understand the causes of eye disease,” Dr. Heuer said. “Discoveries in the lab have produced new knowledge, resulting in an improved understanding and more effective methods of treating such disorders as color blindness, macular degeneration, viral infections of the eye, retinal disorders and glaucoma."
"Some of the most groundbreaking discoveries in this field happen in the laboratory,” Dr. Heuer added. Here, scientists are investigating the genes and cells responsible for sight in order to prevent the onset of vision loss, not just treat its symptoms. Once we can pinpoint the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of eye disease, we can better evaluate interventions that can positively change their course.”
For the 26th consecutive year, the Eye Institute will be one of a select number of centers nationwide to receive the National Eye Institute’s Core Grant for Vision Research. The Eye Institute received the maximum award amount for its size, $2.9 million in direct and indirect costs over the next five years.
The Core Grant is a competitive funding award offered by the National Eye Institute (NEI) to institutions with a minimum of eight NEI awards for basic research. This funding mechanism is designed to enhance an institution’s environment and capability to conduct vision research, to facilitate collaborative studies of the visual system and its disorders, and to attract scientists of diverse disciplines to do research on the visual system.
“With the rapid changes in technology and the increasing need for interdisciplinary research, shared resources and a mechanism to share new skills are becoming progressively more important to research success,” said Dr. Heuer. “We anticipate that the Core-supported modules will allow us to achieve great success in the future.”
