Eye Health News and Research

Latest Eye Health News and Research

Paul Allen pledges $300 million to better understand the brain’s inner workings

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen is donating $300 million to his Allen Institute for Brain Science to fund new projects to map and observe the human brain and, in Allen’s words, “to one day understand the essence of what makes us human.” That brings the total amount Allen has invested in the Institute to half a billion.

25 Mar 2012

Canon to showcase RK-F2 Full Auto Ref-Keratometer at Vision Expo East

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, will demonstrate the benefits of using its digital imaging and workflow management solutions, including the Canon RK-F2 Full Auto Ref-Keratometer, during Vision Expo East, March 23 - 25, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

23 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Ryan budget not a balanced diet; DEA war on pharmacies; The debate over Medicaid block grants

The mother of all tax expenditures -; the tax-free treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance -; amounts to $2 trillion over 10 years in lost income-tax revenue, not including the additional impact on payroll tax collections.

23 Mar 2012

Relief for dry eyes through scleral contact lenses

Susan Loughman is among the tens of millions of Americans who suffer dry eyes. She has an especially bad condition, which makes it feel like there's sandpaper in her eyes.

23 Mar 2012

House preps pre-SCOTUS IPAB repeal vote with eye on doc relationship

Republicans are not united in their attempted repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which will come up for a vote in the House this week. In the meantime, the GOP is attempting to mend fences with the American Medical Association by offsetting the cost of repeal with medical malpractice tort reforms.

22 Mar 2012

Positive data from Aerpio's AKB-9778 Phase 1 trial on DME

Aerpio Therapeutics, a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing innovative therapies for the treatment of diabetic eye disease and inflammatory bowel disease, today announced positive data from its Phase 1 trial of AKB-9778 for the treatment of diabetic macular edema.

21 Mar 2012

Tobii completes USD $21 million funding round

Tobii Technology, the global leader in eye tracking and gaze interaction, announced today that it has closed a USD $21M funding round. New investor Intel Capital joins existing investors Amadeus Capital, Investor Growth Capital and Northzone Ventures.

20 Mar 2012

Single dose of X-ray radiation can prevent glaucoma

Jackson Laboratory researchers have demonstrated that a single, targeted x-ray treatment of an individual eye in young, glaucoma-prone mice provided that eye with apparently life-long and typically complete protection from glaucoma.

20 Mar 2012

Air emissions near natural gas drilling sites may contribute to health problems

In a new study, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health have shown that air pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing or fracking may contribute to acute and chronic health problems for those living near natural gas drilling sites.

19 Mar 2012

Sides counting down to Supreme Court health reform arguments

Can the government really tell us what to buy? Federal judges have come down on both sides of the question, leaving it to the Supreme Court to sort out. The justices are allotting an unusually long period, six hours over three days, beginning March 26, to hear arguments challenging the law's constitutionality. Their ruling, expected in June, is shaping up as a historic moment in the century-long quest by reformers to provide affordable health care for all.

19 Mar 2012

DMEI chooses ifa EMR v6 as future Electronic Medical Record system

ifa united i-tech, a U.S. subsidiary of ifa Systems AG, the global leader for IT solutions in ophthalmology, announced that the Dean McGee Eye Institute (DMEI) selected ifa EMR v6 as its future Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.

17 Mar 2012

State roundup: Minnesota tort reform; Calif. prepares - or not - for newly insured; Reducing C-sections in Oregon

A roundup of health policy news from Minnesota, California, Kansas, Connecticut, Oregon, Missouri, Washington D.C. and Colorado.

17 Mar 2012

Einstein members celebrate 2012 Match Day

Members of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University's graduating class celebrated another strong year for residency placements in competitive specialties and prestigious programs at this year's Match Day. Representing the culmination of their medical school education, Match Day marked the transition of Einstein's class of 2012 into the post-graduate phase of their training - when they will practice medicine in a clinical setting under the supervision of fully licensed physicians.

17 Mar 2012

New book on reproductive treatments

In Vitro Fertilization [IVF] and the related technologies of assisted reproduction are no longer experimental procedures. In some European countries as many as 4% of all babies born are conceived by IVF, and in every kindergarten classroom there will no doubt be at least one IVF child. Assisted reproduction is the solution to today's epidemic of infertility.

17 Mar 2012

Warming climate may increase risk from Chagas disease

In the spring of 1835, Charles Darwin was bitten in Argentina by a "great wingless black bug," he wrote in his diary. "It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one's body," Darwin wrote, "before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards round & bloated with blood."

16 Mar 2012

Older women with mild retinopathy more likely to have cognitive decline and related vascular changes

Women 65 or older who have even mild retinopathy, a disease of blood vessels in the retina, are more likely to have cognitive decline and related vascular changes in the brain, according to a multi-institutional study led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

16 Mar 2012

What's in store at the Supreme Court

News outlets report on the issues in play when the high court hears the health law oral arguments later this month, how particular justices might form their opinions and lay out the new, all-or-nothing position adopted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

16 Mar 2012

ThromboGenics, Alcon collaborate to commercialize ocriplasmin outside the US

ThromboGenics NV, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative ophthalmic medicines, announces today that it has entered into an agreement with Alcon (a division of Novartis), the global leader in eyecare, for the commercialization of ocriplasmin in all markets outside the U.S.

16 Mar 2012

Western University develops DeskCAT- Multi-slice CT Scanner

Biophysics professors at Western University, in London, Canada, have developed a CT (Computed Tomography) scanner small enough to sit on a desk. Jerry Battista, Chair of the Department of Medical Biophysics at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Kevin Jordan of the London Regional Cancer Program at London Health Sciences Centre invented the DeskCAT- Multi-slice CT Scanner as a novel and interactive way to teach CT imaging techniques to a wide range of students.

16 Mar 2012

Women with retinopathy more likely to have cognitive problems

People with mild vascular disease that causes damage to the retina in the eye are more likely to have problems with thinking and memory skills because they may also have vascular disease in the brain, according to a study published in the March 14, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

15 Mar 2012