Community Benefits
Patients having treatment for an eye condition are benefiting from many years of research by the worldwide scientific community. For example, even 30 years ago patients having a cataract operation could expect a risky and large eye operation followed by immobilisation of the head in sandbags for weeks and then the need to wear very thick glasses. Now a cataract operation usually takes less than twenty minutes under local anaesthetic, with rapid visual rehabilitation, sometimes no need for glasses, and the chance of surgical success is generally excellent. Research into cataract surgery has made these advances possible and made a difference to millions of people worldwide.
In the Wellington region there are immediate benefits from having a local eye research programme. These include:
- enabling local professionals and scientists conduct research otherwise constrained by financial or other limitations
- the recruitment of innovative scientists and research clinicians
- raising community awareness of eye disease, and
- ensuring that local eye care remains world-class.
Donating to eye research locally can benefit all communities both regionally and internationally, because improved understanding of a disease or a treatment improves patient care all over the world. Sometimes great advances come from simple changes developed in the clinic or the laboratory and validated by clinical research.