Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
The 9th Military Vision Symposium on Novel Technology and Vision Restoration. - The 9th Military Vision Symposium on Novel Technology and Vision Restoration This application seeks funding support for the 9th Military Vision Symposium, a unique forum that brings together military and civilian ophthalmologists, optometrists, and vision researchers to address battlefield vision loss. Over the years, these symposia have provided an exciting and unique opportunity to exchange information and explore the critical unmet needs of traumatic ocular injuries and vision care. Combat ocular trauma has increased steadily in wars and continues to occur in the military conflicts in the Ukraine war and the Middle East and Africa, where American soldiers are deployed, as well as in terrorist and other mass casualty events in the United States. This is compounded by the development of weapons with higher explosive and fragmentation power. In modern conflict zones, up to 16% of all medical evacuations have sustained eye injuries. Based on published data, the total cost of treatment, benefits, and potential lost productivity is $2.4 billion annually. Added to the military eye injuries are the civilian injuries that occur in terrorist attacks and mass casualty events such as explosions from oil-carrying freight cars or in the workplace. Terrorist attacks on civilian targets in the United States and worldwide show no sign of abating. The development of effective treatments for eye injuries from trauma and blasts is of paramount importance to preserve vision in our military personnel who are in harm’s way, as well as for civilians in terrorist and mass casualty events. There is a clear need for military ophthalmologists and optometrists to interact with civilian clinicians and basic researchers to leverage new advances and technologies to repair and rehabilitate military eye injuries from blasts. A major strength of the symposium is the inclusion of basic science, clinical presentations, and panel discussions by scientists and clinicians. This year’s symposium will include topics on Military Vision Care – Epidemiology and Trends, Diagnosis and Mitigation of Eye Injury, Post-traumatic Ocular and Brain Inflammation, Vision Restoration through Regeneration, Whole Eye Transplantation, and “Initiatives to Advance Vision Research.” Through presentations and discussions on these topics, the proposed symposium will provide the opportunity for interactions between military and civilian clinicians and researchers to address the most pressing needs in vision care for the military.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).