NAEVR Attends 6th Military Vision Symposium on Ocular & Vision Injury

NAEVR/AEVR Board Member Joan Miller, M.D. (Harvard/Mass Eye & Ear), Steven Baskis (Specialist, U.S. Army, Retired), and NAEVR Executive Director James Jorkasky at the 6th Military Vision Symposium on Ocular & Vision Injury. Specialist Baskis, who was the keynote speaker, was blinded in 2008 while serving in Iraq.

NAEVR was pleased to participate in and speak at this event, held in Boston on March 30-31 and sponsored by the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear, the joint DOD/VA Vision Center of Excellence, and the U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command, in which the Congressionally-directed Medical Research Command (CDMRP) is located. The CDMRP is the DOD agency which manages the Vision Research Program (VRP).

The symposium brings together military leaders, clinicians, and scientists with the goal of propelling innovative research that will lead to improved treatment and prevention strategies for combat-related eye injuries. Several of the research speakers and attendees have spoken in past AEVR Defense Related Vision Research Congressional Briefings that support NAEVR’s advocacy request.

 

Glenn Cockerham, M.D., National Program Director for the VA Ophthalmology Service and Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology and Pathology, Stanford University Medical Center	Ray Santullo, O.D. (Colonel, U.S. Air Force, Retired) with Vision Research Program Manager Robert Read. Dr. Santullo will assume responsibility for VRP management when Mr. Read retires this September.
ARVO Trustee Steven Fliesler, Ph.D. (SUNY-Buffalo/VA Medical Center-Buffalo), a VA Merit Award recipient, and Michael Iuvone, Ph.D. (Emory Eye Center), a VRP award recipient