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The former National Children’s Eye Care Foundation (NCECF) is now the Children’s Eye Foundation (CEF) and is the official Foundation of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS). AAPOS is the largest physician organization in the world dedicated to children’s eye care and adults with strabismus. There are currently more than 1000 members of AAPOS representing 41 countries.
The offices of the Foundation are located in Dallas/Fort Worth and in San Francisco within the administrative offices of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. The path from the independent National Children’s Eye Care Foundation to the new Children’s Eye Foundation as the Foundation of AAPOS has involved the good work of many AAPOS and NCECF leaders over the past four years.
The NCECF was formed in 1970 as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation by Dr. Marshall M. Parks and several pediatric ophthalmology colleagues in Washington, D.C. The stated mission of the NCECF was “To optimize the quality of life of infants, children, and families by fostering normal development and protection of vision through promoting programs of prevention, detection, treatment, research and education.”
They recognized several needs of this fledgling medical specialty of pediatric ophthalmology and raised funds to meet some of these needs in supporting their mission statement. Fellowship training programs were growing as the demand for well-trained pediatric ophthalmologists grew. Funding for fellowship training was either limited or non-existent. The NCECF made loans available that were interest free for many years, and then at very low interest to comply with IRS rules. Fellowship loans totaling $600,000 have been made since 1970. Over the past few years, other funding sources for training have developed, and the need for loans has diminished. With potential changes in the funding of graduate medical education looming on the horizon, education training loans may become important again, and the Children’s Eye Foundation is preparing to address this need if necessary.
The funding of research projects, especially pilot projects, was a second need recognized by the founders of the NCECF and was stated in their mission. To date $613,605 has been awarded for research projects and this need continues. Click here to read more information about several projects currently being funded by the Foundation.
One of the goals of the new Foundation, within the structure of AAPOS, will be to serve as an active force in the area of directed, translational research. Working with the Research Committee of AAPOS, research project development will be nurtured and funded. The Foundation welcomes the submission of worthwhile research projects for funding from anyone, and is not limited to members of AAPOS.
The new Foundation mission statement:
The Foundation will optimize the quality of life for infants and children as well as adults with strabismus by fostering normal vision development and protection of vision through programs of prevention, treatment, research and education.
The major change in this mission statement from the original one is the addition of “adults with strabismus”. Strabismus, or misaligned eyes, constitutes a large portion of the eye problems of children attended to by pediatric ophthalmologists. Consequently, the pediatric ophthalmologist is the expert in the treatment of strabismus and is the physician who is called upon to help the adult who suffers from strabismus. Recognition of the need for better care for these adult patients with strabismus, and the fact that more adults with strabismus are no longer required to live with it’s burdens have made this a large and growing part of the practice of pediatric ophthalmology. This has created the need for research on how best to treat the adult strabismus patient. In addition, there is the need for public education to inform adults that they neither have to cope with nor suffer from a physically and emotionally debilitating strabismus. Many patients with strabismus have been told for years that nothing could be done, or that they were too old. Helping the adult patient with strabismus is now an important part of the Foundation’s mission.
Thirty-six years after its beginning, the need and mission of the Foundation are more important than ever. New imaging techniques and the ability to study disease at the cellular and molecular level have changed the face of research. Vision screening to detect vision problems in the preliterate child has been and will continue to be a prime focus, as early detection is critical for successful treatment. While the Foundation continues its emphasis on the eye problems of children, it includes the problem of strabismus in patients of any age as part of its mission. |
