WELCOME TO THE CONFERENCE

We would like to invite you to participate in a unique University-wide Symposium entitled “GLOBAL BLINDNESS: INTEGRATED APPROACHES TO A CURE”, which will be held at the Searle Center and hosted by the Duke Department of Ophthalmology and the Duke Global Health Institute. This inaugural event will bring national and international leaders in public health, ophthalmology, global health, translational medicine and therapeutics, international health policy, and front-line workers who all share the common goal of eradicating blindness across the world. 

The event is centered around the Symposium at the Searle Center auditorium in the morning. The afternoon program will shift to the Duke Eye Center/Albert Eye Research Institute auditorium for a series of disease specific presentations on international efforts in glaucoma, cataract, and reversible vision loss from refractive errors.  We will end that session with an interactive panel discussion lead by a NIH policy expert.

We’re pleased to announce our keynote speaker is Dr. G. N. Rao, MD the Distinguished Chair of International Ophthalmology, LV Prasad Eye Center, Hyderabad, India and President, WHO Vision 2020 program.  Dr. Rao is an international authority on blindness eradication programs and anchors our panel of experts from four countries.      

The goal of the day is to educate and engage the University community on the complexity of the problems and approaches being used around the world.  We want to use this interdisciplinary approach to identify unifying themes of challenges and strategies that may still be effective.  Students, post-graduate trainees, service-oriented student groups, international student groups, volunteer organizations, clinicians, and interested individuals are cordially invited to attend.  

We look forward to your participation.

Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Duke Eye Center
Symposium Organizer

David L. Epstein, MD
Chairman, Duke Eye Center

Michael Merson, MD
Director, Duke Global Health Institute