Eye On Vision Foundation

I have just gotten off the phone with Dr. Schankin from UCSF. There have been several patients within the last few months who have qualified, set up test dates, and then canceled due to "scheduling conflicts." So here we are with 4 weeks lefts in the testing window. Dr. Schankin's time at UCSF will be done in August, and he needs several months to analyze the data. We need 2 more patients.

To participate in this Visual Snow study you must:

1) Suffer from 24/7 visual snow
2) live in the U.S. (International patients need 8 days in SF to recover from jet lag)
3) Be willing to travel to San Francisco on a Tuesday and Wednesday for 2 days of testing (these are the only 2 days of the week the tests are performed)
4) complete a short, very simple phone interview to determine if you are eligible
5) Must be between the ages of 18 - 55

Contact details for the study can be found on http://www.eyeonvision.org/ or contact the doctors directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr. Schankin is back in town and he said that while he was away he had about 60 patients contact him about being interested in the study. This is fabulous news, but also means that it is going to take the remainder of this week, and possibly next week for him to get in contact with everyone. If you are waiting to hear back from him, please allow more time. I will have him tell me once he is done contacting everyone and I will let you all know. That way if you still haven't been contacted by that point, we will know that your email was missed somehow and I will pass along your contact details to him. Thank you! I'm really hoping that our remaining 6 patients that need to be tested are amongst those 60 that he needs to contact!

Dr. Goadsby and Dr. Schankin from UCSF are 100% committed to this research, and are very motivated to help find the cause and hopefully a treatment plan.

To participate in this Visual Snow study you must:

1) Suffer from 24/7 visual snow
2) live in the U.S. (International patients need 8 days in SF to recover from jet lag)
3) Be willing to travel to San Francisco for 2 days of testing
4) complete a short, very simple phone interview to determine if you are eligible
5) Must be between the ages of 18 - 55

Contact details for the study can be found on http://www.eyeonvision.org/ or contact the doctors directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

As I said, it may take a week or more to get a reply back. If you have not heard from Dr. Schankin after 10 days from the time you sent your email, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I have recently come across a very inspiring foundation, Hope For Vision. They are dedicated to funding the development of treatments and cures for blinding diseases. Their founder, Isaac Lidsky, young father of triplets, lives with retinitis pigmentosa and is committed to finding a cure and/or treatment. 

As we are all to well aware of, millions of Americans are going blind every day due to retinal degenerative diseases, retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, and many others. It can happen to anyone you know, a co-worker, child, parent, neighbor, or even yourself.

Medical costs are staggering for vision loss. The National Eye Institute recently reported in a study that the nation spends over $67 billion annually due to the direct and indirect costs of vision loss, which is more than 100 times the annual budget of the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Simply stated, there is not enough money to help those who have already lost their vision, or enough funding for research to prevent future blindness. While science has made many succesful breakthroughs, such as the restoration of vision in human trials employing gene therapies and biotechnology prosthesis, the main obstacle in delivering these treatments to the people who need them is the availability of research funding.

Hope For Vision is made up of thousands of dedicated volunteers and vision advocates in Communities of Hope across the country. These volunteers raise funds through special events and other activities.  A staggering 90+ percent of funds raised go directly to researchers at leading medical institutions nationwide.  

To learn more, please visit their website at:  http://www.hopeforvision.org/

The Eye on Vision Foundation is trying to raise awareness on how important organ donation can be. There are two very important sides to organ donation. The first is saving lives (usually many lives) and the second is crucial medical research. Organs not suitable for transplant can be used in medical research, which in turn has the potential to also save lives and improve the quality of life for those still living. Consider signing up today!

http://donatelife.net/register-now/

I've been speaking with a research doctor, and he said that donor eyes could play a crucial part in researching a treatment for vitreous floaters.