Eversight

Resoring sight in 2022, Eversight celebrated its 75th anniversary. We overcame several unforeseen challenges this year and continued to meet the tissue demands of surgeons in the u.s. and beyond. Globally, we continue to take meaningful steps toward transforming the future of vision care by supporting sustainable eye banking infrastructure and providing priceless clinical education. In 2022, Eversight provided the gift of sight to more than 6,500 people across the united states and around the world. Eversight's work began in 1947 with the establishment of the fourth eye bank in the united states, then known as the Illinois eye-bank. Over time, nonprofit eye banks were established in every state to meet the critical demand for corneal tissue to treat preventable blindness. In 1985, the Illinois eye-bank and Michigan eye-bank formed a partnership one that would earn a reputation for clinical excellence made possible by some of the finest medical directors, staff and board members in the eye banking field. The success of the organization attracted affiliations with other regional eye banks forming one of the largest networks of eye banks in the u.s. In 2015, the network became known as Eversight, all working together as a unified operation to deliver the highest quality services to surgeons and their patients and to continue to grow our impact around the world. In 2022, Eversight faced an unprecedented challenge in the form of a cornea storage media shortage. Cornea storage media is the solution in which corneas are stored between recovery and transplantation. This shortage impacts Eversight's ability to store requested tissue. Eversight prioritizes the placement of donated tissue domestically. As such, this storage media shortage impacted our ability to place tissue internationally, for research and for education. To address this challenge, Eversight staff collaborated with domestic eye bank partners to share storage media and ensure the proper supply of donated cornea tissues. These partnerships allowed us to meet the need for cornea tissue in the u.s. and abroad. Eversight provided 11,676 tissues for transplantation, research and education globally in 2022. We worked or placed tissue with physicians and researchers in 32 countries and facilitated training for over 550 clinicians. Together with all our partners-advocates, donor families, transplant recipients, surgeons, lions, fellow eye banks, healthcare leaders, philanthropic supporters and many others-we were able to make vision a reality for more people worldwide.

Sustainable international impact in 2022, Eversight provided tissue or worked with surgeons in 32 countries to provide the gift of sight. Eversight is focused on meeting the humanitarian need for cornea tissues in countries where sight-restoring corneal transplant procedures would otherwise be completely unavailable. The beneficiaries of our surgical tissue provision and community eye bank development initiatives include the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from eye injuries and blinding eye diseases that can be treated through corneal transplantation, along with their families and local communities. According to the world health organization, every dollar spent on improving eye health in underdeveloped areas generates a four-fold return on investment. To address systemic unmet need, Eversight actively works with medical professionals, governments, vision health organizations and other ngos in regions lacking eye banks and infrastructure, including the middle east, pakistan and south korea. With proven eye banking and technical training practices-and having played a part in the elimination of the u.s. cornea transplant waiting list-eversight is uniquely qualified to work with countries lacking transplant programs to help them establish national networks for eye banking and cornea donation with culturally appropriate donation models and state-of-the-art clinical capabilities. Ninety percent of vision-impaired people live in low- and middle- income countries. In 2022, Eversight and the department of health - abu dhabi (doh), the regulator of the healthcare sector in the emirate, announced a partnership to establish the first eye and tissue bank in the united arab emirates (uae). The partnership was formalized at the recent international conference for initiatives on organ and tissue donation and transplantation in abu dhabi. Eversight will handle the development and implementation of comprehensive medical standards, quality assurance protocols and standard operating procedures in compliance with all laws and regulations of the uae and in accordance with eye banking best practices. The doh will be responsible for obtaining all necessary approvals for the establishment and operation of the eye and tissue bank, serving as an importer for corneas and other eye- related tissues into the region and working to integrate the eye/tissue banking program with the uae national program for organ donation. This initiative will also strengthen mutual collaboration in activities related to knowledge sharing, human capability building and clinical research. Globally, an estimated 2.2 billion people are impacted by blindness and visual impairment. Approximately one billion of these individuals are coping with blindness or visual impairment that can be characterized as preventable or not sufficiently addressed. Vision loss results in substantial economic impact worldwide due to the inability of people who are vision impaired to contribute to their fullest in their communities. Eversight envisions a world without blindness-a world where all people in every community can lead independent, productive lives through the gift of sight. While providing for immediate global cornea transplant needs with u.s. donor tissue, Eversight continues to address the global burden by empowering international communities to take meaningful, sustainable steps every day to make vision a reality for all.

Finding a cure in the pursuit of eliminating blinding eye diseases, Eversight established the Eversight center for vision and eye banking research in cleveland, Ohio, to provide leading ophthalmology researchers with the resources they need to find cures and treatments for eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Eversight provided more than 3,900 tissues for research and education purposes in 2022. Our in-house research team also provided Eversight partners with valuable research and development services, and pioneered new eye banking practices. Since the establishment of the center for vision and eye banking research in 2019, Eversight has published 20 scientific publications in peer reviewed scientific journals. Notably, in 2022, Eversight's research team published three highly significant and impactful research articles. The first focused on understanding the effect of increasing povidone-iodine exposure on corneal tissue and its impact on the growth of microorganisms. This research conducted by Eversight developed an innovative protocol for all other eye banks to follow that can improve outcomes for corneal transplant recipients and reduce risk of infection after corneal transplantation. The second study, published in the prestigious and high-impact factor journal, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, discovered the important biological process of visual phototransduction in the retina collected from cadaveric human tissue procured and processed by Eversight. This study allowed Eversight's research team to gain additional recognition among our peers as a leading research-driven eye bank. This work serves as an example to the ophthalmic research industry that cadaveric ocular tissues play an important role in understanding the physiology and pathology of various ophthalmic diseases and the visual photo- transduction process. The final study revealed histopathological assessment of retinal blood vessel changes in a patient with covid-19, providing a deeper understanding of the impact of covid-19 on the retina. This study was published in the journal, graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology. Eversight has a longstanding track record of research and development, having awarding more than 4 million in grants to date that stimulate pioneering clinical and basic science research aiming to develop new ways to restore sight, prevent blindness and ultimately help patients live life to the fullest. Since 1980, our eye & vision research grant program has supported researchers at leading academic medical institutions including harvard, tufts, cleveland clinic, case western reserve, university of Michigan, northwestern and more. By design, Eversight's grant program provides critical, early-stage funding that is intended to drive foundational research and discovery. Many of these projects have stimulated larger-scale studies and won further financial support from the national institutes of health. In the 2023 funding cycle, Eversight awarded grants to advance studies to enhance the overall understanding of the mechanisms underlying delayed epithelial wound healing in diabetic corneas; create safer procedures for successful corneal transplants; elucidate the potency of netrin-4 to induce neuronal growth, elongation and branching; and establish the foundations for future studies to define the roles of polyq proteins in the human eye. These investigations are led by researchers at wayne state university school of medicine, university of Michigan kellogg eye center, case western reserve university department of ophthalmology & visual sciences, and university of illinois-chicago college of medicine. Each year, recipients are selected by an independent review panel of academic researchers and ophthalmologists. This distinguished panel awards proposals that encourage meaningful scientific inquisition and align with Eversight's mission to restore sight and prevent blindness through the healing power of donation, transplantation and research.