Visian Implantable Collamer Lens provides U.S. Bobsled Pilot with the vision to lead his Team to first Olympic Gold in 62 Years.

In a historic moment for the United States bobsled team, Steven Holcomb piloted bobsled USA-1 to the Olympic gold medal in the four-man event, ending a 62-year Olympic medal drought for the American. Holcomb’s heroic mastery of the treacherous track is made even more significant by the fact that not long ago, he had 20/500 vision — "profound visual impairment" caused by keratoconus — that very nearly ended his bobsledding career. Contact lenses could no longer provide the level of visual acuity required for Holcomb to compete. Finally, with the help of U.S. bobsled coach Brian Shimer, he was deemed a good candidate for the Visian ICL. Holcomb said. "I couldn't wear contacts the day of the surgery, so they literally had to walk me around the room. And then they did it, I got up, and just like that, I was 20/20. It's incredible. I call it an eye-opening experience."

Dr. Matt Oliva is a board-certified cornea specialist with fellowship training from the highly-esteemed Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Beyond training for an additional three years after medical school to become a general ophthalmologist, his fellowship entailed an additional year of intense training in cornea diseases and conditions, cornea transplants, and refractive surgery. His expertise led him to a four year post as the official eye doctor for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics. Dr. Oliva is passionate about international service. For a decade he’s served as a volunteer instructor and corneal service consultant at the Tilganga Eye Center in Nepal, and he’s the associate medical director for Sightlife, the country’s largest eye bank. At Medical Eye Center, Dr. Oliva is available to treat a broad spectrum of eye conditions including cataracts, cornea disease, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. He’s recently moved here from Seattle and Matt looks forward to enjoying many outdoor activities like whitewater kayaking, hiking and running marathons.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Reine McIntyre
Marketing Director, Medical Eye Center
541-779-4711
reine@imperiavision.com

BRIDGING THE GAP: MEDFORD TO AFRICA

Medical Eye Center Doctor Restores Eyesight in Africa And Trains African Doctor to Do the Same Here in Medford

(Medford, OR) – October 30, 2008 – It takes a village—a global village—to improve health care around the world. And Medford doctor Matt Oliva of Medical Eye Center (MEC) is doing his part. Together with the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP), he is striving to promote self-sufficient eye care in impoverished nations by restoring eyesight to thousands in Africa and teaching African doctors—one of whom he’ll host right here in Medford—to do the same.

Dr. Oliva has teamed up with HCP and the Earth Institute at Columbia University on the Millenium Villages Project, which involves finding the most cost effective health, agriculture, and education interventions in order to help rural African villages lift themselves out of poverty and meet the millennium development goals set forth by the United Nations.

As part of this effort Dr. Oliva is in western Kenya for a week conducting comprehensive eye care programs. Working with Kenyan ophthalmologist, Dr. Ciku Mathenge and her team of Kenyan ophthalmic nurses, Dr. Oliva will be performing cataract surgery, examining all 5000 members of the village and treating any eye disease present, mass treating for Vitamin A deficiency, and providing glasses for patients that need them.

Sauri, Kenya is a farming community plagued by hunger, AIDS, and malaria. Between sixty and seventy percent of the population live on less than a dollar per day. With limited access to medical care and poverty preventing residents from buying what little medicine is available, malnutrition and poor health run rampant.

After completing his work in Sauri, Dr. Oliva will travel to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to host a corneal transplant workshop with Dr. Dan Kiage, a corneal specialist at Aga Khan Hospital. The ten corneas provided for transplantation during Dr. Oliva’s trip come from the SightLife eye bank in Seattle, which provides the tissue used in MEC’s corneal transplants. SightLife is in the process of establishing a functioning eye bank in Kenya to support the massive need for corneal transplantation.

Upon returning to Medford, Dr. Oliva will be joined by Rwandan doctor John Nkurikiye who arrives on November 17 to spend 10 days observing MEC doctors and learning more about their modern eye care techniques. Dr. Nkurikiye’s visit is part of the HCP American-standard residency training program in ophthalmology, established in 2004. This program is a joint effort of the Tilganga Eye Centre and the Nepal Eye Hospital under the National Academy of Medical Sciences. It is designed to train young ophthalmologists to operate at the highest international level of ophthalmology and adheres to the curriculum established by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Nkurikiye is the most well trained and proficient ophthalmologist in Rwanda. He will be spending three months doing a corneal fellowship in America. In addition to his stay at MEC, he will be spending two months at the Moran Eye Center in Utah and also spending a week at SightLife in Seattle, to learn more about eye banking. SightLife is in the process of starting an eye bank in Rwanda so that Dr. Nkurikiye will have corneas available to treat the large burden of corneal blindness.

Medical Eye Center is excited to be attracting doctors from all over the world, and proud of the work its doctors are doing to improve the quality of eye care in impoverished countries. Dr. Oliva will be making a similar trip to Nepal in February, also through the Himalayan Cataract Project. This past summer, Dr. Paul Jorizzo and his daughter spent 12 days in Peru to perform 100 cataract surgeries on indigent patients, and prior to that, Dr. Paul Imperia traveled to Honduras to perform 49 sight-restoring surgeries in seven days—both through Surgical Eye Expeditions (www.seeintl.org). To learn more about MEC doctors and their charitable programs and travels, please call 541-779-4711.

About Millenium Villages Project:

The Millennium Villages project offers a bold, innovative model for helping rural African communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty. The Villages are proving that by fighting poverty at the local level through community-led development, rural Africa can achieve the Millennium Development Goals—global targets for reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half and improving education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability—by 2015, and escape the extreme poverty that traps hundreds of millions of people throughout the continent.

About Himalayan Cataract Project:

The Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) is establishing a sustainable eye care infrastructure in the Himalaya that empowers local doctors to provide high-quality ophthalmic care through skills-transfer and education. The HCP responds to a pressing need for eye care in the Himalayan region. Our programs in Nepal, Tibet, China, Bhutan, India, Sikkim, and Pakistan have restored sight to tens of thousands of blind people every year since 1994.

About SightLife:

SightLife, operated by the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight & Hearing, is one of the leading eye banks in the nation. In 2007, they provided more than 2,800 corneas for transplant, meeting regional needs and helping fill gaps across the United States and in 25 other countries.

About Medical Eye Center:

MEC first opened its doors in 1914 with a commitment to making patient health and well-being a top priority. MEC provides comprehensive medical eye-care services from routine vision exams to the latest in the medical and surgical treatment of eye diseases—including cataract microsurgery and laser vision correction. MEC also features a new Facial Aesthetics and Medical Spa. For more information call 541-779-4711.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Reine McIntyre
Marketing Director, Medical Eye Center
541-779-4711
reine@imperiavision.com

MEDFORD FATHER/DAUGHTER TEAM
RESTORES SIGHT TO THE POOR IN PERU

(Medford, OR) – July 30, 2008 – It’s not every 17-year-old who can say they helped restore sight to a hundred impoverished individuals in a remote area of Peru, but Kristin Jorizzo of St. Mary’s High School can. Along with her father, ophthalmic surgeon Paul Jorrizzo of Medical Eye Center (MEC), Kristen recently spent 12 days in Huamachuco, Peru, as part of a medical expedition coordinated by Surgical Eye Expeditions International (SEE)—a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides medical, surgical, and educational services by volunteer ophthalmic surgeons with the primary objective of restoring sight to disadvantaged blind individuals worldwide.

‘The people of Huamachuco were some of the most amazing and caring people that I have ever met,” says Kristen. “Being able to help them was a gratifying experience which I will hold with me forever.” She prepared for the trip by working at MEC for the past few summers, assisting in research projects and as well as helping in the role of ophthalmic technician and surgical technician.

Inspired by her father’s involvement, Kristen has developed a strong commitment to international aid. “I plan on getting my school involved with the town of Huamachuco and the people in surrounding villages,” she says. “While it may not be the most impoverished place on earth, the people there could truly use our help and that's what is most important. The experiences that I had there will be with me forever and guide me through future expeditions. The fact that I was able to share this experience with my dad made it even more special.”

The Jorizzos, joined by MEC Surgical Assistant Nolan Sargent and a team of eye surgeons and technicians, traveled to the Andes Mountains on July 6 to perform cataract surgery on approximately 100 indigent patients. A cataract is a cloudiness that develops in the otherwise clear crystalline lens of the eye, deteriorating the vision to blindness. Patients in developing nations who could otherwise be productive members of their families and society become a burden when cataracts disable them. By performing modern cataract operations, SEE volunteers are able to return vision to those who generally do not even have access to basic health services. After a quick recovery these patients can return to work and become productive again. Additionally, the traveling surgeons teach the local Peruvian doctors the techniques they can use to help many more needy patients in their country.

Putting together an air-transportable, modern surgical package was a huge undertaking that required a cohesive surgical team and support personnel who gave of their time selflessly. National medical supply companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb, and Alcon donate almost all the equipment and supplies needed for the free medical clinics. The volunteers donate their time and pay for all of their own travel expenses.

“Our time in Peru was truly special for me,” said Dr. Jorizzo. “The town of Huamachuco has no access to eye care. Many patients had such severe cataracts that they could only perceive light, and several walked for four hours to see us. The changes that we were able to make in their lives were extremely gratifying, and being able to share this experience with my daughter, Kristen, was certainly something that I will always treasure.”

Dr. Jorizzo plans to be part of future SEE expeditions, next time bringing along his 15-year-old son, Matthew, and his wife, Vera. Other MEC surgeons have also participated in the program—Dr. Paul Imperia traveled to Central America in 2006 and Dr. Matt Oliva has done several surgical expeditions and is on the board of the Himalayan Cataract Project—and they will continue to volunteer in the future.

About Surgical Eye Expeditions International (SEE):

In 2007, SEE International held 72 expeditions, and sent an additional 29 support packages worldwide. Through the efforts of their affiliates, staff, and other volunteers, 40,610 patients were screened and 9,308 received much needed surgery. To learn more about SEE, visit www.seeintl.org.

About Medical Eye Center (MEC):

MEC first opened its doors in 1921 with a commitment to making patient health and well-being a top priority. As Oregon’s first eye surgery center fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, MEC provides comprehensive medical eye-care services from routine vision exams to the latest in the medical and surgical treatment of eye diseases—including cataract microsurgery and laser vision correction. For more information on MEC’s eye care providers, call 541-779-4711 or visit www.medicaleyecenter.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Reine McIntyre
Marketing Director, Medical Eye Center
541-779-4711
reine@imperiavision.com

MEDICAL EYE CENTER BREAKS GROUND
ON NEW, STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITY IN MEDFORD

(Medford, OR) – May 30, 2008 – Medical Eye Center is excited to announce that they are breaking ground on a new 37,000-square-foot building at the corner of Barnett Road and Highland Avenue, just a half mile from their current location. The official groundbreaking ceremony will take place on Friday, June 6 at 12:30pm. Highlights include opening remarks by Drs. Paul Imperia and Paul Jorizzo, the unveiling of a 3-D rendering of the new building, and a reception with refreshments to follow the ceremony. Medical Eye Center’s CEO, Keith Casebolt, and builder Reid Murphy will be on hand to answer questions.

The new, custom-designed facility—set to open in October 2009—will further improve and expand the services that Medical Eye Center (MEC) offers. Thanks to some thoughtful planning, the new building will allow for expansion of MEC’s surgical capacity and create more room for new state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, a larger optical department featuring the latest styles in fashion eyewear, special LASIK and oculoplastics suites, and more.

Bursting at the seams after the recent addition of two new doctors, it became apparent that MEC required a larger facility to accommodate the increased number of procedures now available to their growing patient base. In the meantime, the practice has been renting 3,000 square feet of office space in the nearby Black Oak Shopping Center to use for the overflow.

Joining MEC last year, Dr. Pete Spitellie is a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist specializing in oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery. He is Southern Oregon’s first and only oculoplastic specialist, performing procedures such as lid, brow, and mid-face lifts, and reconstruction around the eyes after skin cancer removal or trauma.

MEC’s newest surgeon, Dr. Matt Oliva, is a board-certified cornea specialist with fellowship training from the highly esteemed Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His expertise led him to a four-year post as the official eye doctor for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics.

The change of address will mean an even more convenient location for patients, located directly across from the off-ramp of I-5’s new South Medford interchange, with increased accessibility to free parking.

Medical Eye Center first opened its doors in 1921 with a commitment to making patient health and well-being a top priority. MEC is Oregon’s first eye surgery center fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, providing comprehensive medical eye-care services from routine vision exams to the latest in the medical and surgical treatment of eye diseases—including cataract microsurgery and laser vision correction. For more information, visit www.medicaleyecenter.com or call 541-779-4711.

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