Service / Fun / Recognition / Shine a Light
District Meeting - Sunday, January 21, 2017
Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin Report
LIONS EYE BANK OF WISCONSIN - OVERVIEW
FURTHERING OUR MISSION: LEBW 1st QTR FY 2017-2018 (July-Sept. 2017)
• Served 330 Donor Families
• Our transplant rate for this time period was 68%.
○ Research placements were up by almost 60 tissues placed compared to the same quarter last year.
○ Cornea Discarded rate was down by 3% (5% this year vs. 8% same timeframe last year).
Our in-house Donor Support Center:
Our Donor Family Support Center is still running well. When speaking with families, our authorization rate for donation remains within the 70-75% range. This further demonstrates the commitment of our staff to our mission to restore sight.
Discussions and progress continues with regards to our new facility:
The land is prepared, footings poured, and exterior walls are starting to be built. We will be celebrating the progress on January 25 th at 12:30pm, as we hold our groundbreaking ceremony. We will be onsite for approximately 15 minutes, and then will proceed to the nearby Sleep Inn hotel for fellowship and refreshments, wrapping up around 1:30pm. We hope many of you are able to attend.
LEBW's upcoming projects:
• Much of the talk within the corneal transplant field revolves around improved surgical processes. Therefore, to better serve our local surgeons, we will turn our focus to expanding our services over the next 3-6 months. 2 major key projects will include:
○ Developing Human Serum Drops
■ This process involves drawing the patient's own blood and mixing with the product developed to cure dry eye. It is a much desired product, but there are logistics to work through, as many patients are located around the state (not just in Madison). Ocular surgeons have been giving serum drops much thought for many years, and some eye banks have been providing these drops for some time now. Developing our own product will add value to our organization. This will not only help to serve corneal transplant recipients, but also other patients. For example, cancer patients often suffer from dry eye as well.
○ Pre-loaded Tissue
■ Many surgeons are now wanting to move away from handling the tissue during their surgical procedures these days. These corneas are prepared to be so thin, they can be difficult to manipulate. Therefore, with surgeons moving toward pre-loaded tissue, it is important for us to get out ahead of this now, so they aren't tempted to work with other eye banks who can provide this as an added convenience. Currently less than ½ (maybe even less than 1/3 of eye banks offer pre-loaded tissue, so the timing is right for us to proceed. This should be completed by mid-late spring 2018.
In Closing:
The message remains the same.our new facility is key to facilitating our new developments and expansion of services. The climate of eye banking has shifted, and LEBW is moving forward to stay ahead of the game, already shifting to come out as one of the leaders on the backside of the shift. As always, we appreciate your continued support.