SPOTLIGHT

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses its grants on organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, long recognized for its flexible approach for delivering state-of-the-art ophthalmic care.

The Wilmer Eye Institute brings together ophthalmologists consistently ranked by their peers as among the finest internationally, with a specially trained and highly experienced team of nurses, technicians and staff cited by patients for their knowledge, responsiveness, and sensitivity. They treat ophthalmic disease at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital and at seven other locations in Maryland. In June 2009, the Wilmer Eye Institute opened the world’s most modern ophthalmic surgical facility and vision research center.

The Pickens Foundation has supplied $6 million in grants to the institution. The atrium of its new center is named in his honor.

 “The Wilmer Eye Institute provides groundbreaking research and treatment of eye disease, which often infringes on the quality of life of aging Americans,” Pickens says. “I feel strongly about our support of its programs beyond the personal insights I have, as I am in the early stages of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of severe vision loss in Americans older than 60. Previously, it had few treatment options. But now, thanks to new research and advancing technology, there are more vision-saving choices.”

Corneal transplant expert Dr. Walter J. Stark was named the inaugural Boone Pickens Professor of Ophthalmology in 2005. Stark, a national leader in corneal transplantation, the use of the excimer laser, and intraocular lens implantation for rehabilitation of patients with disability, is professor of ophthalmology and director of the Stark-Mosher Center for Cataract and Corneal Diseases at the Institute.

“Boone Pickens’ generous support has enabled Dr. Stark to pursue new avenues of research, to train hundreds of ophthalmologists in advances in cataract and corneal surgery and to provide the latest advances in ophthalmology to our patients,” says Dr. Peter J. McDonnell, director of the Wilmer Eye Institute.  “Boone’s support of our new research and surgical building came at a critical time in our growth. We had reached a point where we could not recruit new scientists or perform more surgeries due to lack of space. Now there are no limits to what our physicians and researchers can do.”

The Wilmer Eye Institute has long been recognized for bringing together ophthalmologists consistently ranked by their peers as among the finest internationally, with a specially trained and highly experienced team of nurses, technicians and staff cited by patients for their knowledge, responsiveness, and sensitivity. Its clinical eye services are comprehensive, and include medical and surgical evaluation and management of ophthalmic conditions and diseases, including but not limited to the following areas of focus: cornea and cataract, strabismus, glaucoma, cosmetic and medical oculoplastics, retina, and neuro-ophthalmology.  Wilmer's surgeons also offer the latest refractive procedure technology both with Lasik surgery, as well as with the surgical use of deluxe intra-ocular lenses in cataract surgery, designed to reduce dependence on eyeglasses after surgery.

For more information about the Wilmer Eye Institute, visit www.hopkinsmedicine.org/wilmer/