About the Center
Macular degeneration is the most common cause of legal blindness in the United States and other developed countries. About 10 percent of people over the age of 65 are affected to some degree. Treatment of the disease requires expertise at many levels including examination of the eye, evaluation of retinal angiograms, laser treatment, photodynamic therapy, subretinal surgery, counseling, and vision rehabilitation.
Unfortunately, current laser treatment, photodynamic therapy and surgery are each useful for only a few percent of individuals with macular degeneration. Even in these cases, treatment usually does not restore vision, it only stabilizes it. The development of new forms of treatment is significantly hampered by the fact that the underlying causes of macular degeneration are not well understood. In addition, there is currently no way to identify a person's predisposition to the disease so that one has to wait until the disease is clinically apparent before any type of treatment can be instituted.
In addition to these medical problems, there are political and financial problems as well. Medicare and most insurance carriers do not cover many of the costs involved in vision rehabilitation and counseling. As a result, many individuals that are visually impaired currently go without these very valuable services.
In 1997, a group of scientists and physicians at the University of Iowa met and discussed the serious problems facing individuals affected with macular degeneration. In their discussions, they came to view macular degeneration as a national problem that required a focused multidisciplinary effort similar to the effort that allowed man to walk on the moon in 1969 -- less than ten years after President Kennedy challenged the country to achieve the impossible.
These investigators approached the administrative officials of the College of Medicine and the University and with their help worked out a plan for a Center for Macular Degeneration that would allow world class physicians and scientists from a number of disciplines to be assembled at the University of Iowa for the purpose of working toward a cure for this devastating disease. The assembly of the Center would involve recruitment of new faculty, reorganization of existing faculty, construction and renovation of large amounts of laboratory space, and the acquisition of a significant number of new scientific and clinical instruments. In late 1997, the Board of Regents approved the creation of the Center and work was begun. As one of their first tasks, the faculty of the new Center created a mission statement to clearly set out their goal to contribute to a cure for macular degeneration, while simultaneously providing state of the art care to people who are already afflicted.
© 2003-2005
The University of Iowa Center for Macular Degeneration
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