Dear all,

This conference will likely be of interest to many people on this e-mail list.

UNITE FOR SIGHT 2nd ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
"Eyes on International Collaboration:
Promoting Health From Campus to Lab to Field."
Boston : April 2nd and 3rd 2005

Early Bird Registration at
http://www.uniteforsight.org/2005_conference_registration.shtml
Contact JStaple@... with any questions.

All of the funds raised from the $15 (early bird) registration fees with go
toward Unite For Sight's sight-restoring cataract surgery programs in
Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, and India during Summer 2005.

Community Experiences: Improving Health for the Medically Underserved
"Impossible Dreams - The First Ascent of the East Face of Mt. Everest
and Eradicating Blindness in Mountainous Asia", Dr. Geoffrey Tabin, MD
“Eye Diseases and Community Experiences in Tanzania”, Dr. Muhsin
Sheriff, MD, MPH
"Health Care for the Homeless in Boston,” Dr. James O’Connell, MD

The Role of Research to Improve Health
"Compassion, Knowledge, and Advanced Ophthalmic Technologies", Dr.
Dimitri Azar, MD
“Advances in Corneal Transplantation,” Dr. Shachar Tauber, MD
"Optic Neuro-Prevention - A Strategy to Eradicate Glaucoma Blindness,”
Dr. Louis Pasquale, MD
"Stem Cells to the Retinal Rescue," Dr. Michael J. Young, PhD
"The Role of Household Drinking Water Treatment Technologies and Safe
Water Storage in Preventing Blindness in the Developing World,” Ms. Susan
Murcott, M.S.

Epidemiology and The Economic Perspective on Health Improvement
"The Cost of Blindness,” Dr. Kevin Frick, PhD
“The Role of Economics in Improving Health Outcomes,” Heidi Williams, MSc

International Community Eye Health Programs by Unite For Sight Student Interns

Biographies of the Speakers

Community Experiences: Improving Health for the Medically Underserved

"Impossible Dreams - The First Ascent of the East Face of Mt. Everest and
Eradicating Blindness in Mountainous Asia", Dr. Geoffrey Tabin, MD
Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Himalayan Cataract Project and Associate
Professor of Surgery and Ophthalmology at the University of Vermont College
of Medicine

In 1994, Dr. Tabin co-founded the Himalayan Cataract Project, which strives
to eradicate preventable and curable blindness in the Himalaya through high
quality ophthalmic care, education, and establishment of a world-class eye
care infrastructure. He trained the first Tibetan surgeon to perform
microscopic cataract surgery and established the Tilganga Eye Center in
1994 as the first outpatient cataract surgery facility in the Himalayan
region. Dr. Tabin was featured in a National Geographic Ultimate Explorer
program entitled “Miracle Doctors” on MSNBC in September 2003. Dr. Tabin is
also on Unite For Sight’s Medical Advisory Board.

“Eye Diseases and Community Experiences in Tanzania”, Dr. Muhsin Sheriff,
MD, MPH
MPH (cataract surgery eye camps in Tanzania)
MUCHS - Harvard Research Collaboration, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
MPH in Quantitative Methods Candidate at Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Sheriff is Internal Medical Monitor at the MUCHS (Muhumbili University
College of Health Sciences) - Harvard Research Collaboration in Tanzania.
He is a medical doctor with an MPH in Management and Policy who is studying
for a 1-year MPH degree in Quantitative Methods at Harvard School of Public
Health. He will share inspiring stories about his work to improve community
health in rural areas of Tanzania. 'In addition to his full time job, he
volunteers with a group of medical and non-medical personnel in conducting
'eye camps' in rural villages where they provide vision screenings and
refractions, distribute eyeglasses, give health checkups and advice, and
organize eye surgeries. Dr. Sheriff received a Volunteer Service Award in
2001 from the International Medical Relief of Western New York, Inc for
coordinating eye surgical camps in Tanzania.

"Health Care for the Homeless in Boston,” Dr. James O’Connell, MD
Harvard Professor and Founder and President of the Boston Health Care for
the Homeless Program

Dr. O‚Connell is the Founder and President of the Boston Health Care for
the Homeless program, which began in 1985, currently staffs 250 employees,
and provides medical care to the homeless at 72 sites in the Boston area.
Dr. O‚Connell says that he is a doctor who makes house calls to people who
have no houses,‰ and his organization is considered to be the premier
health care for the homeless program in the country. Prior to his work with
the Boston homeless population, Dr. O‚Connell was national program director
for the Homeless Families Program, a project jointly sponsored by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development.

The Role of Research to Improve Eye Health

"Compassion, Knowledge, and Advanced Ophthalmic Technologies", Dr. Dimitri
Azar, MD
Harvard Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Corneal, External
and Refractive Surgery Services at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Dr. Dimitri Azar, who is also on Unite For Sight’s Medical Advisory Board,
is a Harvard Professor of Ophthalmology, Associate Scientist at the
Schepens Eye Research Institute, and Director of the Corneal, External and
Refractive Surgery Services at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Dr.
Azar has more than one hundred journal publications about corneal, anterior
segment, and refractive surgery. His current research projects include the
molecular basis of corneal scarring and avascularity during wound healing,
as well as refractive surgical innovations and the mathematical basis of
laser surgery.

“Advances in Corneal Transplantation,” Dr. Shachar Tauber, MD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Corneal and Refractive
Surgery Service at Yale University

Dr. Tauber, who is on Unite For Sight’s Medical Advisory Board, is a leader
in refractive surgery. He participated in clinical research supporting the
FDA approval of LASIK for correction of hyperopia. He was Visiting Fellow
in advanced techniques in refractive surgery in Venezuela, and served as an
observational fellow in cornea and external disease at Massachusetts Eye &
Ear Hospital. Dr. Tauber was invited to educate ophthalmologists at the
1998 Global Ophthalmology Conference in China and at Tamil Nadu Medical
University in India in 1999.

"Optic Neuro-Prevention - A Strategy to Eradicate Glaucoma Blindness,” Dr.
Louis Pasquale, MD
Co-Director, Glaucoma Service, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Dr. Pasquale, who is Co-Director of the Glaucoma Service a the
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Assistant Professor in
Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, is interested in developing
strategies to prevent functional visual loss from open-angle glaucoma.

"Stem Cells to the Retinal Rescue," Dr. Michael J. Young, PhD
Director, Minda de Gunzburg Research Center for Retinal Transplantation,
Schepens Eye Research Institute and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Young is one of the world‚s leading researchers in stem cells in the
eye and the use of stem cells for the reversal of blindness. His lab
focuses on the use of neural stem cells for retinal transplantation. His
research projects include "integration of transplanted neural progenitor
cells into the retina of immature and mature dystrophic rats,"
"bioengineering and stem cells to treat optic neuropathy," and
"differentiation of retinal progenitor cells into specific cell types."

"The Role of Household Drinking Water Treatment Technologies and Safe Water
Storage in Preventing Blindness in the Developing World,” Ms. Susan
Murcott, M.S.
Lecturer, Research Engineer, Principal Investigator at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
President of Ecosystems Engineering

Ms. Murcott is a research engineer and lecturer in the Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department at MIT. Her research focuses on
innovative technologies and sustainable approaches in water and municipal
wastewater treatment in development country. She is President of Ecosystems
Engineering, a consulting company specializing in drinking water and
municipal and industrial wastewater projects with an emphasis on the use of
sustainable, innovative, and cost-effective technologies. Among the courses
that she teaches is "Design for Developing Countries," and she also leads
student teams on research project trips in Nepal, Haiti, and Brazil.

Epidemiology and The Economic Perspective on Health Improvement

"The Cost of Blindness,” Dr. Kevin Frick, PhD
Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Frick is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health whose research focuses on cost-effectiveness studies dealing
with sensory impairment. He has published research on the global
productivity cost of blindness and how the Vision 2020 blindness prevention
program could affect this cost. His ground breaking paper "The Magnitude
and Cost of Global Blindness: An Increasing Problem That Can Be
Alleviated," published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, states
that the Vision 2020 program will save US$102 billion over the next 20
years. By 2020, the economic loss in productivity from blindness will be
US$50 billion per year.

“The role of economics in improving health outcomes,” Heidi Williams, MSc
PhD candidate in Economics, Harvard University

Ms. Williams recently completed an AB in mathematics at Dartmouth College
as well as an MSc degree in development economics at the University of
Oxford, supported by a Rhodes scholarship. She is currently working in a
research position at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in
Boston, with economists Amy Finkelstein and Michael Kremer of Harvard
University. Ms. Williams will begin research and studies in the economics
PhD program at Harvard in the fall of 2005, supported by a National Science
Foundation graduate research fellowship and a Harry S. Truman scholarship.
Her current research is focused in health, including work in epidemiology,
health economics, and program evaluations.

International Community Eye Health Programs by Unite For Sight Student Interns

Presentations by Unite For Sight International Interns (Summer 2004, Fall
2004, and Winter 2005 Interns)

Early Bird Registration at
http://www.uniteforsight.org/2005_conference_registration.shtml
Contact JStaple@... with any questions.


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