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In 1986, the operational director of Devers Eye Institute, Lion Bill Cardwell, joined together with the Lions of Oregon to petition the Lions International Foundation for $50,000 startup money for the Lions Eye Bank’s Quality Assurance and Research Laboratory. Through that generous grant, the laboratory was opened in December, 1986, under the direction of Dr. Terry E. Burris. Among the first quality assurance labs created within the EBAA, the lab’s early focus was on improving quality of donor tissues and qualifying eye banking procedures to ensure safe tissue processing.
Dr. Mark A. Terry took over as Medical Director of the research lab in 1990. In January 1999, Dr. Terry began perfecting the endothelial keratoplasty (EK) procedure in the laboratory, and in March 2000, he performed the first Deep Lamellar Endothelial Keratoplasty in the United States and the second in the world. He has established the world’s largest and longest running prospectively collected database on endothelial keratoplasty. This database has led to dozens of scientific papers published in top-tier ophthalmology journals, setting a global standard for EK research and quality assurance. Today, the Lions Eye Bank of Oregon Vision Research Lab remains a leading voice in corneal transplant safety and efficacy.
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