The Bright Eyes Project: a 20-year effort to prevent blindness

The Bright Eyes Project is a unique collaboration between medicine, public government, and a non-profit society. The project was prompted by concern that there was a high prevalence of undetected or untreated eye problems in the elderly. The objective was to detect ocular pathology, especially in those patients not currently receiving eye care. The project succeeded in providing a mechanism for free full ophthalmic examinations to the elderly at risk. In addition, the vast numbers seen in the project provide valuable statistics on common eye pathology in the individuals over 55 years of age.