The National Eye Institute (NEI) was established within the U. S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1968. Its legislated mission was “to conduct and support research, training, health information dissemination and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight and the special health problems and requirements of the blind. ” The NEI fulfills this mission through leadership in innovative research, training of a vision workforce, and educating new and seasoned health providers. In this monograph, the authors provide an institutional overview of the NEI, and they offer a descriptive look at performance dimensions associated with NEI funded Phase II Small Business Innovation Research funded research projects. The authors conclude this monograph with a preliminary roadmap for needed future research in eye disease research; it has been estimated that the economic burden of vision loss alone in 2025 for the U. S. population was over 170 billion.
Link et al. (Mon,) studied this question.