This study will establish a vision and eye health surveillance system for the nation, fulfilling a vital public health need. Our vision for the natio's new surveillance system calls for harnessing our existing epidemiological knowledge and federal survey resources while introducing exciting new data sources, harmonized and integrated based on new vision and eye health indicators defined under the oversight of an Expert Advisory Panel. We will employ advanced statistical methodologies including small area estimation and multiple imputation to leverage high-level, biased data including epidemiological studies, electronic health record and claims data with lower-level, nationally representative survey data to create robust and detailed population estimates of detailed vision and eye health prevalence and eye care utilization rates. We will develop a comprehensive website with rich content and interactive data analysis functionality. Throughout the entirety of the program we will conduct an extensive public outreach with a structured dissemination strategy, releasing annual publications, integrating program information and results as featured presentations and panels at the annual Focus on Eye Health National Summits, in Congressional Vision Caucus meetings, at professional organization conferences, and through the Prevent Blindness national affiliate network. We have built a team with focused expertise as well as broad-based resources necessary to fulfill the requirements of this cooperative agreement. NORC at the University of Chicago brings exceptional experience in the areas of data collection, harmonization and security, analysis, and web-based dissemination. Principal Investigator David Rein and his team bring substantial experience working with the CDC Vision Health Initiative on a wide range of prior projects, including visual and eye health epidemiology, forecasting and health economics research. Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading visual health prevention and communications organization. Under the direction of Jeff Todd, the PI of two prior CDC cooperative agreements, Prevent Blindness will lead our outreach and dissemination strategy. The University of Wisconsin's Ronald and Barbara Klein are among the nation's leading experts on visual health data and indicators. Our consultant Eve Mokotoff is a nationally recognized expert in surveillance, with 30 years of experience establishing surveillance systems. Finally, our team brings three innovative new data sources to this project; VSP offers their national data system of over 200 million patient optometry and ophthalmology records, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's IRIS Registry will deliver patent-level electronic health records from 80% of the nation's ophthalmologists, and NORC's AmeriSpeak web-panel will provide low-cost, customizable data collection including computerized vision function assessment.
NORC at the University of Chicago, Prevent Blindness, the University of Wisconsin, VSP and the American Academy of Ophthalmology propose an ambitious strategy to build a comprehensive new vision and eye health surveillance system for the nation. Vision loss and eye disorders pose a significant burden on the health of Americans, both in terms of morbidity and cost. Our proposal shows we have the resources and expertise to develop a vision and eye health surveillance system that will serve as an accessible knowledge source to identify disparities and help prevent future vision loss and eye disease.
