The Global Vision Database has been established by an international consortium of 100 ophthalmologists and optometrists with an interest in the epidemiology of eye disease.
This group (called the Vision Loss Expert Group, VLEG) was created originally to assist the Global Burden of Disease Study in its quest for population-based data on prevalence of vision loss in order to prepare estimates of Disability-Adjusted Life Years for all diseases, and has been coordinated by Professor Rupert Bourne since 2008.
The research is supported by several awards including Brien Holden Vision Institute, Fondation Théa, Lions Clubs International Foundation, Sightsavers and The Fred Hollows Foundation, and is often covered in national and international media.
The overall goal of the Global Vision Database (GVD) is to develop and deploy new and improved evidence on the prevalence of blindness and vision impairment and its causes, on intervention coverage, to inform and influence global priorities and programmes.
The main purposes of the GVD are to:
Working with the World Health Organization, the Group has modelled the change in cause-specific prevalence of vision loss over time. Recognising the importance of this global database of vision loss data and the contribution of the Group's members (many of whom are the chief investigators of included studies), the Group has been funded to maintain the database. It continues to be accessible through a visualisation project called Vision Atlas.
Principal Investigator: Professor Rupert Bourne
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