What We Do
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Step 1
Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation
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Step 2
Donor Operations
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Step 3
Recovery Services
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Step 4
Donor Eligibility & Quality Assurance
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Step 5
Tissue Processing
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Step 6
Tissue Distribution
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Step 7
Clinical Development and Innovation
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Step 8
Ocular Research Center
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Step 9
Family Services and Partner Relations
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Step 10
Lions World Vision Institute Foundation
It all Starts with Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation
Lions World Vision Institute serves as the stewards of a very precious gift. We recognize the incredible generosity of tissue donors and their families. In honor of the donor, we offer a variety of programs to provide support to the families and celebrate the life of their loved one. Lions World Vision Institute recovered tissue from more than 10,000 cornea donors and 650 tissue donors in 2022, restoring sight and enhancing the lives of over 20,000 people throughout the United States and in over 70 countries around the world through transplantation. You can save and transform lives by registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor today.
Donor Operations
With deep care and respect for our tissue donor families, Lions World Vision Institute collaborates with numerous partners to ensure the donor’s gift is handled with integrity and purpose. After receiving a referral, our Donor Operations team is responsible for speaking with donor families and coordinating with the Tissue Recovery Team and our hospital, medical examiner, and funeral home partners. The entire recovery process must take place within the first 24 hours after the time of death. Often, our coordinators are the first people that a family will talk to after losing their loved one.
Recovery Services
Our highly trained Ocular and Tissue Recovery team is responsible for the removal and preservation of donor tissue, handling each gift with care and precision, and in a timely manner. Our Recovery Technicians treat donors with absolute respect to honor their sight-saving and life-altering gift of tissue donation.
Donor Eligibility & Quality Assurance
As required by federal law, our Donor Eligibility team reviews the medical records and social history of our donors, which ensures tissue is safe and suitable for transplant. When we recover, process, and distribute tissue, we are responsible for the health and safety of the tissue being transplanted into the recipient.
Tissue Processing
Our highly skilled Transplant Laboratory Operations team is responsible for the physical evaluation and preparation of corneal tissue for our surgeon partners – using sophisticated equipment to prepare tissue according to the surgeon’s specifications and exact needs of the recipient. Our advanced corneal processing techniques have been developed by our research and development teams – reducing cell damage by 10x for DMEK and 4x for DSAEK. We also follow very strict procedures to maintain the hygienic integrity of the corneas. All other tissue types are delivered to our partner tissue bank for processing and evaluation.
Tissue Distribution
The Tissue Distribution teams work with our ophthalmic surgeons throughout the United States and around the globe to place corneal tissue for patients who need sight-saving surgery. In 2022, we placed over 18,000 corneas in the United States and over 70 other countries. As the largest nonprofit eye bank in the world, people in places without local eye banks rely on Lions World Vision Institute to help restore sight for those in need.
Clinical Development and Innovation
At Lions World Vision Institute, we work hard to be at the forefront of cornea transplant innovation. Our Clinical Development team is dedicated to streamlining surgical procedures and improving clinical outcomes through cutting edge advancements in cornea processing and ophthalmic surgical procedures. We have developed industry-altering services using proprietary cornea processing techniques and unique cornea delivery devices. We are also working to advance preservation methods and decontamination techniques to improve the safety of tissue and clinical outcomes.
Ocular Research Center
The Ocular Research Center at Lions World Vision Institute is the first and only combined eye bank and ocular research center in the world. Our research center empowers scientists to conduct real-time studies of ocular tissue. This breakthrough model answers a critical need by providing healthy and diseased human ocular tissue to advance our understanding of events that lead to blindness. We collaborate with leading industry institutions to develop pre-clinical research models that offer unparalleled quality, volume of human ocular tissue, and unique research facilities for pharmaceutical and medical device studies.
Family Services and Partner Relations
Restoring sight and transforming lives is impossible for one organization to do alone. We rely on our donor families, healthcare partners, and surgeon partners to make our mission possible. In return we offer a variety of services for this community of compassion, including grief resources, events, and a letter-writing program for donor families and recipients; training and reporting for our healthcare partners; and continuing education opportunities for our surgeon partners.
Lions World Vision Institute Foundation
The Lions World Vision Institute Foundation is a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, governed by its own Board of Directors, that is responsible for raising funds to advance the mission and vision of the Lions World Vision Institute. Foundation contributors help restore sight and enhance lives, fund our Ocular Research Center, Surgeon Training Programs, Vision Health Program, and Gratis Ocular Tissue Program, among many other worthwhile programs.
The Story of Lions World Vision Institute
Through the devotion of Lions Club members, the Lions World Vision Institute for Transplant & Research was founded as an eye bank dedicated to the evaluation and distribution of eye tissue for transplantation. Over the past 30-plus years, our commitment has remained the same — an unwavering dedication to clinical excellence and a passion for providing care and service delivered with compassion and respect.
Step 1
It all Starts with Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation
Lions World Vision Institute serves as the stewards of a very precious gift. We recognize the incredible generosity of tissue donors and their families. In honor of the donor, we offer a variety of programs to provide support to the families and celebrate the life of their loved one. Lions World Vision Institute recovered tissue from more than 10,000 cornea donors and 650 tissue donors in 2022, restoring sight and enhancing the lives of over 20,000 people throughout the United States and in over 70 countries around the world through transplantation. You can save and transform lives by registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor today.
Step 2
Donor Operations
With deep care and respect for our tissue donor families, Lions World Vision Institute collaborates with numerous partners to ensure the donor’s gift is handled with integrity and purpose. After receiving a referral, our Donor Operations team is responsible for speaking with donor families and coordinating with the Tissue Recovery Team and our hospital, medical examiner, and funeral home partners. The entire recovery process must take place within the first 24 hours after the time of death. Often, our coordinators are the first people that a family will talk to after losing their loved one.
Step 3
Recovery Services
Our highly trained Ocular and Tissue Recovery team is responsible for the removal and preservation of donor tissue, handling each gift with care and precision, and in a timely manner. Our Recovery Technicians treat donors with absolute respect to honor their sight-saving and life-altering gift of tissue donation.
Step 4
Donor Eligibility & Quality Assurance
As required by federal law, our Donor Eligibility team reviews the medical records and social history of our donors, which ensures tissue is safe and suitable for transplant. When we recover, process, and distribute tissue, we are responsible for the health and safety of the tissue being transplanted into the recipient.
Step 5
Tissue Processing
Our highly skilled Transplant Laboratory Operations team is responsible for the physical evaluation and preparation of corneal tissue for our surgeon partners – using sophisticated equipment to prepare tissue according to the surgeon’s specifications and exact needs of the recipient. Our advanced corneal processing techniques have been developed by our research and development teams – reducing cell damage by 10x for DMEK and 4x for DSAEK. We also follow very strict procedures to maintain the hygienic integrity of the corneas. All other tissue types are delivered to our partner tissue bank for processing and evaluation.
Step 6
Tissue Distribution
The Tissue Distribution teams work with our ophthalmic surgeons throughout the United States and around the globe to place corneal tissue for patients who need sight-saving surgery. In 2022, we placed over 18,000 corneas in the United States and over 70 other countries. As the largest nonprofit eye bank in the world, people in places without local eye banks rely on Lions World Vision Institute to help restore sight for those in need.
Step 7
Clinical Development and Innovation
At Lions World Vision Institute, we work hard to be at the forefront of cornea transplant innovation. Our Clinical Development team is dedicated to streamlining surgical procedures and improving clinical outcomes through cutting edge advancements in cornea processing and ophthalmic surgical procedures. We have developed industry-altering services using proprietary cornea processing techniques and unique cornea delivery devices. We are also working to advance preservation methods and decontamination techniques to improve the safety of tissue and clinical outcomes.
Step 8
Ocular Research Center
The Ocular Research Center at Lions World Vision Institute is the first and only combined eye bank and ocular research center in the world. Our research center empowers scientists to conduct real-time studies of ocular tissue. This breakthrough model answers a critical need by providing healthy and diseased human ocular tissue to advance our understanding of events that lead to blindness. We collaborate with leading industry institutions to develop pre-clinical research models that offer unparalleled quality, volume of human ocular tissue, and unique research facilities for pharmaceutical and medical device studies.
Step 9
Family Services and Partner Relations
Restoring sight and transforming lives is impossible for one organization to do alone. We rely on our donor families, healthcare partners, and surgeon partners to make our mission possible. In return we offer a variety of services for this community of compassion, including grief resources, events, and a letter-writing program for donor families and recipients; training and reporting for our healthcare partners; and continuing education opportunities for our surgeon partners.
Step 10
Lions World Vision Institute Foundation
The Lions World Vision Institute Foundation is a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, governed by its own Board of Directors, that is responsible for raising funds to advance the mission and vision of the Lions World Vision Institute. Foundation contributors help restore sight and enhance lives, fund our Ocular Research Center, Surgeon Training Programs, Vision Health Program, and Gratis Ocular Tissue Program, among many other worthwhile programs.
Additional Programs
Surgeon Training Programs
Our global surgeon training programs promote advanced surgical procedures using our proprietary cornea processing and delivery systems. Faculty members bring their expertise to the various types of training opportunities, ranging from remote wet labs to multi-day courses with the goal of training surgeons in the latest surgical techniques, with immediately transferable skills providing better visual outcomes for their patients.
Pediatric Vision Health Programs
Vision is a strong predictor of academic performance in children. Yet, 1 in 4 children have an undiagnosed vision problem. Vision disorders in children affect cognitive, social, and physical development, future health, and well-being. An eye health problem can be the reason a child does not perform well at school. Conditions such as amblyopia (lazy eye) or strabismus (crossed eye) can go undetected and, if not addressed by the time a child is eight years old when eyesight is fully developed, can lead to lifelong problems and result in an irreversible loss of sight. Lions World Vision Institute is dedicated to the ocular health of our nation’s children through our three signature programs: Association for Pediatric Vision, the Glazer Mobile Vision Clinic, and our Vision Screening program.
