Vision for the Future

The National Eye Institute will continue to protect and improve the visual health of the Nation through the support and performance of the highest quality laboratory and clinical research aimed at increasing our understanding of the eye and visual system in health and disease and developing the most appropriate and effective means of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation, and through the timely dissemination of research findings and information that will promote visual health.

The eyes and the parts of the central nervous system devoted to visual processing comprise a truly unique and awe-inspiring sense known as sight. Our eyesight provides intimate detail of our daily life in the world around us. It allows us to recognize the faces of those who are important to us, and it lets us perform complex tasks for work or pleasure that would otherwise be impossible. It is the sense that provides additional meaning to the input of the other senses and binds them together in a profound way. From a technical point of view, sight is a biological representation of the physical world around us that results from the input of millions of neural signals. For these reasons, there is little wonder that Gallup polls in the last three decades indicate that outside of mental incapacity, the disability Americans fear most is blindness.

In recognizing of the importance of sight to the American people, in 1968 Congress passed a law to create the National Eye Institute (NEI). Since its inception, the NEI has conducted an active program of laboratory and clinical research into the major causes of blindness and visual disability. Research has also focused on the normal development of the eye and visual system and the normal processes that result in vision. For it is only in understanding the elements of normal vision that researchers can interpret and interrupt or intervene in the abnormal events that cause visual loss.

Significant progress has been made in the last 30 years in elucidating the visual process, in understanding and treating many of the diseases of the eye and visual system, and ultimately in preserving eyesight. As we move into the next century, powerful new tools have increased this understanding of the nature of the disease process at the genetic and molecular level. To be sure, even newer and more powerful tools will be developed that will allow us to gain the knowledge that still eludes us.

A great deal remains to be done. As scientists and as those who support the conduct of science, we understand that progress does not always occur as quickly as we would like. But we put ahead of us this vision for the new century. With the continued support of the American people (as provided by Congress) and the research priorities outlined in this strategic plan, we will endeavor to protect this most precious sense of sight for all Americans and all of humanity.