The Singapore Eye Bank (SEB) and Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) are launching a series of initiatives aimed at boosting corneal donations and eye-banking processes, which will benefit the SEB as well as other Asian eye banks.

Yesterday marked the kickstart of the SEB’s second phase of expansion as well as the official opening of the Lee Kong Chian Centre of Excellence for Cornea, Eye Banking and Eye Diseases (EXCEED), a centre for training, education and research. The expansion of SEB will allow it to ramp up its headcount, as well as boost efforts to achieve a 100 per cent local donation rate for corneal transplants.

The SEB and SNEC are also collaborating with Sri Lanka’s national eye hospital, the Colombo Eye Hospital, to develop a new national eye bank facility in Colombo based on the SNEC-SEB framework. The facility is expected to restore Sri Lanka as the major provider of corneas in Asia, which would also benefit other countries in the region.

In addition, the SEB and SNEC are aiming to form a network co-operative of Asian eye banks, the Associate of Eye Banks of Asia (AEBA), in order to enhance corneal donation and establish shared corneal tissues programmes between Asian countries.

The various initiatives are being funded by a S$5 million grant over five years from the Lee Foundation while the Temasek Foundation is donating a grant of $140,000 over a three year period for training and education.

“In Asia, most eye banks are short of tissue,” said Donald Tan, medical director of both the SEB and SNEC, adding that the majority of eye banks are unable to meet the needs of their own nations.

He hopes that Singapore can be “self-sustained” in the next five years. Right now, 30-40 per cent of corneas are obtained locally and the remaining tissue for corneal transplants are obtained from eye banks in other countries such as the United States, though doing so can be both costly and time consuming.

Corneal tissue from the US can cost some $5,000 and could take 5-7 days to arrive, which may be cutting it close as the tissue is only viable for up to 10 days.

The various initiatives that the SEB and SNEC are embarking on are likely to lower costs for patients in the long-run, Prof Tan added.

For 64-year-old Briton Anne Ruck, who came here from Indonesia for surgery, the operation has made a big difference.

“It’s been a long struggle. The day before (the operation), all I could see was a little bit of light and shade. Now my eyesight (is) gradually improving,” she said.