Midwest's Largest Laser Eye Surgery Center

Architectural designs were approved today for the largest and most comprehensive eye center in the entire Midwest. The University of Michigan Board of Regents gave the
go-ahead for a $121 million expansion of the U-M Kellogg Eye Center, approving the plans for a 222,000 square-foot building that will nearly double the University's current space for eye care, education and research when it opens in 2010.

The expanded Eye Center will be a model for other vision centers, allowing the U-M Health System to serve an aging population -- including many Baby Boomers who are just beginning to turn 60, an age at which many start to experience cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and other conditions of the aging eye. Current projections forecast growing demand for technological vision-care advances, ranging from genetic testing for eye disease, to "bladeless" laser surgery, to new kinds of lenses that can be implanted to improve vision after cataract surgery.

The Kellogg Eye Center has experienced 11 percent growth in patient visits in each of the last seven years and expects even faster growth as the aging boomer population peaks in the next 10 to 15 years. By 2030, 25 percent of Michigan's population will be 60 years or older, placing a strain on medical centers that have not planned for growth. The new Eye Center will serve these patients with state-of-the-art clinics, educational facilities, and laboratories where scientists will have the resources to
accelerate research on eye disease and treatments.

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