A $3 million challenge grant has been donated to UB by a 1939 alumnus of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Studies in order to establish a world-class vision research and care institution.
Dr. Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted has dedicated the Ira G. Ross Eye Institute in memory of her late husband, an aeronautical engineer. The center will be located at 1176 Main St., just north of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Complex.
"We wish to improve the standing of ophthalmology in Buffalo by teaching, research, and through patient care," said Olmsted.
Olmsted said she hopes that the institute, which will be located next door to the Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted, M.D. Center for the Visually Impaired, will be on par with similar organizations across the country, such as the Cole Eye Institute in Cleveland and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.
"The Ira G. Ross Eye Institute is a collaborative effort between the university, our Ophthalmology Department and Elizabeth Pierce Olmsted," said Margaret Paroski, the interim dean of UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. "I think that together you get a synergy that no one party would be able to accomplish on their own."
Paroski said the donation is the start of a "challenge grant," which encourages other members of the university and the community to step up and match or exceed the funds that Olmsted has donated.
"When you look at it in the form of a challenge grant, $3 million isn't going to accomplish what this program needs to have done," said Paroski. "But I think that the $3 million says that Dr. Olmsted is very truly dedicated to the vision of what this Ross Eye Institute will be and she's asking us to prove that we are equally dedicated to this vision by raising matching dollars."
Besides the Main Street location, the institute will extend to research facilities on South Campus.
Part of the medical school's mission is to make sure that medical care is accessible to everyone, according to Paroski, and she said in light of Buffalo's steadily increasing elderly population, the service is becoming a greater necessity.
If the institute were based in a suburban town such as Amherst or Orchard Park, it would indirectly alienate a whole group of people who reside inside the city of Buffalo, many whom aren't in great economic shape and don't have the ability to take a bus out to the suburbs, Paroski added.
"The location allows the medical school to continue its mission of meeting the needs of the underserved and people who are uninsured, or the Medicaid population - not to say that the people in Amherst and Orchard Park can't come in there too, but it really does let us serve everyone," Paroski said.
Teaching and research enhancements in the department of ophthalmology will prevent the people of Buffalo from going elsewhere to treat their vision problems.
Paroski said the new center will help to centralize the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, which lacks a hospital.
"We have been trying to create a geographic area where we have a lot of different clinical activities focused," she said.
The Ross Eye Institute will also act as a training site for med students, who will be able to work alongside professional ophthalmologists serving patients in an out-patient setting during their final two years of medical school.
Paroski highlighted the beauty of the building itself, not only the inside but its historical fa?\0xA4ade as well.
"As somebody who lives on the West Side of Buffalo, I always want to see the neighborhood continue to attract business and to see people renovate these old buildings," Paroski said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
