Prevent Blindness America changes name

Prevent Blindness America, an eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness, announced in a press release Monday that it has changed its name.

The organization will now do business as “Prevent Blindness” in an effort to emphasize their dedication to saving sight. They plan to focus on vision-related public health research, improving the quality of life for those living with low vision and promoting awareness of diabetic eye disease as well as women's and children's eye health, according to the release.

“By moving forward as ‘Prevent Blindness,’ we add focus to our mission and acknowledge the growing global reliance on the Internet for information on eye health. Our goal is to expand our programs and develop new ones to address a wide variety of vision health needs,” Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness, said in the release. “But with the new name, our mission remains unchanged. We continue to work toward the same result, which is to put an end to needless vision loss in adults and children.”

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness has a long history of working to fight blindness. The organization led legislation in 1917 that nearly eliminated ophthalmia neonatorum, a leading cause of blindness in infants. In 1926, Prevent Blindness established the first preschool vision screening program run by volunteers in the U.S. The group also managed the first glaucoma detection program in the nation in 1942 and founded the first professional and public education programs on diabetic eye disease in 1981. In 2010, Prevent Blindness announced the establishment of the National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health.