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Military Health System

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Vision Center of Excellence

The Defense Health Agency's Vision Center of Excellence manages various programs and activities with three main goals:

  • Enhancing vision health.
  • Boosting readiness.
  • Enhancing the quality of life for military families.

We advocate for joint vision care within the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs health care systems. We work with these groups:

  • Federal health care institutions.
  • Academic partners.
  • Private sector institutions.

Our cooperation with these and other groups helps us develop our research priorities and quality care initiatives.

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Congressional Mandate

The Vision Center of Excellence was created by Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 to address military eye care. This includes:

  • Preventing
  • Diagnosing
  • Treating
  • Researching
  • Rehabilitating eye injuries
  • Visual system disorders
  • Vision problems linked to traumatic brain injury

We also established the Defense and Veterans Eye Injury and Vision Registry. This registry keeps track of eye injury data over time from the DOD and VA medical records.

VCE Operational Structure

Our organization reports to two offices:

  • DHA Research and Engineering Directorate
  • VA Office of Patient Care Services

A Branch Chief and a Deputy Branch Chief oversee our organization. They work with other DOD and VA groups to plan the organization's future.

Prevention, Diagnosis, Mitigation, Treatment & Rehabilitation

We strive to prevent, treat, and help patients recover from visual system injuries and conditions. We work with the VA and their partners to improve eye health for all service members and veterans. We accomplish this through:

  • Research.
  • Monitoring and assessment.
  • Clinical educational support.
  • Defense & Veterans Eye Injury and Vision Registry.

Looking Ahead

As a primary source of eye care for service members and veterans, we plan to ensure that care is coordinated in the best way possible. We've made progress in key areas to improve the eye health of injured service members and veterans.

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