Vision Center of Excellence

Welcome to the Vision Center of Excellence. Here, you'll find military vision health information, tools, and support to help protect and care for your eyes. 

Collaborative Eye Health Report Available Now!

close-up of a human eye with circles around pupil of eye suggesting eye is analyzing data

We worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide data for a national vision health report that helps to close the knowledge gaps about U.S. eye health.

Read Full Report Here

Our Main Goals

  • Improve vision health
  • Optimize readiness
  • Enhance quality of life for service members and veterans
  • Promote collaboration
  • Facilitate integration
  • Advocate for vision across the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs health systems
  • Federal healthcare organizations
  • Academic partners
  • Private sector institutions

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

Congressional Mandate

The VCE was created by Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 to address military eye injuries. This includes:

  • Prevention
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
  • Rehabilitation 
  • Visual system disorders including:
    • Vision problems linked to traumatic brain injury

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

Operational Structure

Our organization reports to two offices:

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 prioritization and translation
  • Requirement assessment and data analysis
  • 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 and vision of injured service members and veterans.

VCE Featured Information

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Publication
Jun 24, 2025

VCE Vision Research: A Decade of Insight and Impact

.PDF | 485.10 KB

This VCE catalog includes more than 20 published co-authored/peer reviewed publications over the past decade. These publications cover a range of vision related topics that are important to military health, readiness, and recovery. This research helps providers, researchers, and policy makers better understand and respond to the eye care needs of ...

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Feb 23, 2024

Assessment and Management of Dizziness and Visual Disturbances Following Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

.PDF | 1.03 MB

This clinical recommendation provides medical staff with a single, comprehensive reference for the assessment and management of dizziness and visual disturbances following mild TBI/concussion. Dizziness and visual disturbances often present with overlapping symptoms and should prompt a provider to perform a visual and dizziness—or vestibular—assessment.

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