Starting several years ago, Robert Drabkin of Brentwood Park took it upon himself to fund and promote research into diseases of the eye. In this Q&A with the Brentwood News, his daughter-in-law, Delta Wright, a founding partner of the Ocular Research Symposia Foundation (ORSF), discusses the foundation’s mission.
Q: What is the Ocular Research Symposia Foundation? What do you guys do? Why is this important? How did ORSF get started?
A: The ORSF mission is to accelerate the pace of discovery in diseases of the eye by sharing information, ideas and findings and promoting translation of these discoveries into preventions, treatments and cures for blinding ocular diseases. The Ocular Research Symposia Foundation (ORSF) is a nonprofit organization that has emerged from a series of six symposia bringing together nationally and internationally esteemed physicians and researchers to identify and evaluate new directions for developing treatments and finding cures for diseases of the eye. The ORSF was founded by Robert Drabkin in Los Angeles in 2011. Led by scientific advisor, Dr. Gerald Chader of the Doheney Eye Institute, The ORSF brings together top researchers to discuss specific topics that highlight discoveries most closely related to finding treatments and cures for blinding ocular diseases. OSRF focuses resources on increasing awareness by spotlighting research opportunities that are ripe for translation into clinical therapies and, through this, ensuring sustained funding for treatment development. OSRF occupies a unique position in eye research. It not only identifies the greatest needs in ophthalmic disease treatment, but it highlights and promotes the best and most practicable opportunities for treatments for these conditions as pinpointed by worldwide leaders in eye research. The written report from the most recent ORSF symposium was published by Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS), the official journal of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. (ARVO)
Q: What are you hoping to accomplish in the years ahead?
A: The ORSF features two programming areas: the symposia themselves and targeted outreach to the field through the strategic use of the Internet. The symposia will continue the model perfected across the first six symposia. Biannually a small highly select group of experts in a particular area of basic Vision Research and in Clinical Ophthalmology will be invited to come together over a day and a half, first to review the most current scientific advances, and then, with the luxury of private time, to identify those avenues that could directly lead to a viable disease treatment. A summary document is then written and distributed to all stakeholders in the funding area – government agencies, academic departments and individual investigators. This document then can be used as a “roadmap to a cure,†i.e., a clear, logical path to a treatment for a major blinding condition. Funding therefore can best be focused on the projects of highest payoff. Use of the internet is dedicated first to extending both the findings of the symposia to the field worldwide, as well as, to stimulate further discussion and evaluation among clinicians and researchers. The ultimate vision of the Foundation’s website is that it will evolve into one of the primary “go to†sites for the latest trends in treatment and research, and be a basic touchstone for everyone involved on the front lines of vision care and research.
Q: How can your fellow Brentwoodians help? How can people contact you if they want to?
A: We hope our neighbors in Brentwood will contact us to get involved. They should visit the website, www.theorsf.org, to register for free or to make contributions.
With regis-tration our guests receive all the latest news from ORSF and can download the reports from the past decade. Registered members will also be informed of upcoming events in Los Angeles and abroad that support the work of the ORSF symposia and website. Please email us at info@theorsf.org or call Program Director Dyanne Cano at (213) 290-ORSF (6773) to discuss the ways you can contribute.
