Waterloo Eye Institute and You

In our role as a national resource and leader, the School has a unique responsibility to support the public and help advance the profession of optometry across the country.  With your support, we will create Canada’s foremost centre for eye and vision care

The Waterloo Eye Institute will:

• Promote inter-professional education and collaborative practice in an integrated, modern education and clinical care environment - embracing relationships with ophthalmology, family medicine, pharmacy and other health professions.

• Build two frontier research centres that will harness our strengths in biomedical sciences and ocular imaging while also expanding our capacity to conduct clinical research.
• Develop innovation capacity and infrastructure in tele-optometry to increase access to eye and vision care for underserved communities, promote access to specialty care services such as low vision rehabilitation and develop a national diagnostic reading and imaging centre.
• Enhance continuing professional development and distance learning with robust infrastructure including a curated educational case and image library with an evidence-based foundation - gaining the potential to link to every corner of the nation.
• Train the next generation of optometrists by expanding clinical training and providing unique learning opportunities that ensure new optometrists are qualified for the highest scope of practice in North America.
• Elevate the profession nationally by providing the evidence needed to influence policy and supporting the expansion of optometrists’ scope of practice.

For more information on how to get involved in alumni fundraising, please visit our OD Initiatives page or contact Kelsey Gagnon.”

Waterloo Region serves a community of 650,000 residents and is one of the fastest-growing communities in Ontario. As a result, local eye and vision care is under pressure.

Many residents are facing a future with complex age-related eye diseases that can lead to vision loss or blindness, including macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.

We believe that the Waterloo Eye Institute can be the solution. As a new state-of-the-art eye and vision care centre, the WEI will provide seamless eye and vision care when patients of all ages need it most – from wellness to disease to rehabilitation.

The 67,000-square-foot, two-storey centre of excellence will function as a one-stop shop to coordinate your eye care needs in Waterloo Region.

The Waterloo Eye Institute will:

• Increase access to specialized care in growing areas like vision therapy, low vision rehabilitation, dry eye, myopia control, concussion, contact lenses, ocular disease and more.
• Establish a national teleoptometry centre that will provide access to care for people in remote and/or underserved communities.
• Create new research capacity that embraces the power of Canada’s most innovative university and elevates our strengths in biomedical sciences, ocular imaging and clinical trial research.
• Use the eye as the window to the brain to help detect vision problems and eye diseases as well as allow for early detection of diseases of the whole body such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and more.