This society is dedicated to research, learning and sharing of knowledge related to sports vision as a way to help our patient athletes. The goal was to find physicians, optometrists, vision scientists, trainers, and physical therapists all of who were interested in sharing their knowledge about sports vision in an academically rigorous way. The initial thought was to form such a group, have them communicate in some way, and to meet once a year and share their research, clinical experiences, and ideas. Although there have been other groups dedicated to sports vision, this group differs from the others by it’s commitment to scientific principles, it’s openness and willingness to listen and share, it’s lack of any commercial interest, and the goal of all members to promote sports vision as a medical discipline.

These dreams took many years to develop, but in August 2009 the society was founded. The final push came from meetings of the representatives from the Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School; Tufts University Department of Ophthalmology, and the New England College of Optometry. The communication tool for this society is a list serve in which all participates can voice their opinions on any topic related to sport vision, ask questions of the group, and formulate research ideas.

The first annual Sport Vision Conference is scheduled for January 24, 2010 at Fenway Park and is appropriately named “Sports Vision 2010 – A New Paradigm”.

All of the information about the list serve and the Sports Vision Meeting are on these web pages along with other useful information. Use the live links to register for the meeting or join the list serve.

The formation of this group was a long time in coming, but we are very excited about it existence. We hope that the information exchange using these media will help advance the field of sports vision, encourage our colleagues to become involved in sports vision research and practice, and give energy to our dream of one day making sports vision an academic discipline worthy of advanced training and certification.

Daniel M. Laby, MD

David G. Kirschen, OD, PhD

For the Sports Vision Society