Jod Mehta on SERI’s Approach to Scaling Global Eye Health

When the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) was founded 1997, Singapore had one of the highest rates of myopia and eye disease in the world. 

In the close-to 30 years since then, the institute has been paving the way for significant improvements in how eye disease is treated and prevented – not just in Asia, but on a global scale. 

This has largely been through its landmark research projects and focus on translational medicine – taking basic scientific discoveries into clinical applications to improve patient health. 

“In the early days, SERI was really focused on research,” says Professor Jod Mehta, Executive Director of SERI. “Even back then, myopia was a big risk factor for eye disease within the South Asian population group – with over 80% of adult Singaporeans having myopia.”