Dry Eye in DC

Last week was Dry Eye Foundation's second annual Dry Eye in DC advocacy event. This is an Advocacy Day that DEF co-hosts with the Alliance for Vision Research on the Hill. 25+ patients gathered along with doctors and other advocates to meet with Congressional offices and raise awareness about the surprisingly high-impact nature of ocular surface diseases and ocular surface pain. We had several asks, including research funding for National Eye Institute and support the Safe Step Act. 

Getting people together in person always feels magical to me. Connections are forged that can last a lifetime. It's a delight to see this event grow. Many people who participated last year came back this year. Aidan did an amazing job managing DEF's responsibilities for this event top to bottom, so things flowed very smoothly.

We gathered at the Holiday Inn on Thursday 7/16 for a final training session and dinner, and breakfast the next day for final planning sessions with our state teams. 

We had advocates representing 15 states, and had 55 separate meetings with staffers on both the House side and the Senate side throughout Friday July 17. In addition to patients, three optometrists joined us for advocacy (Dr Joseph Allen, Dr Brooke Harkness and Dr Isabel Deakins).

Below, Aidan and I at the Capitol on our way to Senate offices on Friday morning.

At noon, we held a 1-hour Congressional Briefing on Dry Eye Disease. The briefing itself has been taking place annually for quite a few years, arranged by our partners the Alliance for Vision Research. I was invited to speak at the briefing for the first time in 2024, and since 2025, Alliance for Vision Research and Dry Eye Foundation have been actively partnering on this event.

The three speakers this year were:

• Amanda Mott (patient and former Dry Eye Foundation board member)
• Dr. Joseph Allen (aka DoctorEyeHealth)
• Myself on behalf of DEF

Below, we also took  a group picture around a memorial table for two community members who, tragically, were lost to suicide linked to ongoing eye pain issues just weeks before Dry Eye in DC. The mental health impacts of ocular diseases can be formidable. If you or someone you know is struggling, please check out these resources.I also recently recorded a video about the poorly understood mental burden of eye pain in case anyone reading this might benefit.