Leader in Eyewear for Color Blindness Welcomes the Counsel of Seasoned Medical Professional and Global Health Advocate

BERKELEY, Calif., July 8, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- EnChroma® – creators of glasses for color blindness – today named to its Board of Directors Catherine Ireland, MD, NMD, LAc, a physician who specializes in pain management, naturopathic medicine, and acupuncture. In addition, she was the owner of To Your Points and Optima Wellness, two providers of integrative medicine for pain management in New York City and Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Ireland has organized and/or participated as a physician on medical deployments to Greece, Germany, Iraq, Bangladesh, the United States, and Jordan. She served as secretary, treasurer and medical director for international medical Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). She also helped launch, document adverse events from, and ensure Food and Drug Administration compliance of GlaxoSmithKline's weight loss medication alli.

"Dr. Ireland's experience in healthcare and advocacy for global access to health services will benefit EnChroma immensely," said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma. "She joins us at an exciting juncture as we continue to grow our global footprint and advocate for 'color accessibility'. We know Dr. Ireland will play a key role in helping EnChroma reach its next level of success."

"It is an incredible opportunity to work with an organization like EnChroma that is championing accessibility for populations whose needs have been ignored for far too long," said Dr. Ireland. "I, myself, have been disabled by a connective tissue disorder--which is another reason I am passionate about working with EnChroma to help others with visual challenges. I have many people in my life, including family members, who are color blind, and I've grown up wanting to share the beauty of spring wildflowers and breathtaking sunsets with my loved ones. I look forward to lending my expertise to the noble mission of enabling people with color blindness and other visual impairments to surmount challenges and experience a more colorful, safer, and independent world."

Dr. Ireland's training spans anesthesiology (University of Connecticut Health Center), surgery (Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center), acupuncture (Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture), naturopathy (Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine), molecular environmental biology with an emphasis in microbiology (University of California, Berkeley), yoga (Southwest Institute of Healing Arts), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital). A photo of Dr. Ireland can be downloaded here.

Color blindness affects one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (.5%), an estimated 13 million people in the US and 350 million people worldwide. While people with normal color vision see over one million colors, individuals with red-green color blindness only see an estimated 10% of hues and shades. As a result, many colors containing red or green appear dull, muted, washed out or indistinguishable.

Enchroma Glasses and Advocacy

EnChroma glasses are engineered with special optical filters that help the red-green color blind experience an expanded range of colors more vibrantly and distinctly. The glasses do not deliver full color vision and results and reaction times vary. EnChroma glasses enhance color for approximately 80% of people with deuteranomalous or protanomalous red-green color blindness who have all three of their color cones functioning properly. Read this study by UC Davis on the effectiveness of the glasses.

EnChroma is the lead advocate for "color accessibility," helping universities, state and national parks, libraries, museums, and other organizations purchase and loan EnChroma glasses to color blind students and guests. EnChroma donates a pair of glasses for each pair an organization buys to lend to the public or students.

About EnChroma

Based in Berkeley, California, EnChroma produces leading-edge eyewear for color blindness and low vision, and other solutions for color vision, sold online and through Authorized Retailers worldwide. Invented in 2010, EnChroma's patented eyewear combines the latest in color perception, neuroscience and lens innovation to improve the lives of people with color vision deficiency around the world. EnChroma received an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It earned the 2020 Innovation Award in Life Sciences from the Bay Area's East Bay Economic Development Alliance. For more information, visit enchroma.com.

EnChroma

Kent Streeb

Vice President of Communications and Partnerships

kent@enchroma.com

Media Contact

Kent Streeb, EnChroma, 1 5309089225, kent@enchroma.com, www.enchroma.com

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SOURCE EnChroma