A recent miraculous eyesight recovery is being used to emphasize the ongoing need for an improved medical innovation bill. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
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Amanda Rupp | Jun 26, 2016

Miraculous eyesight recovery highlights need for improved medical innovation bill

Lamar Alexander (R-TN), U.S. Senate health chairman, recently stated that a case of miraculous eyesight recovery emphasizes the national need for leaders to pass the 21st Century Cures Act so that medical innovations can reach patients faster.

Doug Oliver, a man from Tennessee, was blind for 10 years. His sight was healed after he joined a clinical trial based in Florida. The doctor in charge of the trial placed stem cells found in Oliver's hip bone into a centrifuge. Then the doctor injected these cells into Oliver's eyes.

“Why on earth would we not take this opportunity to get a result for millions of Americans who want to find a cure for cancer, get electronic health records systems out of the ditch and spur cures and treatments, especially for rare pediatric diseases and antibiotic-resistant superbugs?” Alexander said.

Oliver is currently in Washington with four others who were also part of the stem cell clinical trial. They are encouraging leaders to pass the 21st Century Cures Act, improving patient access to innovation stem cell approaches.

“Doug Oliver is in Washington this week to tell his story of miraculous eyesight recovery with stem cell treatment — but his is just one we could tell of the remarkable pace of biomedical research today, and passing 21st Century Cures will mean access for more Americans to these kinds of cutting edge medical innovations,” Alexander said. “This is a rare moment of consensus in Washington on an issue important to every American —the president has proposed the Precision Medicine and Cancer Moonshot initiatives, the House passed 344 to 77 its 21st Century Cures Act, the Senate health committee has passed 19 pieces of companion legislation by huge bipartisan margins, and the Senate has shown in the appropriations process that it supports increasing funding for research at the NIH.”

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