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Transformative Gift Enhances and Expands SOURCE Repository
Wendy and Jeffrey Eisenshtadt (LSA ’89) want to make a difference. The Bloomfield Hills couple are known for their commitment to helping others in their community and beyond through their thoughtful philanthropy. Longtime supporters of the University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine, their recent gift to the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center marks their second gift to the SOURCE (Sight Outcomes Research Collaborative) project.
The SOURCE repository at the Kellogg Eye Center links clinical data from electronic health records, ocular diagnostic tests, environmental and community-level factors, and more to help clinician-scientists better understand risk factors and improve outcomes for patients with ocular diseases. The Eisenshtadts’s $500,000 gift makes an important difference for the repository.
“Our hope for this project is for SOURCE to expand collaboration in data aggregation and analysis for ophthalmology professionals worldwide, to exponentially improve eye care and outcomes for patients everywhere,” said the Eisenshtadts.
Joshua D. Stein, M.D., M.S., Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, assistant chair of data analytics in the Medical School, and associate professor of Health Management and Policy, is thrilled by the Eisenshtadt’s latest gift. “Their incredible generosity will enhance and allow us to build on our data collection while also helping us utilize this data in new and exciting ways,” said Dr. Stein. “By collaborating with the world’s leading ophthalmic researchers in the collection and assessment of this data, we believe we can answer some of ophthalmology’s most challenging questions, which is especially meaningful for rare diseases of the eye.”
“Since our first gift to the SOURCE project in 2021, advancements in big data analytics, and more recently the promise of artificial intelligence, are leading the improvement of disease identification and therapies,” said the Eisenshtadts. “The expanding collaboration among participating universities in SOURCE and the increasing speed in which electronic health records are analyzed have inspired us to provide a second gift. We’re also incredibly inspired by Dr. Stein’s passion for conceptualizing and advocating the idea for SOURCE into a collaborative, functioning platform that uses data analytics to enhance medical science.”
Their support of SOURCE is personally significant to the Eisenshtadts. “Our family has experience with a rare, potentially life changing visual condition. Our hope is that through shared information, treatments for even the rarest conditions can be identified and applied to expedite patients’ medical journeys. We are grateful to be in a position to be able to support communities and causes meaningful to us.”
The Eisenshtadts are firm believers in the importance of supporting medical research, especially for critical disorders that historically lack broad support.
“Our personal experience supporting medical research has yielded some incredible advancements in immunotherapy and neurology, as well as ophthalmology. We are equally amazed by the brilliant researchers and faculty we have met and look forward to their future accomplishments.”
