Alaska Blind Child Discovery: Luminaries

Jack Bellows

Jack Bellows, a retired corporate executive, had compassion on a relative who suffered from amblyopia, and therefore dedicated himself to do something about it. With blood, sweat, tears, fortitude and no small fortune, he developed a company, i-Screen, to assist pediatricians in detecting amblyopic risk factors. The i-Screen (with its brilliant fixation device and on-line-expert interpretation) and Howard Freedman's Polaroid counterpart, the MTI, suffered unfair competition in VIPS when their referral criteria were externally calibrated honoring AAPOS criteria rather than internally calibrated using VIPS criteria. Despite the obvious deliterious economic effects of a VIPS non-endorsement, Jack persisted in further expensive research and development (i-Screen is far from dead!) One of the most profound things Jack Bellows has done to combat amblyopia blindness is to pursue a CPT code (initially exerimental code 0065T, then promoted to level III code 99174) that will allow pediatricians to bill for objective vision screening. ABCD consider's 99174 to be "the Magic Number" in amblyopia reduction because it will allow all objective vision screen manufacturers to produce better technology for amblyopia detection in America. Enterpreneurs like Jack Bellows in American industry make substantial investment that is then shared worldwide.