Visual Pathways Inc.

More than 80 million people in the US are living with potentially blinding eye disorders. Some of these conditions, such as glaucoma, are controllable if not yet curable, but early detection and intervention are critical to preventing the loss of vision. Others, like diabetic retinopathy—the leading cause of adult blindness in the world—are both preventable and treatable. Yet only 40% of diabetics receive the recommended annual screening to detect the disease. Very often, the time-consuming and uncomfortable nature of the screening process itself deters the very people who need it most.

It is this paradox that led Gary F. Buck and Tom N. Cornsweet, PhD, to form Visual Pathways Inc. (VPI), which aims to make screening easier and faster with a series of precise, automatic vision care diagnostics. Buck, a self-described serial entrepreneur, spent the early part of his career starting business units within Dow Chemical Co. and Abbott Laboratories Inc. He moved on to Cambridge BioScience Inc., took it public, and then retired briefly before re-entering the fray to run Verigen Inc. Retiring again, he relocated to Arizona and met Cornsweet, a well-known expert in the fields of optics and ophthalmology, and Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine