FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The American Association of Eye & Ear Hospitals elects new Board of Directors

Arlington, VA (November 11, 2008) - The Annual Meeting of the American Association of Eye & Ear Hospitals (AAEEH) took place November 9 through November 11, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. Membership held elections for the new leadership of the Board of Directors. The results are as follows. Michael Gittelman, of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, Florida was elected the new Chairman of AAEEH. Current Chairman, Richard C. Thomas, of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland, will now serve the role of Immediate Past Chairman. John Fernandez, of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts, becomes Chair-Elect. Joe Bilson, of Wills Eye Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will serve as Treasury/Secretary. Robert Betz, PhD will remain Executive Director. Dr. J. Robert Rosenthal, of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, will join the AAEEH Board of Directors as a Member At-Large. Also elected as a Member At-Large, was David Orbuch, of the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Francis Hiddema, CEO of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and former Chairman of AAEEH, will continue to serve the Board of Directors as a Member At-Large. The Board and Officers assume their new two year terms, beginning January 1, 2009.

"I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to our outgoing Board members, especially Libby Bailey, of the Callahan Eye Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama, and Phil Rosenthal, with the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, New York, New York. The service they have given AAEEH over the past two years has been invaluable. I have confidence that the new AAEEH Board of Directors for the upcoming two year term will foster great success and growth for AAEEH," Executive Director Robert Betz said.

The American Association of Eye and Ear Hospitals is comprised of the premier centers for specialized eye and ear procedures in the world. Association members are major referral centers, offer some of the most innovative teaching programs in the world, and routinely treat the most severely ill eye and ear patients. The mission of these specialty institutions requires them to maintain leading edge technologies, enabling them to provide highly specialized services not available in general acute care hospitals.