About the Uveitis Support Group

The Uveitis/OID Support Group is a patient education and mutual support resource founded in 1996 by Dr. C. Stephen Foster, Frances Foster MS, RN, CS, John Hurley LICSW, and patients of Dr. Foster. Our mission is to educate patients, their family members and friends, and the medical community about ocular inflammatory disease and to facilitate the exchange of information, emotional support, and mutual aid between members. We are also deeply committed to raising funds to support research into the causes and effective treatment of uveitis.

Destructive inflammatory diseases of the eye such as uveitis are the third leading cause of blindness worldwide. Anyone living with uveitis or other form of ocular inflammatory disease is welcome to join us, along with your family members, friends, and others. There is no membership charge, ever, for participation in our programs or resources. Support Group expenses are underwritten by voluntary, tax deductible contributions to the Uveitis Support Group Fund and by a sustaining grant from Dr. Foster.

We are indebted to our Faculty Sponsor and medical advisor, C. Stephen Foster, M.D., for his encouragement, support, and unbelievable personal commitment to our mission and activities. None of this would have been possible without Dr. Foster's energy and passion to communicate and reach out to patients everywhere who live with ocular inflammatory disease, and to the physicians who care for them.

The Uveitis/OID Support Group, in addition to our general web page, maintains a web page for kids and parents. We also have an online support group page for kids, parents, and adults that are accessible through the world wide web free of charge to anyone living with ocular inflammatory disease. In addition to these online resources, we produce a quaterly Newsletter that is widely distributed and recently supported the publication of a school guide for teachers and parents. We hold six support group meetings in Boston each year along with other events. All support group meetings are open and we encourage patients, friends, and family members to join us. The group is free, thanks to generous donations from patients and their friends and family members.