SOUTHLAKE, Texas—Retina Consultants of America (RCA), a comprehensive physician management services organization formed by Webster Equity Partners, launched Monday with four preeminent retina specialty practices. The practices are: Retina Consultants of Houston, Retina Group of Florida, Long Island Vitreoretinal Consultants,  and Retinal Consultants Serving Northern California, according to an announcement by the new organization. The details on the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. But RCA said in the announcement that it has created “a business model that enables retina specialists to retain autonomy and ownership, while building around the sharing of best practices and executive management support.”

The four practices operate more than 40 locations and have nearly 50 physicians on staff, accounting for more than 300,000 annual patient visits. There also are ongoing discussions with other retina specialty practices who have expressed interest in the new RCA organization, executive chairman Jim Greenwood told VMAIL in a telephone interview. Greenwood is the former chief executive officer of Vision Source and he recently joined RCA as executive chairman.

Greenwood estimated that there are about 2,500 retina specialists in the U.S., but the concept of consolidating a single eyecare specialty is fairly unique. “This horizontal strategy is very different than some of the other ophthalmology strategies being deployed,” he explained, noting that other consolidation efforts in eyecare are often more broad based.

In the RCA model, the founding group of physicians own “a significant percentage” of the new organization, along side Webster Equity, which is the lead investor among other equity partners, Greenwood said.

Practices within the network will continue to drive all clinical decisions and remain highly involved in strategic operations, the announcement stated.

Based here in Texas, RCA will identify and partner with leading retina specialists who seek a strategic partner with the capital resources and expertise to invest in their practice infrastructure and position them for continued growth in their markets, the announcement noted.

“This is an exciting time for Retina Consultants of America, and we are proud to be partnering with these premier practices,” Dr. David M. Brown of Retina Consultants of Houston said. “We are committed to delivering the highest quality care and that aligns directly with RCA. This network should allow us to increase our participation and impact in clinical trials and expand our presence within the markets we serve, positively impacting the lives of more patients.”

RCA is bringing together national leaders in surgical and clinical retinal care, and the network comprises preeminent retina research specialists with the common goal of eradicating blindness from macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other retina diseases.

The RCA leadership team is led by Greenwood and Robert Grabow, CEO. Grabow has more than 15 years of experience in health care, including executive roles in development and operations with Humana and most recently as senior vice president at U.S. Anesthesia Partners leading the Florida market.

“What makes RCA unique is that it is retina-specific,” Grabow said. “We designed this network with the common goal of bringing together key opinion leaders in the field to provide the best patient care to individuals with retinal disease. With more than 7 million Americans suffering from diabetic retinopathy and another 11 million elderly Americans with some degree of age-related macular degeneration, there is a growing need to have the highest quality specialists come together to save sight.

John Garbarino, a partner with Webster Equity Partners, said the investment firm recognized an opportunity to create a network to help support and grow independent retina specialists. “Retina Consultants of America represents a new and unique strategic partnership for independent groups,” he added. “RCA and its network of leading retina practices join Webster Equity Partners’ health care services portfolio as another company designed to deliver solutions for independent health care providers in a system that continues to become more complex.”

RCA is governed by a medical leadership board that is co-chaired by Joel Pearlman, MD, PhD, and David M. Brown, MD. Drs. Pearlman and Brown are both leaders in clinical trials that led to the development of anti-VEGF injections for the treatment of macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion.