SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. charity foundation dedicated to eye care and health has granted 2 million U.S. dollars to set up a permanent fund to advance childhood eye disease research, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) said on Sunday.

The fund from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation (KTEF), a charity organization established in 1955 committed to researching, education and care of vision health, will be used to support the study on rare and common eye diseases affecting children, the San Francisco-based AAO said.

"This grant is an extraordinary gift for ophthalmology ... it will build upon the strengths of the world's largest clinical data registry to drive insights on children's eye health," said David Parke II, CEO for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The clinical data bank, the Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) Registry developed by the AAO, will help support the fund's projects on eye disease research and care by facilitating ophthalmologists to effectively improve their practices and their patients' lives.

The AAO said the IRIS Registry that collects data on 50 million patients in just four years has already improved the quality of eye care for adult patients.

The fund will enable the AAO's IRIS Registry team to enhance the capture of data collected on pediatric patients and provide better approaches to eye disease prevention and treatment.

The KTEF, sponsored by the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, a Masonic fraternal organization, and committed to reducing childhood blindness, has since 1955 provided more than 25 million dollars in grants for researchers working in pediatric ophthalmology and ophthalmic genetics.

It gave the AAO 1 million dollars in 2015 to create an online resource tool to educate pediatric ophthalmologists around the world.