Skai Ventures LLC, a local venture capital firm focused on bringing new technologies to market, will open an eye surgery center in Honolulu next month aimed at attracting patients from the Asia-Pacific region.

The Eye Surgery Center of Hawaii held an open house Tuesday at its 8,000-square-foot office at Dole Cannery in Iwilei. The company will work with 13 local ophthalmologists, who will perform corneal transplants and procedures related to cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and eye plastic surgery, among others.

The specialty center has the capacity for 15,000 surgeries annually.

“Our goal is to bring patients throughout Asia-Pacific to Hawaii so they can receive state-of-the-art care by highly qualified surgeons and get the most advanced technological treatments possible,” said ‘Iolani graduate Hank Wuh, an orthopedic surgeon, inventor and founder and CEO of Skai Ventures. “At the same time they’ll have the benefit to recover in one of the most beautiful, serene places in the world.”

The institute has partnered with Vision Share, the world’s largest human donor cornea eye bank, to annually supply 5,000 corneas for transplants.

In addition, Skai’s affiliate, Eyegenix, anticipates supplying the surgery center with artificial corneas — a biosynthetic product resembling a contact lens bound to the eye that spurs regrowth of cells and nerves — which will be manufactured next to the surgery center once regulatory approvals are obtained.

There is a growing demand for corneal transplants. About 40,000 corneal transplants are performed each year in the United States, according to the National Eye Institute.

An estimated 10 million people worldwide have corneal blindness due in part to a major shortage of organ donors for human tissue corneas — the only option currently available, according to Eyegenix. The shortage is especially prevalent in Asia due to customs and traditions conflicting with human organ donation.

Eyegenix’s artificial cornea, made of collagen, is currently under clinical development, and initial European patient trials have proved successful.

The center and artificial cornea procedure could put Hawaii on the map for health care and medical tourism, according to Wuh.

“We really have an opportunity to build a world-class eye surgery institute here,” he said. “Tourism will always be a really important part for the future of Hawaii. What we would like to do is bring another category of tourists to Hawaii.”

The center anticipates performing between 4,000 and 5,000 surgeries in its first year.

Skai will open a second surgery center — Endoscopy Center of Hawaii — next year at the Hale Pawaa medical office building on Beretania Street, focusing on early diagnosis and screening of cancer in the stomach and colon.

In addition to Eyegenix, Skai Ventures-affiliated companies include CBI Polymers, maker of DeconGel radiological decontaminant used in the Japan cleanup of radiation after the nuclear plant meltdown in March; and TruTag, an anti-counterfeiting agent.

“Our goal ultimately is to make the vision institute as prominent (as the biggest centers in the world) with a global reputation,” Wuh said. “I believe strongly in the concept that everything we do has got to have a global impact and also has to be something that’s very positive for the community and world we live in.”