(upbeat music)
>> Let's talk about the Low Vision Research
and Rehabilitation Center here at Wilmer.
So your research has moved into this game changing dynamic
of what we do with low vision rehabilitation services.
This is all a mouthful, but I think we'll get through it.
So when a person is losing their vision,
or stabilizes their vision, they need accommodations, right?
But you've changed that whole dynamic,
and especially here at Wilmer.
So I want to talk to you about two things.
I want to talk to you about, let's call it the,
this Lion's Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center
is our low vision clinic at Wilmer.
So from now on we're going to call it the low vision clinic.
But your research that impacted
low vision rehabilitation services,
and the low vision clinic here at Wilmer,
and I know the treatment and care you get,
but also how you've changed them.
Because I know you have, right?
You've changed the way we do business here at Wilmer,
and I think it's amazing.
>> Thank you.
So my work is completely driven by my experience, right.
And so part of this disability inclusion piece
that you touched on that I think is so valuable
from my perspective is that I have this really unique
and privileged opportunity to be both a patient,
a person with vision impairment, and a researcher.
So I see the whole gamut of life with vision loss,
the gaps, the holes,
the situations where we need to do better.
That is my life all day, every day.
And from my perspective,
sort of the underlying theme of my work,
is to really get ophthalmology,
including low vision rehabilitation,
outside of itself a little bit, right?
The impact of what people do at Wilmer is so undervalued.
It's so much more broad and important
than just what happens at Wilmer.
It has to be within the context of the individual's life.
And that's really what the low vision center
is focused on, right?
It's helping the individual throughout
the entire entirety of their life at home,
at their job, leveraging new technology,
interacting with their social network.
That's all critical.
That's what's important to patients, right?
And the care that people get at Wilmer
has value not just at Wilmer, but across the board,
in other healthcare interactions, in other situations.
And we need start focusing and leveraging that better,
because it's so important to patients' lives, right?
We need to get ophthalmology outside of ophthalmology,
because right now I think it's undervalued.
>> You have mentioned, and I read about,
that the biggest barrier to entry
in any low vision clinic is finances, right?
The payment.
Let's look at the low vision research
and rehabilitation center,
which is our, at Wilmer's, low vision clinic.
I understand that, I know you're in the minority,
as far as your treatment and care,
but there is a whole majority of elderly folks out there
that are on fixed incomes,
and the barrier to entry of low vision
rehabilitation services is finance.
How do they get it paid for?
And I understand that here at Wilmer,
the Lion's Club International has a grant
that pays for this.
What does that do for the patient experience
here at Wilmer?
>> Yeah, I think that's a really important concept, right?
So part of taking care of patients,
the whole patient,
is making sure they have access
to services like low vision rehabilitation,
and overcoming that financial barrier.
So what happens at Wilmer because of that grant
and that opportunity is we take care of the whole person.
We not only take care of their retinas in their corneas,
but we help with their functioning,
and their integration into society,
and to help them be as healthy and high functioning
as they possibly can be with their vision impairment
and their eye disease.
So at the low vision center,
it's a full spectrum approach from helping individuals
get access to the technology that they need,
to helping them figure out strategies in the home.
We even have an occupational therapist
that will go and visit individuals in their home
to make sure their home is set up.
But to make that opportunity available to everyone,
we have really set the bar by working with the Lions
to providing that opportunity to everyone.
And that really, that is a game changing opportunity.