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>> One of the things that I also wanna touch on
is this impact that you have, and we've touched on it.
But where I wanna move it to,
I know that you were part of the Morbidity conference here.
Tell me about that.
It's called the Morbidity and Mortality conference.
And I think this is bringing it full circle, right?
>> Bonnielin: Yeah, you heard that? (laughs)
>> Yeah, of course I heard that. (laughs)
I think it's bringing it full circle that
you're not only affecting patients.
You're not only, well first of all,
me being part of the marketing team,
you have an effect on me, so I'm good.
But let's think about the impact
that you're having on residents and physicians.
>> So I was asked to participate in sort of
a Grand Rounds Morbidity Mortality Conference at Wilmer
a few weeks ago, where the topic was depression
and suicide in ophthalmic patients.
And I was happy to see this topic being discussed,
because as I've become very open with,
I've struggled with those issues myself.
I went through a very dark period right after my diagnosis
and I've been public with the fact
that there are times in that period
where I didn't know if I wanted to continue my life,
I'm public with that.
And I think there's a lot of patients
that struggle with that quite honestly,
and I think we need to start to talk about it.
And there's a lot of questions from the clinical perspective
of how do we take better care of the mental health
of ophthalmic patients as they're losing their vision?
And so in this conference,
I had an opportunity.
Honestly, I was set to go up there and talk about data
and epidemiology of depression and anxiety.
But sort of at the last minute I threw that out the window.
And decided that the bigger impact
would be to talk about my situation.
And so the story I told was,
about when I was going through this initial diagnosis
with a retina specialist in D.C.
I was very depressed and struggling,
and from my retina specialist's perspective,
I was showing up at every appointment
with a really loving, supportive, very concerned husband.
And as a college educated woman,
I'm not sure that he was overly concerned
about my mental wellbeing, but I was struggling,
because I had just gotten married
and I was really worried about
what this meant for my marriage.
It was absolutely gonna change my interaction.
Thankfully, I have an amazing husband
and it's made things better in a lot of ways.
I was worried about my career,
because as I had said,
I had just submitted applications to graduate school
and my financial wellbeing.
And I really didn't have a social network
outside of my husband to be honest.
My family and my friends had told me things like,
they didn't wanna take care
of a blind person, quite honestly.
And so that was really hard.
And how could my retina specialist really know that, right?
But I was struggling and it was very difficult.
And so I shared that story because I wanted
the clinicians to understand that even someone
who may present looking like they are fairly put together,
they're having a hard time.
They might go through periods where they are.
And when you lose your vision, that impact,
that change is everything to a patient,
it's a really big deal.
And I'm happy that at Wilmer,
honestly we're talking about that.
That's a game changing situation.
>> Game changing.
>> Game changing, and I was blown away with the response.
>> The response, exactly.
>> And the openness and the discussion, and...
The care and the concern.
And those conversations, people who've approached me
have continued, right?
I hope that the impact was to get people
to think about this from the patient's perspective.
I always feel the opportunity and the privilege
to represent patients at these really unique situations
where patients aren't normally represented
from that nuanced perspective, right?
And I try to never waste those situations
and this just really seemed like an opportunity,
and I had to share my story
even though it definitely was hard.
>> No, I'm glad you did because like I said,
I know of the impact that it had,
because we heard about it here at Wilmer in marketing.
But what I wanna say, being a part of the Wilmer team here.
When you get a diagnosis, any eye diagnosis,
it's a chronic, long standing, and our doctors
are so compassionate and caring here for the longterm.
And they see saving vision and they see all these things,
but like you're saying,
to really see what this patient is going through,
the relationships here are what make Wilmer Wilmer, right?
Because you're, like I said,
glaucoma is an ongoing condition.
All these things that require follow-up.
We just had Dr. Correa,
how she always is looking at her patients,
always takes care of her patients.
And we see that here, and I think they miss,
until you came along, exactly like, wait a minute,
I'm thinking I'm saving this patient,
and they're not really there yet,
and I've gotta get 'em there, 'cause you can do that.
And I see that and I think, you made such an impact
on the mortality and morbidity conference.
I'm sure there's many more in your future.
>> Well I also just wanna add that what I also hope
that the message I got across was the impact
that they have on patients, right?
Because I think sometimes from their perspective,
they feel like they can only do so much.
And I hope that they realize that just by taking care
of the patients the way they do,
it has an impact beyond what I think they realize.
Because what I said in the beginning is true.
When I came here, that dark period changed.
And I hope that that's the message, is there is hope.
And they are a part of that.
>> And it's their confidence too,
that they're going to change the science of ophthalmology.
I mean, they believe that and you're going to change
the way we look at patients.
And so that's what I love being a part of Wilmer about,
is that there's change happening here all the time.
I just wanna, just one more story.
I know you advocate for patients, okay?
And you also advocate for employees
here at Wilmer and Johns Hopkins.
And I wanna move into that, how do you do that?
Because I think it's important for other people to see that
and other institutions to see what you do,
how you advocate for employees here.
>> So a lot of that focus has been on
for employees with disabilities.
And creating a system and an environment
where employees and faculty, and staff, and trainees
with disabilities are valued at a totally different level.
We need people with disabilities
in the healthcare environment,
we desperately need their perspective.
And to facilitate that there needs to be some changes.
So I've spent a lot of time over the past three, four years
working to change policy, not only here at Johns Hopkins,
but also more broadly at federal funding agencies
to make a more inclusive and supportive environment
to change the structure in the way
that we are including people,
so that we can open up that pipeline
and create a more inclusive environment.
As well as just really advocating for the value
and the need for inclusion to completely change the paradigm
about the way we think about disability.
It needs to be thought of in a very different way.
It's valuable.
>> Right, and it gives a perspective for everyone.
So just to wrap up here.
I understand that you are the Wilmer Media Rockstar, okay?
So I'm happy for that.
You're on Twitter, but also your article
opened up a whole audience,
it was 59 million, is the number.
Which I find amazing and I'm so happy for you.
So can you tell me a story, I mean your outreach now,
59 million, like I said,
you're our in-house Wilmer rockstar.
So tell me a story about how you're reaching
this new audience, 'cause I know you didn't think about it,
it just happened, and it's so wonderful,
like, we're happy to be a part of it, so go ahead.
>> So I am always trying to, as we just talked about,
elevate the value of including persons with disabilities.
But obviously, I'm coming from this perspective
of vision impairment.
And I will tell you, I've been thrust into this world
of disability inclusion very quickly and It's been amazing.
And there really is an increasing spotlight
and focus on disability inclusion.
But I will tell you that the perspective
of individuals with vision impairment
is even slightly absent from that world.
So I've been working pretty hard to highlight
people with vision impairment
even within the world of disability inclusion.
And so--
>> I know you had a psychologist that wrote you, right?
>> Yes, yes.
>> And I know your value here at Wilmer,
but I think like, maybe that's not translated out there,
maybe that doesn't happen.
She was a psychologist, right?
>> Right, so I have people contacting me
at an increasing pace with all types of disabilities,
but certainly people with vision impairment and blindness.
And I had a woman who's a psychologist contact me,
who's visually impaired and what she said to me was amazing.
And said, "Thank you for saying
"and doing all the things you're doing."
Because she wanted to say and do those things,
but felt she could not, because she would be pegged
as the blind psychologist where she worked.
And she is just trying to move ahead with her career
as best she can, and manage career advancement
with the disability that she has,
without being stigmatized against.
And through those kinds of conversations
and that's not the only one I've had like that.
I've really learned to realize and appreciate the privilege
I have of being a visually impaired scientist at Wilmer,
where I feel normal.
I have this whole social structure and support,
professional support to speak out.
If I was somewhere else, I don't think I would be able
to speak out the way I do.
>> But I think that's why you had 59 million followers,
because she could be a mother, she could be a sister,
she could be in a family with people with visual impairment.
All these people wanna hear your story,
'cause you fit in a variety of ways
that make us all wanna move forward,
and see what disability inclusion really means.
So for me, that's what it was about.
I mean, I know that women, she's a mother.
I don't know her, I'm saying, she's a mother,
she's a sister, she's all those things, like you are.
And that's what I think, what you're saying,
when you go to the low vision clinic
and it's your whole life in front of you, right?
You just don't walk out, right?
So we're gonna wrap this up, like I said,
what do you think when you look back 10 years from now,
where are you gonna be?
>> That's a great question, where am I gonna be?
I certainly hope that I have changed the way
that we view disability and that includes vision impairment.
I will keep fighting for that change,
both at a professional level and a societal level.
We need to change the way we think about
persons with disability.
>> Thank you for being here.
>> Thank you.
>> And thank you for watching.
We look forward to seeing you at the next interview.
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