Report on Global Care - Dean McGee
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- Written by Ilya (Eli) Sluch, MD
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The Dean McGee Eye Institute continues to strive to provide ophthalmic care and education throughout the world in the 2015-2016 academic year. The year kicked off with a visit from Dr. Glenn Strauss on August 17, 2015 and his excellent talk on international ophthalmology, MSICS, and the MSICS simulator. Dr. Strauss was kind enough to spend the morning with the residents lecturing on his work world wide as well as his Dallas clinic. The residents were left inspired by his work and all expressed great interest in following his foot steps in the future. Dr. Strauss then flew to Africa to join Dr. Alex Cohen for a few weeks at the newly started Dean McGee project in performing large-volume MSICS through the Luke Commission in Swaziland. Dean McGee's own Dr. Annie Moreau and Dr. Janine Collinge soon followed to perform vision screens in the rural Swaziland community where they screened and treated over a 1000 children over a one week period.
The next annual resident international trip is set for February 2015, where resident physicians Dr. James Hoffman and Dr. Andrew Wilson will travel to Swaziland to join Dr. Jonathan Pons in treating the population of East Swaziland. The residents will perform ophthalmic evaluations, treat systemic conditions, and perform MSICS along with Dr. Pons. The residents will not only get exposed to treatments of ocular tuberculosis and large volume of HIV manifestations in the eye, but they will also gain an understanding of what it's like to run a multicenter clinic in a large underprivileged community with minimal resources but maximal efficiency.
In March 2016, Dr. Steve Fransen will travel to Nicaragua to screen and treat patients for diabetic retinopathy and other retinal diseases. Their goal is to establish a photography screening program where retinal diseases will be diagnosed with the help of fundus photography, due to the limited supply of specialists in the remote sectors of the country.
In May 2016, resident physicians, Dr. Jonathan Perkins and Dr. Jeremy Tan, will travel to Chengdu, China for the annual Dean McGee partnership with the local eye hospital. The residents will engage in vision screenings and treatment of the populations in the remote mountain villages around Chengdu, as well as give lectures and engage in dialog with their Chinese counterparts to better understand the care that is provided in a population where the demand for ophthalmic intervention is so much greater than in the in US.
Throughout the academic year, the Dean McGee residents continue to run the local free ophthalmology clinic at the Olivet Church. This opportunity provides the residents with the ability to give back to the Oklahoma community and provide the underprivileged in Oklahoma the care that they so desperately need and deserve. Many of the Dean McGee faculty and staff participate in mission trips and community free clinics through the year. This sets an example for the residents and medical students on how to best practice ophthalmology in the future to make the world a better place.