News from the AOA's Blog

Vision screenings in remote regions of Alaska, a mobile clinic on the streets of New Jersey, a week-long optometry clinic in a grade school music room, and an initiative effort to place low vision devices in public libraries are among the 20 projects awarded funding last month under the AOA’s 2010 Healthy Eyes Healthy People® (HEHP) State Association Grant Program.

Again this year, the AOA HEHP program is providing grants of up to $5,000 for innovative community outreach projects addressing the vision-related objectives of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service’s (HHS) Healthy People 2010 public health agenda.

With some 55 applicants,  this year’s HEHP grant awards process was perhaps the most competitive in the program’s eight-year history, noted AOA Community Grants Committee Chair Fred Dubick, O.D.

The grant program is open to any AOA member optometrist who wishes to establish or continue an eye or vision public outreach program conducted in conjunction with an entity outside organized optometry.

“The HEHP grants strengthen the outreach of optometry through community-based organizations by providing ‘seed money’ to begin or continue vision-related projects,” Dr. Dubick said.

Optometrists successfully proposing projects for funding this year ranged from public health optometrists with large institutions to private practitioners (and in one case, a retired practitioner) who applied after recognizing a unique need in their community, Dr. Dubick said.

Projects this year variously involve collaborations with academic institutions, health departments, organizations representing other health care professions, schools, and a local women’s group.

All grant applications must be filed through state optometric associations – all of which now have HEHP consultants to facilitate the process.  Mulitple applications were received from several states this year.

Since the HEHP program’s inception in 2004, the AOA has distributed $1,080,000 in grants for 299 projects addressing diabetes, glaucoma, children’s vision, eye safety, low vision, and other vision-related issues.

The HEHP State Association Grant Program this year is funded by Luxottica.

Listed by state below are the projects (with project coordinators) awarded HEHP grants this year. For more information about the HEHP program, contact Uzma Zumbrink, DHSc, MPH, at 314-983-4146 or UAZumbrink@aoa.org.

• Alabama – Healthy Eyes for Children 2011 – Janene Sims, O.D. – Up to 2,000 preschoolers could benefit as the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry begins to offer vision screenings for infants (ages 0-1) and toddlers (ages 2-4) at Head Start centers in the greater Birmingham area.
• Alabama – Reducing visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error in the Birmingham homeless population – Keshia S. Elder (University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Optometry) – The UAB School of Optometry will provide quarterly (October 2010; December 2010; February 2011; May 2011) screenings (visual acuity, tonometry, direct opthalmoscopy, and retinoscopy) to residents of Birmingham-area homeless shelters.
• Alaska – Joint Vision Awareness Project – Rina Salazar (Alaska Optometric Association) – The Joint Vision Awareness Committee (a partnership of the Alaska Optometric Association, the Alaska Primary Care Association, Lions Club International, and the Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired) will provide vision screenings at 12 community health centers annually in areas that normally have no access to eye care.
• Arkansas – Vision for Arkansas Children – Kenny Wyatt, O.D. – Working with the Arkansas School-Age Vision Commission, Coordinated School Nurse Program, and Arkansas School Nurse Association, the Arkansas Optometric Association will make Titmus machines available for school screenings.
• Arkansas – Arkansas Eyes on Kids –  Patricia Westfall-Elsberry, O.D. – The Arkansas Optometric Association will work with the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education to encourage comprehensive eye examinations for children entering school.
• California – Reducing visual impairment due to diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, and cataracts – Jasmine Yumori, O.D. – The Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry will offer screenings and public education targeting glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and cataracts for the Pomona area’s uninsured and indigent Hispanic and white populations.
• Georgia – The Annette Winn Project – Joyce M. Nations, O.D. –  Georgia Optometric Association members provided comprehensive eye examinations, free-of-charge, for disadvantaged students at the Annette Winn Elementary School in Lithia Springs, Ga., Sept. 20-24, in a temporary optometry clinic in the school’s music room.
• Iowa – Student Vision Cards – Jill Gonder (Iowa Optometric Association) – To increase the number of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children who receive comprehensive eye examinations and increase the awareness of parents, teachers, administrators and school nurses regarding the relationship of good vision and learning – the Iowa Optometric Association plans to begin distributing Student Vision Cards for toddlers (ages 2-4) as well as preschool or early elementary school children (ages 5-12).
• Massachusetts – The Massachusetts Diabetes Education Program (MDEP) Coalition: Working Together to Manage Diabetes – W. Lee Ball, O.D. – The MDEP Coalition is attempting to implement the National Diabetes Education Program’s (NDEP) PPOD initiative, under which pharmacists, podiatrists, optometrists, and dentists work collaboratively to promote comprehensive diabetes care.
• Minnesota – Healthy Vision in Early Childhood – Jessica Miller – The Minnesota Optometric Association is developing a unique, interactive early childhood vision display, designed by the Science Museum of Minnesota, for exhibition at the Minnesota State Fair. The association will offer InfantSEE® examinations April 2011 at a Minneapolis-St. Paul area community health clinic.
• Missouri – Optometry and Pharmacy Diabetes Community Outreach Program – LeeAnn Barrett, O.D. – Under a joint project of the Missouri Optometric Association and Missouri Pharmacy Association, several mid-Missouri pharmacies, when dispensing insulin or hypoglycemic medicine, will include a reminder card on the importance of annual dilated eye examinations for patients with diabetes.
• Missouri – Increase the percentage of Missouri Kindergartners Having Eye Exams – Mark D. Curtis, O.D. – The Missouri Optometric Association will conduct a public education program – including radio, television, and newspaper advertising – to inform parents directly about a Missouri law that mandates eye exams for children entering school.
• Nebraska – See To Learn Reinforcement – Alissa Johnson – The Nebraska Optometric Association (NOA) will expand statewide its See To Learn program of free vision assessment for 3-year-olds.
• New Jersey – Mobile Sight Saving and Eye Health Education Program – Lawrence A Ragone, O.D.  – The South Jersey Eye Center, a unique, freestanding, nonprofit free-or-no-cost eye care facility plan a mobile eye care unit to serve Camden City, N.J., the fourth-poorest city in the nation.
• New York – Diabetes: Don’t Lose Sight of this Condition!! – Joan K. Portello, O.D. – The State University of New York (SUNY) State College of Optometry will offer lecture programs and screenings to help ensure those with diabetes undergo annual eye exams.
• Oregon – Incidence of Positive Screening for Undiagnosed Diabetes and Hypertension Project – John R. Hayes, O.D. – The Pacific University College of Optometry’s five Portland-area clinics will attempt to determine how many patients, who come to the clinics for other health conditions, may have diabetes or hypertension.
• Utah – Syracuse for Sight – Denmark R. Jensen, O.D. – Low vision devices will be made available for use at Layton, Utah, public libraries.
• Washington – Low Vision Reach Out – Christopher J Babin, O.D. – The Optometric Physicians of Washington will conduct a program to increase awareness – particularly among Hispanic populations – of low vision rehabilitation services that are now available in Yakima and Kittitas counties through the not-for-profit Vision for Independence Center (VIC).
• Washington – Optometric Physicians of Washington (OPW) Diabetes Project 2010 – Heidi Sutter, O.D. – The OPW plans to convene a panel of optometric physicians, retinal specialists and primary care providers to develop a standardized diabetes communication form and distribute it for use to health care practitioners across the state. Seminars on the importance of dilated eye exams for patients with diabetes will be conducted for health care providers, diabetes support groups, and diabetes educators.