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I think optometry has to be a part of the overall vision science research program in
the United States and the world today to be considered a viable profession. I do not think
as a profession optometry can just take other people's research results and interpret
them and incorporate them into patient care. So I think things that are looking to treat
and ultimately cure macular degeneration, that are looking to figure out why people
become myopic and figure out how that might not happen them. To figure out better ways
to treat and cure presbyopia, as well as a variety of ocular diseases that we can now
treat. If we do our own research we are by definition the leaders in all of those efforts,
from the bench to the chair side.
We have a variety of research projects ongoing
here in the college. The primary bulk of those are clinically related. Clinical trials related
specifically to refractive error for the most part. Basically understanding how we see and
what kind of things we can do to intervene to help us see better. Also understanding
how vision problems change over time, with respect to gender, with respect to race. All
of these things allow us, number one to provide treatment but also to perhaps learn things
to how to prevent or to maturate conditions that we can not deal with.
We also have some research activities that are going on with respect to older eyes, tears
deficiency etc…and we have clinicians and researchers that are working with other disciplines
here on campus to better understand how tear quality changes with time and how we can intervene
to relieve conditions or relieve symptoms of discomfort.
We also have individuals on our faculty who are doing research in color vision or color
naming,. A very innovative and novel research, we find that although we assume that all people
see and appreciate colors the same, we find there are variations throughout the world.
And so all of these help us better understand vision as it relates to people and their ability
to function in society.
I think vision research in the last 10 years
in optometry, in schools and colleges of optometry specifically, has really become more sophisticated
and has kept up more with research in the area of vision science in general. So we see
basic scientists in our schools and colleges of optometry who are working on things in
the lab that can ultimately be translated to patient care.
We also seen quite honestly, especially in the last 15 to 20 years more sophisticated
patient base or epidemiological research that really 20 years ago when I graduated from
optometry school, no one in optometry was doing. So things that look at risk factors
for disease, things that look at randomized clinical trials to treat optometric conditions,
all that's new to our profession.
An experience I've had that has given me
extreme personal satisfaction, I guess the one that comes immediately to mind is an occasion
where I was doing a research project in Alabama. A research project to examine young children
to determine how their eyes changed over time. It's part of the CLEERE project, which is
a major project that is being conducted here at OSU. During the course of this project,
we would bring children in and examine various aspects of their eyes, refractive mostly in
nature. There was this little girl who was a first
grader who came in along with two other little boys. And of, of course I love children, so
I was interacting with the children, and I asked her “how are you sweetheart?” and
she basically didn't respond. And the two little boys that were with her, one of them
said “don't talk to her she's stupid.” I told him don't say that about someone
one that's not very nice. Found out later that this little girl had
something called aphakia, she did not have the crystalline lens within her eyes, so therefore
she couldn't really see. Either far away or up close. She had a very high refractive
error. We detected that, we were able to provide care for her by number one alerting her parents
but also arranging for her to get that care because she was from a family that was impoverished
and really could not afford to provide that care for her.
Well, the next year when we had the battery of students that was in this project come
through again, this little girl came through, this time with a pair of glasses with rather
thick lenses, but totally different. Instead of being quiet and retiring she was now engaging
and talking and playing with the other children. So I appreciated then that when you talk about
eye and vision problems, it not just if someone sees 20/20 or not, it's a quality of life
issue. Suddenly she was aware of her world, able to interact with her classmates and with
others in a meaningful way because now she could see people and appreciate them.
I am excited about this research endeavor in optometry because we need it, because I
feel like there have been a group of people over the last 20 years that have been able
to advance it, to make real differences. And then the real answer to your question is,
we get to find out the answers to these questions. I have a college who describes the perfect
researcher as someone who is terminally curious; they ask questions all the time. The luxury
of getting to answer those questions makes for a great job and ultimately a great profession
of optometry