Ophthalmologists Experience Visual Maladies To Improve Care for Patients

by Dave McKinley & Dooley O'Rourke

BUFFALO, NY - It is said one can learn much by walking a mile in another person's shoes.

Such was the case Thursday night at the Olmsted Center for Sight on Main Street, where a unique exercise was held to help physicians provide better care for their patients.

"Well we came up with this crazy idea actually," said the center's Director of Marketing Linda Wiecek, in describing how two dozen area Ophthalmologists were invited to sit down for dinner, in a fashion which would allow them to share their patients' view of the world --or lack thereof.

Upon their arrival each doctor was asked to choose a festive mardi gras style mask to wear at the event.

However, the eye holes of each mask were outfitted with occluders, to simulate one of the four most common causes of visual impairments.

Upon donning a mask to simulate macular degeneration, Dr. Paul Lee suddenly found that the middle of his field of vision had been impaired.

"Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in the country, and often times its irreversible so the earlier you diagnose it the better we can treat you," Dr. Lee told WGRZ-TV.

In contrast, Dr. Melissa Neal selected a mask outfitted to simulate the effects of glaucoma, and set about discovering what it was like for a person with impaired peripheral vision.

"In my former practice, I treated a lot of patients with glaucoma and I kind of have a passion for it," she explained

After socializing, and struggling a bit with their new found disabilities, the doctors sat down for dinner...then the lights were turned out.

They proceeded to dine as many of their patients do -- in the dark.

Some gingerly set about consuming their meals, at times struggling to find their drinking glasses or silverware and put fork-to plate-to mouth.

The whole idea of temporarily disabling their sight was to make them better doctors by seeing through the eyes of their patients.

"It's tougher than I thought," said Dr. Lee. "I kept on bumping into my colleagues ...it's a whole lot different than I really thought it was going to be."

"I'll never truly understand (living with glaucoma) because when things got more difficult I could just take my mask off," Said Dr. Neal. "But it does give me a little bit more sympathy and understanding for my patients and their frustrations," she said.