Putting the Future into Focus

By AMY CHARLES

Since receiving full accreditation status from the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education in 2020, the Kentucky College of Optometry is now offering post-graduate training and education opportunities with newly-developed residency programs. Doctors of Optometry can gain an additional year of advanced clinical training by participating in a one-year, postdoctoral residency program. Residencies are a crucial part of optometry training and provide opportunities in research, specialty care and optometric education, while enhancing patient care abilities and exposure to career opportunities.

Residencies provide the space, opportunity and guidance for a resident doctor to evolve and grow professionally. KYCO Assistant Dean for Student and Professional Development and Professor of Optometry Josephine Ibironke, O.D., M.P.H., FAAO, believes that the growth a resident experiences is above and beyond the entry-level skills of a doctor who does not complete a residency.

“Our residency is particularly unique because as our resident works with our doctors and subsequently gains independence, the resident sees a broad range of ocular disease,” said Ibironke. “Because of our expanded scope of practice and state-of-the-art facilities, patients with complex eye diseases do not have to drive out of our community to receive care. Our residency helps the resident grow into a provider able to treat and manage various complex eye diseases.”

Selected as the first resident at KYCO’s on-site optometry clinic, Mohammed Naja, O.D., KYCO ’21 chose to pursue his optometry education at KYCO because of the expanded scope of practice granted by the Kentucky legislature. This gives the faculty the ability to train optometrists of the future, in a new facility with advanced equipment that sets KYCO apart from other optometry schools.

“All this makes it a perfect environment for students to learn the profession as it progresses into the future. KYCO gave me the tools I needed to become a well rounded optometrist in all facets of the profession, and then some,” said Naja. “I was honored to have been selected as one of the first in-house residents at the Kentucky College of Optometry. I look forward to the challenges ahead and am excited to provide the best care possible to the people of Eastern Kentucky.”

KYCO’s new residency program sharpens its focus on educating leaders in therapeutic optometry while providing new initiatives that deepen the mission of caring for the underserved. In addition to KYCO’s primary care residency, with an emphasis in ocular disease, other KYCO-affiliated residency programs are Huffman and Huffman Eye Care in London, Ky., and Milan Eye Center in Cumming, Ga.

KYCO students within the Pikeville Lions Club, one of many service clubs on campus that focus on ways to best help the community, have collaborated with faculty and staff to start a mobile eye care unit. The mobile unit, MobileEyes Appalachia, will play a vital role in decreasing vision loss by helping to diagnose and treat eye disease in underserved areas in the surrounding communities of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee.

Being from Eastern Kentucky, third-year KYCO student and Lions Club President Caitlynn Estevez has seen firsthand the negative effects of limited eyecare and lack of access to quality vision screenings.

“I’m excited to be able to attend KYCO since its mission is to better serve this area. I want to play a role in combating the blindness that is plaguing the Appalachian region,” said Estevez. “I have been fortunate enough to continue my education and hopefully, one day I can be a leader in my community. I truly believe anytime we can offer more services and bring more awareness, we are impacting the community in a very positive way.”

Fundraising efforts have been underway all year to qualify the club for a match grant through the International Lions Club, which will be used to cover vehicle, equipment and supply costs for the new mobile unit. Match grants are conditional awards that require an organization to raise a specified portion of the grant through fundraising and contributions.

In addition to generous donations from alumni and the community, the club also hosted a golf scramble that took in nearly $5,000 to put toward their $100,000 goal.

“We finally have all the pieces in place and are now able to submit our application to get a matching grant,” said Estevez. “We have worked for over a year on this project and we hope to have the unit available next year.”

Once MobileEyes Appalachia is fully equipped and running, KYCO students will be able to screen patients for serious eye issues and systemic disease that lead to blindness or other complications that affect many people in rural areas, and then make physician referrals for further treatment.