UVA Medical Students Expand Community Vision Work
The C-Ville C-More Community Glasses Initiative is a student-led project of the UVA School of Medicine’s Ophthalmology Interest Group (OIG) that expands the group’s existing community vision work from screening into refractive correction. UVA MS3 Alex Markowski has organized much of the initiative alongside OIG co-president Vishnusai Karri, a UVA MS4, and other medical students who are developing the collection, measurement, and matching process. Because OIG students already conduct vision screenings at The Haven, a multi-resource day shelter and housing resource center in downtown Charlottesville, the Glasses Initiative gives them a way to address refractive needs within work they are already doing there. UVA Ophthalmology supports the initiative by providing the equipment, training, and clinical guidance the students need to carry out the process.
The decision to focus on refractive needs grew from limitations the students encountered through earlier screening work. Vishnu had participated in vision and glaucoma screenings that could identify possible ocular problems. When those screenings produced abnormal findings, some patients needed specialist evaluation, treatment, or continued follow-up that the students could not provide themselves. Those experiences led the OIG to consider which needs students could address directly, from identification through intervention, using resources they could realistically obtain. Refractive correction fit that goal because students could identify the correction a person needed, match donated glasses to that prescription, then check whether the glasses improved vision. As Markowski explained, “We decided to focus on a more readily addressable issue first, and then maybe see what we can do later on, rather than do nothing at all.”
Making that approach workable depended on building a supply of donated glasses with known prescriptions. Markowski expanded the supply by placing donation boxes across UVA Ophthalmology’s Charlottesville clinics and satellite locations. A separate drive at the medical school added more glasses, bringing the collection into the hundreds of pairs. As the supply grew, OIG needed a system that would show students which prescriptions were available for matching. Using lensometers provided by UVA Ophthalmology, students measure each pair before entering its prescription into a searchable inventory. Ophthalmology PGY-3 Erika T. Robinson, MD, and other ophthalmology residents have trained students to use the lensometers so more OIG members can help maintain that inventory.
The inventory gives students a way to search the donated supply once they know what correction a person needs. Markowski discussed how to determine that need with Albert S. Jun, MD, PhD, chair of the UVA Department of Ophthalmology, who suggested using a handheld autorefractor at The Haven. After Markowski drafted a proposal, the department purchased the device. Clinical staff then helped train students to use it. Markowski also consults Vishnu as he refines clinical and logistical aspects of the matching process. Vishnu has advised him on how to structure visual acuity checks around each match, including the use of a mobile eye-chart tool before and after students provide a pair of glasses. Together, those steps allow students to identify a refractive need, search the donated inventory for an appropriate match, then determine whether the correction improves vision.
As part of his effort to expand the initiative, Markowski is recruiting first- and second-year medical students to learn the collection, measurement, and matching process. That recruitment also addresses a broader issue Vishnu has observed in medical education: many students do not encounter ophthalmology until relatively late in their training. OIG is seeing growing interest among the earlier classes, and the Glasses Initiative gives those students a way to engage with the specialty through community work earlier in medical school.
Bringing students into the initiative earlier also gives C-Ville C-More more time to develop the experience needed to sustain the service. As older organizers move further into clinical training, students who have already learned the process can assume greater responsibility for the work at The Haven. A larger group of trained students would also give OIG greater capacity to extend the same model to additional free clinics and community settings. When asked how he hopes the initiative will grow, Markowski described a broader vision for expanding the program beyond its current setting, mentioning that “I’d also like to see it go beyond just The Haven.”
