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Residents, medical students fight for sight by Heather Woolwine Public Relations In its second year, Fight for SIGHT strives to provide excellent eye care and screening opportunities to community members often left out of the traditional health care system.   But it’s more than an outreach effort for the disenfranchised, it’s an environment that breeds altruism for years to come; all while enabling ophthalmology residents and medical students to hone practical patient care skills.   Dr. Corant Jansen, ophthalmology resident, examines a patient's eyes through a slit lamp.  “In general, people don’t get their eyes checked on a regular basis,” said Michelle Ying, M.D., ophthalmology resident. “They do it when something is wrong. The population that we are trying to help often can’t afford to treat a problem even if it is diagnosed because of lack of health insurance or limited funds. If it comes down to buying food or eyeglasses, the choice is obvious.”   Targeting this particular population in several pockets around the Lowcountry, Fight for SIGHT provides its patients the opportunity for a full eye exam at no cost.   Residents and medical students who run the screenings and exams guide patients through a six-step process to accurately diagnosis just about any problem, including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, refractive errors, cataracts, or glaucoma. In some cases, free reading glasses or medications are also available.   So far, residents and attending physicians like Elizabeth Sharpe, M.D., conduct free exams at the Canterbury House in downtown Charleston, First Baptist Church of North Charleston, St. Andrews Church in Mount Pleasant’s old village, and Crisis Ministries, also downtown.   College of Medicine student Jennifer Mills measures pressure within a patient's eye in addition to cornea thickness.  When patients arrive, a resident or medical student takes a complete patient history, followed by a visual acuity test. This test is familiar to many, with the traditional letter chart posted on a wall. The next component of the exam measures the pressure within the eye, as well as the thickness of the cornea. A questionnaire concerning daily eye issues, like how well a patient can read street signs while driving, is completed. Residents then examine patients’ eyes through a slit lamp to confirm a possible diagnosis, or in most cases, give the all-clear. Completing the circle, Carolyn Cavanaugh, R.N., Storm Eye Institute, provides necessary patient education for those who receive specific diagnoses.   Fight for SIGHT began when ophthalmology residents Neel Desai, M.D., Jay Biber, M.D., and Reid Murphy, M.D., sought a way to give back to the community, as well as allow residents and medical students to sharpen their patient care and eye exam skills. “This effort really enables attending physicians to interact with residents and medical students in a different way,” Sharpe said. “Providing good quality of care in an outreach setting is a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other and patients. It’s also great for medical students because they get to actually do something.”   Indeed, Fight for SIGHT partners with the MUSC Medical Student Ophthalmology Society to sponsor medical students who wish to engage in hands-on training and experience in delivering quality care to an underserved population.   Not all of the medical students involved with the outreach program become ophthalmologists, but they can still benefit as physicians by learning to give proper eye care and receiving education not provided in the classroom.   “It has been awesome working with the residents and MUSC,” said Sandy Hiddleson, St. Andrews Christian Medical Clinic administrator. “They have caught several things for our patients and it’s nice to see these students and residents learning a sense of community early in their careers.” Fight for SIGHT golf tournament With the hopes of raising more money to conduct even more clinics and cover more areas in the Lowcountry, Fight for SIGHT has planned a golf tournament for Feb. 25, 2006.   In addition to clinic funds, according to John French, M.D., third-year medical student, the group hopes to obtain enough money to begin providing free cataract surgeries for patients with no financial means. The Catalyst will provide more details as they become available.   Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.