Glaucoma, on the other hand, is the leading cause of permanent blindness of people worldwide. It is a reversible loss of vision so if you perform the surgery, the patient’s vision comes back. Cataract surgery is probably the most effective surgery that you can think of that will restore the human body to its youth. It’s the most efficient thing that one person can do to contribute to the society. “Restoring vision is a beautiful thing to do. The partnership between the two locations is important as it brings latest technology that is accessible at the Morsani Center to those patients at the Health Park Clinic. On the alternate Fridays, a similar clinic was established to see patients at the USF Health Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare. Ayyala and his team from the USF Health Eye Institute helped to reopen the clinic on the first and third Fridays of the month to begin taking appointments for those without vision insurance. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, and Tampa General Hospital leadership, Dr. The USF Health Eye Institute Health Park Clinic location had been closed since the start of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic earlier this year but with the support of Dr. I thought I should jump start this process myself instead of waiting for other people to do it. “From my point of view, we should establish a system of taking care of the indigent and those who have lost their insurance. USF Health Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare Ayyala took matters into his own hands and reached out the Department of Ophthalmology’s development officer to find out more of what it would take to start a fund to help this population. Ayyala.Īfter a year of slowly trying to bring awareness to the lack of vision care for the indigent and uninsured population, Dr. With the arrival of COVID-19, it became more important for us to focus on people who have lost their jobs and consequently their insurance,” said Dr. Bringing attention to this problem has been a very slow process simply because the community is facing so many other problems. “What was missing at the USF Health Eye Clinic was a charity clinic that would take care of indigent patients with no health insurance or underinsured, so about two years ago I started to reach out to leadership and the community. He began noticing a lot of patients checking in to the emergency room at Tampa General Hospital with “eye emergencies,” a lot of which could have been prevented or treated earlier if the patient would have been seen at a routine eye exam. Ayyala has been working to serve the indigent community by transforming the USF Health Eye Clinic to accommodate appointments for these patients. Ayyala is a professor and chair of the USF Health Eye Institute in the Morsani College of Medicine and also holds the James and Heather Gills Chair in Ophthalmology.
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In August, Ramesh Ayyala, MD, made a $10,000 gift to start the Eye Care For All fund, which will help the uninsured and underserved population in Tampa Bay to receive free eye care.