UC San Diego Shiley Eye Center 9415 Campus Point Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-0946 (858) 822-2831 eyemobile@eyecenter.ucsd.edu

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History

The Save our Children's Sight/EyeMobile Program was started in January of 2000 from the vision of Dr. Stuart Brown and was made possible through community leaders: Anne Ratner, the Foster Family, Jerome and Miriam Katzin, and other generous philanthropists with the establishment of a mobile, pediatric eye clinic to bring vision care to disadvantaged areas of San Diego. Those visionaries created a program that would not only benefit the underprivileged children of San Diego County, but would also provide valuable research opportunities, and serve as a viable model for other communities.

Significant funding for the Save Our Children's Sight project included the first grant that UCSD has ever received from The California Endowment and the only grant ever received in California from the Lions Clubs International Foundation. Many other public and private funders have also been influential in the initial states of implementation including the First 5 Commission of San Diego County (Prop 10) and the Alliance Health Care Foundation.

This unprecedented program for the underserved children of San Diego has grown into a complex, systematic and multifaceted program. The four components of the program are:

Vision Screening

Vision Screening of children in over 210 locations throughout San Diego County.

EyeMobile for Children

A mobile pediatric clinic which examines all children who fail the vision screening. This service provides glasses and/or referrals to specialists at no cost to their families.

Providing Glasses and Community Education

Empowering parents through community education about the importance of vision care and subsequent follow-up for their children who receive glasses and/or other treatment.

Research on the Impact of Early Intervention

Determining patterns of eye disease and the impact of early intervention with eyeglasses on the mental and motor functioning of young children.

All of these accomplishments are remarkable and have resulted in multiple University community partnerships and funding from many private and public sources.

The UCSD EyeMobile for children is an unprecedented program that serves as a community health model in overcoming barriers to care for the underserved. Keys to our success include the use of the latest information technologies including electronic medical records, a dedicated multilingual staff, student and community volunteers.