By Dr. Bill Lay, Chair, Ohio InfantSEE

One tenth. 10%. It may not seem like a lot. Ohio volunteer doctors do one tenth of all the InfantSEE exams reported in the United States. In 2012, Ohio doctors reported 1,095 InfantSEE exams; a total of 11,451 InfantSEE exams were reported in the country. Throughout the eight-year history of InfantSEE, 97,267 InfantSEE exams were reported by Ohio ODs throughout America. Ohio ODs reported 9,520 InfantSEE exams, I assume Ohio will go over the 10,000 mark for InfantSEE exams in 2013; I also assume the 100,000 mark will be eclipsed in the United States.

Thank you, InfantSEE volunteers. We can do more – educate more parents, inform more relevant parties like nurse practitioners and pre-school teachers, examine more babies. In our practice – Professional Vision Care of Westerville and Johnstown – we do the following:

• Host free seminars for moms to educate them about the importance of baby vision exams.

• Tell mother for father in the exam chair who are expecting or recently had a baby about InfantSEE – they are often amazed that we can even examine an infant.

• Give baby packets to new or expecting parents that include information about stages of vision development, information about infant exams, tips for parents on things they can do.

Be proactive in recruiting within your own patient base. You will expand your clinical skills and fill your exam slots with excitement.