Doctors Ruth Williams, Kenneth Neufeld, and Timothy Murray, board-certified diplomates of the American Board of Ophthalmology, were quoted in a recent article in the International Business Times about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on eye care patients. The article explored the resulting impacts of postponing new and routine eye care visits during stay-at-home orders for COVID-19.
Dr. Williams, a glaucoma specialist at the Wheaton Eye Clinic near Chicago, explained that when her clinic reopened after lockdown measures were lifted, she and her colleagues saw patients who had developed serious eye problems.
Dr. Neufeld, an oculoplastic surgeon at the Thomas Eye Group in Atlanta, noted that while the choice to delay treatment for eye and vision issues is often not life-threatening, it can lead to permanent vision loss in some cases.
Dr. Murray, an ocular oncologist and retina specialist in Miami, added that the longer appropriate ophthalmic treatment is delayed, the worse a patient's vision is likely to become.
Outpatient visits to ophthalmologists dropped sharply by as much as 80% during the pandemic.
Read the full article.
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