Literacy Linked to Eye Health

"In the month after Alexander Dominguez joined Maygon Thompson's third-grade class at Charles Carroll Barrister Elementary School, he breezed through worksheets and quickly rose to be among the most studious members. So when the third-grader couldn't read a relatively simple sentence on the board, Thompson was puzzled. 'I thought he was kidding,' said Thompson, a special educator at the public school in Southwest Baltimore. 'But he's so serious about his work, it had to be something else,'" according to a report in the Baltimore Sun. A team of researchers at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital might have figured out that 'something else.' They're trying to answer a basic but overlooked question: Are students struggling to read because they can't see? For the past six months, Hopkins pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Megan Collins has been conducting screenings and administering glasses to students in a dozen Baltimore elementary schools to produce a first-of-its-kind study that attempts to link vision deficiencies and literacy in a school-based population. Whether students can't read because they can't see, Collins said, is one of those 'important research questions you think someone else has answered.'" Read more.

Top Hospitals for Ophthalmology According to U.S. News

"The 11 hospitals ranked in Ophthalmology were named among the best for difficult cases and procedures by at least 5 percent of the ophthalmology specialists who responded to U.S. News surveys in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Another 24 hospitals received nominations from one or more physicians. They are listed alphabetically below the ranked hospitals," reports U.S. News & World Report. Here are the top five rankings. For more information, read. 

1. Bascom Palmer Eye Institute-Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, Miami;   
2. Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia; 
3. Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore;  
4. Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston;
5. Stein and Doheny Eye Institutes, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Yet Another Warning about Eye Safety and Sports

"August is Children's Eye Health and Safety month and pediatricians are being advised to educate parents, coaches and young athletes about the dangers of eye injuries, urging them to wear protective goggles when they participate in sports, in particular for high-risk sporting activities, including fencing, boxing and ball sports, such as soccer, basketball, softball, lacrosse and baseball," notes Medical News Today. "Pediatric ophthalmologist Michael X. Repka, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, who is also deputy director of ophthalmology at the Hopkins Children's Center explains:

'As training season begins, and as children resume practice, emergency rooms across the country may see an influx of eye injuries from sports - yet most if these injuries are highly preventable by wearing protective goggles.'"

Read more.