Tuesday, October 04, 2011
St Joseph’s Health Care, London
St Joseph’s Health Care London: Vision Lead for Ontario Health Study
London, ON - Dr. William Hodge of St Joseph’s Health Care, London (St Joseph’s) and the Ivey Eye Institute (Ivey Eye) is the vision lead for the Ontario Health Study (OHS), one of the largest research studies online. With approximately nine and a half million Ontarians eligible to participate, the OHS will include input from more than 280 senior scientists and clinicians at universities, hospitals and research institutes across the Province in 30 different fields. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to participate in something that will change the landscape of health care in the world for the better,” says Dr. Hodge.
The vision group is a partnership with The University of Western Ontario and the Lawson Health Research Institute and is comprised of medical eye doctors (ophthalmologists), optometrists, vision scientists, community doctors and international advisors and includes Ivey Eye Institute’s Drs. John Gonder, Cindy Hutnik, Alex Mao, Francie Si and Monali Malvankar. Together the group has formulated the eye and vision related questions asked of OHS participants and designed the assessment that will “include the most relevant and efficient parts of an eye exam,” according to Dr. Hodge. Participants chosen will be tested for visual acuity, have pictures taken of their lens’ and retinas as well as measurements of their retinal thickness and be checked for cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetes. “We are also looking for measurements and observations on the shape of the eye and the way that light passes through it, cornea thickness and pressure,” adds Dr. Hodge.
Dr. Hodge says the questions and exam will allow researchers to find patterns in the results. “Thousands of questions could be answered because the study will follow people that could go on to get diseases 5-10 years down the road. My hope is that unique medical relationships across specialties will be created and together researchers can discover how diseases of the eye are caused and treated in conjunction with diseases that affect other organs in the body.” Information collected by the OHS will be available through the study’s data access committee for use by researchers around the world.
The OHS is also a unique opportunity for participants. Participants chosen for examination will receive some of the measurements recorded, including their visual acuity, along with the range of normal values for comparison.
Media Contact:
Kelsi Break, Communication and Public Affairs
St Joseph’s Health Care, London
519-646-6100 ext 64792
kelsi.break@sjhc.london.on.ca
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