Hello, I’m a second year student at Southern College of Optometry. While this post is not necessarily a “clinical pearl,” it is of a remarkable video using inexpensive available technology that we all own!

Last week after practicing dilated in lab (I have DFE checkouts coming up!) I decided to try to capture video of my own retina using my cell phone and 20D lens. The results were remarkable! I shared the video with our director of communications at SCO, and he posted it to our Facebook page. In less than one week we had over 176,000 views, and over 1000 shares! In fact, some of you may have already seen it before this post.

So, how did I do it, and what is the relevance to our practice?

1) Well, the video was actually rather simple to capture. Most cell phone cameras have a bright LED light right next to the camera lens, so there’s your illumination source. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, and got the working distance just right while looking at the reflection with my other eye.

2) This can benefit our patients by letting them actually see what we are looking at while shining “all those bright lights” into their eyes. It’s totally different from looking at static pictures from patient education brochures. This is live retina video footage on a screen! You can see the blinking lashes behind the lens, and the macula shifting on gaze refixation. I think it can create a better awareness of overall eye health. In fact, you could even offer to snap a video clip for them using their cell phone while you have your 20D lens out after doing BIO. It takes just a few seconds, and they have something to take with them and show all their friends.

So, take a look, and feel free to share the video with your patients!



Regards,

Enrique Palacios

SCO Class of 2016