In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Eric Singman, a neuro-ophthalmologist working at the Department of Defense Vision Center of Excellence in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been working with Veterans and active-duty military for 20 years. Prior to his position at the VA, Dr. Singman spent most of his academic career in the greater New York City area, obtaining his MD and PhD with a focus on vision problems associated with optic nerve damage from brain injury.
During this episode, Dr. Singman discusses his clinical role at the VA and explains how he directly works with patients suffering from brain injury induced vision problems. He touches on topics like using stem cells to regenerate affected areas of the nervous system and utilizing different colored NoIR sunglasses to allow visually impaired patients to be more comfortable. He then explains at length about the importance of choosing the right color and how it relates to the optic nerve and its circuitries in the brain.
Later in the episode, Dr. Singman elaborates on injury induced by impacts and talks about what happens physiologically, particularly with the optic nerve. He differentiates the effects on the nerve among blunt, ballistic, and blast injury, and discusses how protection may play a role in vision health depending on the injury. Then, Dr. Singman talks about the potential for brain tissue to have regenerative properties like other organs in the body such as the kidneys and the liver. Lastly, he talks about the social and economic impact of brain injury in Veterans, how he builds a network of physicians and caretakers for his patients to ensure correct treatment, and how traumatic brain injury is likely the key player for many other diseases and disorders outside of the brain injury itself.
If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.
Louis Kolling: From the Army to Science, How an Army Veteran found a career in science
A Discussion with Neil Andrews From the Migraine Science Collaborative
Season 3 Episode 8: Understanding diabetes and vision loss: A walkthrough with Dr. Randy Kardon
Season 3 episode 4: Resilience and growth through traumatic vision loss: Tim Hornick
Season 3 Episode 2: Guiding the way to meaningful research for Veterans: Dr. Lina Kubli
Season 3 Episode 12: Building bridges in international veteran vision research: Dr. Renata Gomes and Bravo Victor
Season 3 Episode 3: Investigating visual disfunction in blast traumatic brain injury: Dr. Steven Fliesler
Season 3 episode 5: Providing support and community with sight loss: Dr. Laura Peters
Season 3 episode 10: A look into the optic nerve and vision loss: Dr. Oliver Gramlich
Season 3 Episode 11: Advocating for Veterans and families with sight loss: Dr. Thomas Zampieri and the Blinded Veterans Association
Season 3 episode 9: Navigating life with glaucoma related vision loss: Liz Holmes
Season 3 Episode 7: Life and independence after diabetic vision loss: Loretta Phillips
Season 3 Episode 1: Introduction to season 3
Season 2 Bonus Episode – First-hand experience in the trenches of Covid-19: Dr. Alejandro Pezzulo
Season 2 Episode 7 – Perseverance through care and routine: Dr. Carolyn Turvey and Dr. Anne Sadler discuss research on depression and suicide risk with our Veterans
Season 2 Episode 2 – Not broken, just doing things differently: Director of Disability in Education for the Student Veterans of America, Dan Standage
Season 2 Episode 5 – Learning about drug use disorders from origin to treatment: Dr. Anthony Miller and Dr. John Wemmie
Season 2 Episode 1 – Kicking off Season 2 of the Vets First Podcast
Season 2 Episode 3 – Aiding vision-impaired Veterans through experience: Iowa City VA VIST Coordinator Keith Queen
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