IndiaPost.com - New technology makes eye exams easier for tribe

BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz: Some members of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe used to travel to Parker or Phoenix for certain eye exams.

But imaging technology recently acquired by the Fort Mojave Indian Health Center makes screening patients for diabetes-related vision problems convenient and cost effective, said Kelly Hills, a spokesman for the tribe.

``Within the tribe there's a high percentage of diabetes,'' Hills said, adding that blindness is one complication of diabetes resulting from severe damage to blood vessels in the eyes.

American Indians have the highest incidence of diabetes in the country, more than twice that of the general population, according to Hills.

And people with diabetic retinopathy, which ultimately leads to blindness, do not have visual symptoms until the blindness has progressed beyond repair. The Joslin Vision Network, which takes digital photographs of a patient's eye and transmits the images to Phoenix for interpretation, has been in use at the health center for more than two weeks.

The quick test consists of snapshots taken of the back of the eye, and is particularly effective in patients who avoid eye exams because they don't like to have their pupils dilated, said Janelle Froelich, an optometrist at the health center.

The photographs show health professionals if there is any problematic bleeding. ``So that's where we're catching them,'' Froelich said. The ophthalmology equipment is the last in a series of improvements and additions that have marked the health center's steady growth for the past 10 years.

``Ten years ago, there was very little direct care to the patients in this community,'' said Health Director Vickie Seccombe, remembering the center's early days inside the tribal administration building.

Now occupying a 10,000 square foot building inside the tribe's Arizona Village, the health center serves more than 1,500 patients, including members of the tribe and other federally recognized tribes. Funded entirely by Indian Health Services, the center includes medical care, dental, optometry, lab, behavioral health and pharmacy services. Seccombe said a dialysis center is a possibility in the near future.

``I think the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe determined that it was time their community members and their tribal members had health care in their community,'' Seccombe said.

The growth of the health center, along with the expansion of other services in the community, reflects the growing needs of a population that's more than doubled in the last 20 years.

Hills said he noticed the population started to grow in the 1980s, when there were about 500 tribal members in the area. Now there are 1,238 members.