Dr Randall Thomas, OD, MPH is a veteran of medical mission trips to populations in need. Volunteering with Mission Servants Ministry, led by Robert Hillebrand and Greg Perkins (themselves mechanical engineers by training), he and other volunteers have just over the last 10 years drilled a well, implemented solar-powered LED lighting, established a kitchen that serves three wholesome meals daily, and built schools and housing for teachers, among many other accomplishments. As a clinical optometrist, Dr Thomas often also performs vision care services in the communities they visit. We previously documented Dr Thomas’s experience with QuickSee in this case study.

In August this year, Dr Thomas and a team of four others returned to the Christ Redeemed Mission orphanage about two hours north of Lake Victoria. Among their objectives was a one day medical clinic, which organized physicians, nurses, lab technicians, optometrists, and dentists to provide care to about 400 people. Among them were 100 people who needed vision care.

PlenOptika provided Dr Thomas a QuickSee Free handheld wavefront autorefractor for his work. He and locally-trained volunteers used it to determine 60 people could be well served by reading glasses they brought, made prescriptions for three people (Ugandan people tend to have little refractive error), referred six people to speciality care for corneal blindness and cataracts, and a five year old for esotropia treatment.

“Having the PlenOptika handheld autorefrector proved to be immensely helpful in assessing refractive error to these 90-100 people,” Dr Thomas reported upon return. “Quite honestly, your device single handedly gave a rock solid foundation to our efforts to help these people having near zero health care resources.”

We’re proud to support Dr Thomas’s work to expand access to vision care, and honored by the trust he places in QuickSee Free to perform up to his expectations in challenging conditions.