In this podcast, Terry Kim, MD, the Duke Men's Basketball team physician, discusses the vision and eye health screenings he performs for the team and how it helps their performance on the court.
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Radio Announcer: We’ve got a lot to cover on today’s show. We’re going to begin with a special guest who’s joining us up here in our “Crow’s Nest” position overlooking Coach K Court. He’s Dr. Terry Kim who’s a professor of ophthalmology at the Duke Eye Center here on campus.
Dr. Kim, I know you’re the team eye doctor for the Duke Men’s Basketball program so we thought we’d get you tell us a little about some of the things you do for the team as far as how you screen them and how it helps their performance in basketball.
Dr. Kim: Well, thanks for having me today, Jon. Well, with the full support and endorsement from Coach K, I started the annual eye screenings for the basketball team back in 1999. We’ve been doing it every year since then.
You know, my staff and I actually bring our eye testing equipment over here to Cameron where we check the player’s vision, the eye pressure; we examine the front and back parts of the eye, and even do visual fields. You know, over the years we’ve been surprised to find some players that have some near sightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. We’ve also caught some important eye diseases early like glaucoma before they advanced. But by correcting the player’s vision with contacts or procedures like LASIK, we’ve been basically able to provide these players better vision and also just as importantly help them maintain healthy eyes.
Announcer: Obviously over at the Duke Eye Center, you also deal with a lot of other patients that aren’t on the Duke Basketball team, in fact, most of your patients aren’t. And for the average person who wants to avoid wearing contacts or glasses when they play sports, what are some of their options?
Dr. Kim: Well, you know, we’ve spoken about this before; here at Duke we do strongly advocate the importance of protective eyewear for sports, especially the sports that have a higher risk for eye injury, like lacrosse or field hockey. But for the leisurely athlete that plays golf or tennis, we have a very active and well-respected refractive surgery program here at Duke where we perform a very comprehensive eye exam and determine if that patient is a good candidate for LASIK, PRK, or even procedures like ICL, or the implantable contact lens. And patients can get these evaluations at any one of our multiple locations. We have Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem.
Announcer: Dr. Terry Kim from the Duke Eye Center is our guest here on the Duke Basketball Tipoff Show. You know, I’ve heard cataracts are being diagnosed a lot earlier now than in previous generations. What are some of the advancements you’ve made for cataract patients over at the Duke Eye Center?
Dr. Kim: Well, you know at Duke we do use the latest techniques and technologies to provide the best options for our cataract patients. This translates to small incision, no-stitch, topical anesthesia cataract surgery. We also offer our patients what are called advanced technology, or premium lenses, that help address astigmatism and even reduce the need for distance and reading glasses after cataract surgery. On top of that, we have a very knowledgeable, experienced, and award-winning faculty that offer these cataract evaluations at all of our multiple locations.
Announcer: Well, Dr. Kim, before we let you go I know we’d like to ask you just one thing about the new facility you’re opening in 2015. I know you’ve broken ground on a new clinical area, tell us what that’ll mean for your patients.
Dr. Kim: Well, we’re really excited about this. You know in the twenty-five years I’ve been here at Duke as an undergraduate, medical student, and of course, on faculty, I’ve seen the Eye Center grow tremendously into an entity that now sees close to 150,000 patients a year and performs over 10,000 surgical procedures annually. Of course, it also produces groundbreaking eye research and it’s a premier center for training our next generation of eye specialists and researchers. You know, so with all this growth, there’s no question that our patients will benefit from the new facility in terms of better customer service, improved technology, and state-of-the-art equipment, but also our providers, our researchers, our trainees and staff will also benefit by taking advantage of the increased space and resources we have to improve not only the eye care, but also the eye health of our patients.
Announcer: Well that sounds exciting and we certainly appreciate you coming up here and sharing the story of the Duke Eye Center with us and hope you enjoy watching the game today.
Dr. Kim: I will! Go Duke! Thanks for having me.
Announcer: That’s Dr. Terry Kim a professor of ophthalmology over at the Duke Eye Center, our special guest, today. And when we come back we’ll talk more about the Duke-Miami contest, that’ll be next right here on the Duke Basketball Tipoff Show.
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