Publications by authors named "Melanie Snitzer"

Purpose: We previously reported costs and outcomes of the Children's Eye Care Adherence Program (CECAP1), a social worker intervention designed to improve adherence to eye care for underserved children in urban Philadelphia. Using cost findings from CECAP1, we revised the intervention to reduce costs. The aim of this study was to evaluate costs and effectiveness of the revised intervention (CECAP2).

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Objective: To assess ocular diagnoses and follow-up patterns of children referred for a comprehensive eye examination after a school-based vision screening program.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Participants: Students in grades K-5 from the School District of Philadelphia public schools screened by The Wills Eye Vision Screening Program for Children between January 2014 and June 2015.

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Background: The Wills Eye Vision Screening Program for Children is a community-based vision screening program for children in urban Philadelphia elementary schools that aims to provide vision screening, remedy refractive error by providing glasses, and refer children with suspected nonrefractive eye disease for eye care.

Methods: Children in grades K-5 from 45 Philadelphia elementary schools were screened for distance and near visual acuity, stereopsis, and color vision from January 2014 to June 2015. Children who failed were assessed by an on-site optometrist.

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Purpose: To investigate the potential of a mobile ophthalmic unit in the schoolyard to improve the follow-up rate for children who have failed an optometric in-school screening program. Previously, the optometric program made referrals to the center and only 53% of students attended the desired ophthalmology consultation.

Methods: This was a cohort study of students conducted in elementary school lots in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.

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Cutaneous horns uncommonly involve the periocular region. Involvement of the ocular surface is particularly rare. The authors present a patient who underwent a perinatal buccal mucosal graft for corneal perforation due to congenital corneal ectasia, most likely resulting from Peters anomaly.

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Importance: Low-socioeconomic urban children often do not have access to ophthalmic care.

Objective: To characterize the demographic characteristics and ophthalmic conditions in children attending Give Kids Sight Day (GKSD), an outreach ophthalmic care program held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, providing vision screening and immediate treatment when needed.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Retrospective case-series study of children attending GKSD in 2012 (GKSD 2012) at an ophthalmology center in Philadelphia.

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The follow-up rate among children with vision problems in the authors' outreach programs has been <5%. The authors therefore developed a social worker (SW) intervention, the Children's Eye Care Adherence Program (CECAP), for Philadelphia school children. The objective of this study was to measure CECAP's effectiveness and cost, as well as to identify barriers to care through a conceptual framework and geomapping software.

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