Visionary Outreach

Southeastern Utah is known for its sweeping cinematic landscapes and unspoiled open spaces. But the same remoteness that makes this wilderness so enchanting also presents unique challenges for its residents. The Utah strip of the Navajo Nation is one of the most isolated areas in the lower 48, with scarce access to services like specialized health care. There is not a single ophthalmologist, for example, for the area’s 6,100 residents.

Without treatment, common vision impairments can lead to blindness, says Jeff Pettey BA’03 MBA’20, M.D., vice chair of clinical affairs at the University of Utah’s John A. Moran Eye Center and the Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Endowed Chair for Global Outreach. He and his colleagues examined records from 2,251 Navajo Nation patients seen by Moran’s outreach team between 2013 and 2021 and found that 3 percent of patients were blind, while 10 percent had moderate to severe vision loss. 

“Those are very high numbers, and they occur in remote communities without access to eye care,” Pettey remarks.

In 70 percent of cases, blindness was caused by curable, preventable, or treatable conditions, including cataracts and the unmet need for eyeglasses. That’s why Moran Eye Center providers and staff have made near-monthly trips from Salt Lake City to the Navajo Nation since 2013, partnering with the Utah Navajo Health System (UNHS) to bring vision screenings, glasses, and sight-restoring eye surgery to residents. The outreach team also trains UNHS providers to conduct eye exams and refer complex cases to Moran ophthalmologists.

Thanks to a decade of improved access to vision services, “it’s quite rare now to see someone who is actually blind from cataracts when we visit the Navajo Nation,” Pettey says.

The outreach is part of Moran’s donor-funded Global Outreach Division, aimed at expanding vision care to communities in Utah and around the world. Says Pettey, “We’re driven by the idea that everyone deserves access to the same level of eye care, no matter where they live.”

Watch the video below to learn how Moran’s outreach program brings sight-restoring services to communities in need.