In this episode of the Vets First Podcast, hosts Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea interview Dr. Eric Singman, a neuro-ophthalmologist working at the Department of Defense Vision Center of Excellence in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been working with Veterans and active-duty military for 20 years. Prior to his position at the VA, Dr. Singman spent most of his academic career in the greater New York City area, obtaining his MD and PhD with a focus on vision problems associated with optic nerve damage from brain injury. 

During this episode, Dr. Singman discusses his clinical role at the VA and explains how he directly works with patients suffering from brain injury induced vision problems. He touches on topics like using stem cells to regenerate affected areas of the nervous system and utilizing different colored NoIR sunglasses to allow visually impaired patients to be more comfortable. He then explains at length about the importance of choosing the right color and how it relates to the optic nerve and its circuitries in the brain. 

Later in the episode, Dr. Singman elaborates on injury induced by impacts and talks about what happens physiologically, particularly with the optic nerve. He differentiates the effects on the nerve among blunt, ballistic, and blast injury, and discusses how protection may play a role in vision health depending on the injury. Then, Dr. Singman talks about the potential for brain tissue to have regenerative properties like other organs in the body such as the kidneys and the liver. Lastly, he talks about the social and economic impact of brain injury in Veterans, how he builds a network of physicians and caretakers for his patients to ensure correct treatment, and how traumatic brain injury is likely the key player for many other diseases and disorders outside of the brain injury itself. 

If you are a Veteran or you know a Veteran needing help with visual loss, contact the Visual Impairment Services Team coordinator at your nearest VA medical center or contact the Blind Rehabilitation Service Program by phone which can be found here. There are 13 Blind Rehabilitation Centers around the country, which can help with things like mobility, communication, and living with vision loss.