Last year, St. Jude Neighborhood Health Centers received a generous donation for new optometry equipment through a fundraiser hosted by Providence St. Jude Memorial Foundation.
The fundraiser, called “Neighbors Helping Neighbors: A Concert on the Hill,” was held in May 2024 to support Providence St. Jude Medical Center’s Community Health Investment programs. Through the help of multiple charitable guests, the event raised around $180,000, which St. Jude Neighborhood Health has used to purchase optometry equipment for our new site at Finamore Place Apartments.
The equipment at Finamore consists of two complete, fully equipped eye exam rooms to provide comprehensive eye and vision care for our patients. This allows us to examine the eyes for any disease, as well as determine their refractive error for the prescribing of glasses. In addition, we have acquired two special imaging devices. The first is our Heidelberg Optical Coherence Tomographer (OCT), which scans the optic nerve and retina tissue with microscopic precision, allowing for early detection of glaucoma, retinal, and neurological eye diseases. The second imaging device we purchased is the Eidon Posterior Segment camera, which is a special camera that allows us to take wide-field images of the back of the eye, even with a small pupil; this is another tool for early diagnosis of eye disease and is also a great tool for patient education.
We are incredibly fortunate and grateful to have received these funds for our optometry equipment, and we look forward to opening our vision services at our new center later this year.