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Medical Assisting students explore field of optometry

EVIT aims to meet industry demand for trained ophthalmology technicians

February 16, 2012

Jason Ruan (East Valley Academy) checks pupil reaction on Keirsten Giroux (East Valley Academy). Both students participate in externships at Southwestern Eye Care.

Media Contact: Tiffani Nichols, Public Information Officer, 480-461-4032

Thanks to a new partnership with Southwestern Eye Center, students in the Medical Assisting program at the East Valley Institute of Technology are learning about ophthalmology through classroom instruction and externships.

In early-2011, Dr. Lothaire Bluth, a board-certified ophthalmologist and founder of Southwestern Eye Center, approached EVIT after recognizing the need for trained medical technicians in his offices across the East Valley.

The partnership began with a class of students visiting the Stapley office of Southwestern Eye, where they perform comprehensive eye care and procedures such as cataract surgery.  Of the students who expressed interest after the tour, ten were selected to participate in externships based on attendance, grades and attitude. 

To prepare, students learned anatomy and physiology of the eye, medical terminology and abbreviations specific to the eye industry and a series of “chair skills” that test for eye turns, peripheral vision, visual acuities, normal pupils and more. 

This semester, nine students have been placed in externships at Scottsdale Eye Physicians, Arizona Family Vision Center and Southwestern Eye Center clinics, where they will spend half-day, four days a week until May.  Upon completion of 1,000 hours, students will be eligible for their ophthalmology certification.

“Feedback from the optometrists or ophthalmologists at the various offices has been very positive.  Students are showing remarkable maturity and even working independently with patients” said Belinda Long, medical assisting instructor.  “It is my hope the program will expand in the future with additional clinical sites, so we can continue to meet the demand for trained technicians.”    

This spring, EVIT anticipates receiving a donation of gently used equipment from Southwestern Eye Center including an exam chair, a phoropter that measures an individual's refractive error and determines his or her eyeglass prescription, and a slit lamp used to examine the different parts of the eye.  


About EVIT
The East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) is Arizona’s first joint technological education district. It provides occupation-specific programs for high school students at ten school districts across the East Valley. The programs are tuition-free for high school students; classes also are open to adult students at competitive tuition rates.  EVIT, which has been honored as an A+ school in Arizona, is located in Mesa at 1601 W. Main Street and 6625 S. Power Road.