S T U D E N T S CLASS OF 2018 12 Tristan Barrueco The fourth-year student is passionate about providing eye care services to underserved communities. After completing a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester in 2010, Tristan Barrueco attended U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy. An unexpected medical discharge left him wondering what to do next. “A friend who had recently graduated from optometry school started teaching me about the field,” says the Basking Ridge, New Jersey native. After shadowing an optometrist, Barrueco was all in. “The more I shadowed, the more I became convinced that optometry was the career for me. I loved learning about the medical aspect of optometry. I relished the satisfaction of helping people see.” He especially enjoys working with patients with ocular disease and those who require contact lenses. In fact, his first rotation in his fourth year was in specialty contact lenses. “No two eyes are alike and I really enjoy analyzing each situation and working out a solution to it,” explains Barrueco, who won the National Board of Examiners in Optometry Certificate of Commendation for securing the highest score at SUNY on the national board exam. “And it’s incredibly rewarding when you place a contact lens on the eye of a patient and see their face light up when they are able to read the letters on the chart.” But it’s his work as the treasurer of Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity that has perhaps changed Barrueco the most. It took him to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua in January, where he served at a free clinic that saw more than 4,400 patients who don’t have access to eye care. And in May, he helped see 3,500-plus people at an OneSight Vision Care Clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Kathleen Hoang The second annual Student Innovator Award winner created a diabetes management tool. Kathleen Hoang, a fourth-year OD student at SUNY Optometry, won the second annual Student Innovator Award. The award, which is sponsored by Rick Bay and Essilor, recognizes innovative and creative ideas of current optometry students to support the profession’s next generation of leaders. Hoang’s winning idea, track DM, is a tool for diabetes management to improve health, educate diabetics regarding relevant updates in the field and engage users in a social community. According to Hoang, newly-diagnosed diabetics often find it challenging to keep track of their meals, doctor’s appointments, blood glucose levels and physical activity. “With so many things to keep track of, a lot of people fall into this vicious cycle in which they are not on top of all the things they need to manage,” she says. “Diabetes has the ability to affect multiple systems in your body and it’s really important to realize that the bad things that happen due to diabetes are really bad if they are not kept under control.” Her track DM app’s features include appointment reminders, glucose monitor and fitness tracker integration, engagement with other diabetic app users and the latest information on the disease. Hoang presented her idea during the 2017 Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit in late March and received a grant of $5,000 to further develop her app.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODE1MDI0