Scheie Eye Institute in MOTION: Penn Medicine’s new mobile unit brings sight-saving care to vulnerable residents

Residents in underserved areas of Philadelphia and beyond will now have opportunities in their own neighborhoods to get their eyes screened for glaucoma, cataracts, and more via Penn Medicine’s brand-new ophthalmology mobile unit.

Made possible by generous gifts from Rick Campbell and family, Save Vision Foundation, and Envision Health Technologies, the all-electric Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION (Mobile Ocular Testing In Our Neighborhoods) will provide free screening for the four leading causes of blindness: glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts.

“To get out there and prevent diseases that could rob people of their sight, we know we have to get creative,” said the project’s lead physician, Lama Al-Aswad, MD, MPH, a professor of Ophthalmology and Engineering and the Irene Heinz Given and John La Porte Given Research Professor of Ophthalmology II. “Putting a clinic on wheels allows us to meet people where they are, where they haven’t gotten the attention and care they need and are experiencing advanced and often preventable eye disease. Through this, we can address issues before they become these serious problems.”

Al-Aswad was part of an outreach effort at her previous post in New York City that screened more than 8,500 individuals. More than half of them had never seen an eye doctor before, regardless of whether they had insurance.

“The data made it clear that access was the real barrier to care,” Al-Aswad said. “With the same underlying problem here as I’d seen before, I knew part of the solution could be bringing Philadelphia a robust mobile eye unit.”

Planning for the Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION has been underway for more than a year.

When in action, the 11.5-foot tall and 26-foot long van—which is powered by electricity instead of gasoline—will serve as many as 25 people a day. Within the van are six stations operated by three-to-four “crew” members using the type of equipment patients would encounter in any eye clinic, including devices that test for intraocular pressure and peripheral vision, as well as machines that do imaging of the optic nerve and retina. An ophthalmologist will be on-call and available through telemedicine each time the unit journeys out.

If patients are found to have conditions that need further care, they’ll be connected with Penn Medicine providers for follow-up appointments. The exams in the Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION clinic will be free for the uninsured, and a pathway has been created to help those without insurance to get the care they need.

“We want to make this something as comfortable, natural, and easy for patients as possible,” said Bennie Jeng, MD, chair of Ophthalmology and director of the Scheie Eye Institute. “You’ll be stepping onto a van, but we see this as being almost indistinguishable from a visit to a brick-and-mortar office. It just happens that this is one that has rolled up to your neighborhood. It’s unique, but also typical of the kind of service we’re committed to providing to our community.”

More on wheels and in the community

Last summer, Penn Medicine launched another mobile unit that offers mobile breast cancer screenings, building on the health system’s commitment to making cancer screenings as accessible as possible.

Likewise, the Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION unit fits into community work done within Ophthalmology at Penn Medicine. The Shared Vision initiative seeks to bring care out of the clinic and into neighborhoods in the Philadelphia area, particularly focusing on providing screening and care to the underserved and to the unhoused population. The Shared Vision team plans to help the mobile unit with care coordination and patient education.

“It’s a privilege to serve communities across the region, and sometimes that means thinking unconventionally to reach everyone,” said Kevin Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “Across Penn Medicine, we’re committed to finding creative, practical ways to expand access and reduce barriers to care, and the Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION is the latest example of that work in action, bringing the resources of our health system beyond the hospital walls and directly into neighborhoods.”

Enhancing eye care understanding

Alongside its screening work, Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION will provide eye health education to help residents better understand eye disease and the importance of seeking care. Al-Aswad’s prior research identified low eye health literacy as a major barrier to care. Her research found that patients often did not understand their diagnoses and did not follow up on care after screening.

The mobile unit team plans to create a health literacy survey to measure patients' baseline understanding of eye health and their conditions, then test how their eye health education impacts follow-up rates and the overall burden of disease in the communities served.

“Having a unique initiative like the mobile unit provides us with an invaluable opportunity to not only educate, but to further research,” said Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “The better we understand the communities we’re serving, the greater the impact we believe we can make. The potential for this mobile unit across so many areas is extremely exciting.”