The Dean A. McGee Eye Institute

The Dean A. McGee Eye Institute (DMEI), located in the OU Health Sciences Center, is “dedicated to serving the community through excellence and leadership in eye care, education, and vision research.” It is home to the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Oklahoma and conducts training programs for medical students, residents, and clinical fellows. DMEI operations employ more than 200 people in the Oklahoma City metro area.

Patient care is provided in all the major subspecialty areas of ophthalmology including corneal and external diseases, glaucoma, medical and surgical diseases of the retina and vitreous, refractive surgery, orbital and oculoplastic diseases, neuro-ophthalmology, pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, cataract surgery and lens implantation, ophthalmic pathology and oncology, contact lenses, ocular prosthetics, trauma and low vision services.

DMEI ranks as one of the largest ophthalmology institutes in the United States and is one of only a handful of institutions in the Southwest and Midwest which offers this complete spectrum of subspecialty eye care for everything from tumors to macular degeneration. DMEI provides services for more than 120,000 patient visits each year. Nearly 40 percent of those patients are from outside the Oklahoma City metro area. The institute offers care to all patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 2003 DMEI provided more than $1.4 million of uncompensated care to indigent Oklahomans.

Currently, at DMEI, research is under way into problems of endophthalmitis, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, intraocular tumors, mechanisms of retinal degeneration, glaucoma, retinopathy of prematurity, and inflammation and viral infections of the cornea.

DMEI's 40-plus M.D. and Ph.D. faculty supervise the training of medical students at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. They also direct residency training for nine residents. Clinical fellowship programs are available to provide additional training in glaucoma, cornea and external diseases and refractive surgery, oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery, neuro-ophthalmology, and diseases and the surgery of the retina and vitreous.

Source: www.dmei.org