OptiKids Outreach: Enhancing Medical Student Awareness, Engagement, and Support for Pediatric Visual Impairment Through a Patient-Centered Panel

Background: Pediatric visual impairment is an underrecognized health disparity affecting developmental, educational, and social outcomes. Medical education offers limited exposure to visual impairment in the pediatric population. OptiKids Outreach was initiated by medical students at the University of Louisville School of Medicine to help educate students about children with visual impairment and their resilience. Objective: To evaluate medical students’ early awareness, engagement, and support for children with visual impairment through “Resilience and Living with Vision Loss,” a patient-centered panel conducted by OptiKids Outreach and Visually Impaired Preschool Services. Methodology: A novel pre- and post-panel survey tool evaluated 60 medical students in three key areas: (1) awareness, (2) engagement, and (3) support for visually impaired children. Students were evaluated before and after an in-person panel of families from Visually Impaired Preschool Services. Discussions included the lived experiences of childhood vision loss and barriers to access and education among healthcare providers. Data was analyzed using two-tailed paired t-tests, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results: Post-panel survey results demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all measured domains. Average awareness scores increased from 4.17 (standard deviation (SD) = 1.05) to 5.20 (SD = 0.82) (p < 0.001), engagement scores rose from 13.02 (SD = 3.03) to 16.58 (SD = 1.87) (p < 0.001), and support scores improved from 12.42 (SD = 3.25) to 16.51 (SD = 2.14) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Patient-centered panels like the OptiKids Outreach panel may serve as educational tools to enhance early medical student awareness, engagement, and support for visually impaired children.