Drs. Bryant and Chun of the Retina Group of Washington Speak at TLC Tysons Corner CE Series

Drs. Sonya Bryant and Dal Chun presented lectures at the TLC Tysons Corner CE Series on Monday night. They are the newest additions to the Retina Group of Washington, the largest private retina group in the nation. Both can be found at present RGW office locations, but they have been investing a lot of their time in building the brand new Virginia location in Tysons Corner.

Of course, I always learn new, fun eyeball facts at RGW lectures.

Dr. Bryant spoke about diabetic retinopathy, a topic near and dear to her heart since a family member - and Halle Berry - has diabetes. One of the interesting perspectives that Dr. Bryant introduced to me was the fact that the majority of diabetic retinopathy patients are actually working class citizens. These are people that are trying hard to earn a living to support their families and hopefully live as normal a life as possible. Vision loss in these patients, just as with other ocular diseases, affects the patient, their family, and their co-workers. What a far-reaching disease that optometrists can help so greatly with through annual dilated fundus evaluations.

Dr. Bryant will be starting a new diabetic retinopathy study this summer at her Capitol Hill office location. Details are still in the works, but look out for more information about study enrollment through the RGW newsletter or their Research Study link on their website.

Dr. Chun reflected on his experience having served as Chief of Retina Service at Walter Reed Medical Center. He showed lots of retinal surgery videos for cases he managed after soldiers were involved in number of traumatic injuries. It was just amazing the amount of expertise that one must have in order to manage these cases. Honestly, I could not tell what was going on in those poor eyeballs. It was really fibrotic tissue, vitreous hemes, and retinal detachments galore. I don't think it ever gets easy to manage such debilitating cases of eye injury.

We watched a video showing the bravery exhibited by Brendan Marrocco who was the first service member to survive the amputation of all four of his limbs in 2009. The video showed Brendan learning how to use his mechanical arms during physical therapy. What an inspiring story with a great ending. As many of us arrived home after the lecture, we started reading about how Brendan has been successfully recovering from a bilateral arm transplant completed at Johns Hopkins last month! Read the story now!

Dr. Bryant asked me to include the physical address and contact information for their new Tysons Corner location. How could you ever resist a request from such a nice doctor?!

Retina Group of Washington - Tysons Corner

8219 Leesburg Pike, Suite 120

Vienna, VA 22182View map

Enter parking garage from Boone Blvd. at corner of Howard Ave.

703.564.4300

703.206.7238

Many thanks to my guest photographer, Dr. Patty Woo, for her help on Monday night! You are the best! - jw