SOLON — Downtown Solon has seen an uptick of activity lately as the former Renew Boutique and Spa at 121 West Main St. has been undergoing renovation and conversion to a first for Solon, a new comprehensive eye care clinic through Vision Center P.C. Three doctors – Dr. Chris Scholz, Dr. Toni Eller, and Dr. Patrick Walsh own Vision Center P.C. with offices in Tipton and Muscatine, and now in Solon with Dr. Ian Hui and Solon resident Dr. Sean O’Neil.
Vision Center P.C. will offer routine exams, pediatric exams, diabetic eye exams, glaucoma treatment, conjunctivitis (“pink eye”) treatment, emergency walk-in care, contact lens exams and fittings, and will have a large assortment of frames (for glasses) available. A full list of services is available at https://visioncenterpc.com. Initially, Dr. Hui will be onsite to provide patient care Tuesdays and every other Wednesday while Dr. O’Neil will be in the office one Friday/ month. The office will be open MondayFriday for people to select glasses, have their glasses adjusted, schedule appointments, order contact lenses, etc.
Appointments are being taken now, but with the build out of the office and examination/treatment rooms ongoing, the first appointments are being scheduled for the last week in April.
Meet the doctors
Dr. Hui – Dr. Hui is a Doctor of Optometry, in his 11th year of practice, who started on an educational pathway toward being a high school math teacher or university professor with a double major in biology and math. “I love teaching, so that was my original goal. But I did the biology because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do something medically related.”
Time spent working for an eye doctor made him realize, “Nobody knows anything about their eyes. You can Google, ‘Dr. Google,’ and try to come up with your own diagnosis about your eyes. And even if you do, sometimes it can be hard to understand. So I literally get to teach every single day of my career. I get to blend those two things, I get to scratch that itch of the medical but the explanation in the exam room is really nice as well.”
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Dr. Hui went to school in Chicago. There, he met his wife Ashley (a doctor in the ophthalmology program at the U of I), a native of Tipton, Iowa.
“We had practiced all over the country together and when she got pregnant with our oldest boy, that’s when we decided to come back to Iowa to be near her family.”
Dr. Hui, who grew up in a “small town” of 30,000 soon discovered that Tipton’s population was just over 3,000.
“It was a culture shock,” he said. “But it’s good. Small town Iowa is amazing.”
Dr. Hui initially bought a practice in Iowa City in partnership with Dr. Scholz before buying him out and owning the practice completely.
“If you ask anybody if they could only preserve one sense, most people are going to answer, ‘vision.’ It’s something that people cherish. We take it for granted a lot, but it’s one thing people don’t want to lose and if I can help to preserve that, that’s a pretty nice thing.”
Dr. O’Neil – Dr. O’Neil grew up around Morse and graduated from West Branch High School. He donned Spartan orange and black for soccer before West Branch had their own program.
“Solon was one of the only small schools that had soccer at the time, so we’d play against Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Prairie, City High, and Iowa City West High so we pretty much got obliterated, but it was fun though.” For college he started at Wartburg and then attended the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago.
“I came back here and started at McDonald Optical in Iowa City, I was there for 15 years and then went to Eye Physicians and Surgeons (also in Iowa City) for nine years and went to the Department of Corrections a year ago.”
As an Optometrist for the Department of Corrections, Dr. O’Neil provides eye care for prison inmates at the Iowa Medical Classification Center (IMCC) in Coralville and at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.
“Giving up all of the families and friendships, and all of the people I’d seen for 24 years, to serve the inmate population, was tough but the benefits to his family life were tremendous. Currently he works four ten-hour days, which makes him available to work Fridays in Solon.
“I’m excited to be able to see the Solon folks again.”
Dr. O’Neil’s path to optometry began at Wartburg on an engineering track. “I like engineering and physics, I like trying to figure out how things work and got into optics and really enjoyed that. I also really enjoyed chemistry and biology. Optometry just seemed like a really good combination of all of those disciplines; the physics of light combined with biology and the chemistry (pharmacology). It’s one field that combined all of those disciplines.”
Optometry is a great career, he said. “You get to meet a lot of people, make a lot of relationships, learn about other people and hear their stories, their history, and it’s been fun.”
With over 20 years in practice, Dr. O’Neil has taught kids how to put in their first pair of contacts, “and now I’m teaching their kids. It makes you feel old. But that’s been fun too.”
One downside to his Dept. of Corrections work has been not being able to pop into the office to take care of a friend or neighbor in an emergent situation. Now, with the office in Solon, he’ll be able to do that again.
Dr. Scholz first approached him about an office in Solon five or six years ago, he said.
“He knew Solon was growing and he saw a need. We’ve got physical therapists, we’ve got primary care, dentists offices; so there’s a need for eye care. He finally had an opportunity with this space opening up, he’s looking to expand, and he reached out. We’re getting lots of calls and texts (for appointments) so, it’ll be fun. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Dr. O’Neil’s first day in the office is scheduled for Friday, May 2, “Assuming everything is on-time for the build out and the equipment is all here. It sounds like it’s going good so far.”
The need for an annual eye exam
The cliché’ states the eyes are the window to the soul. However, the eyes can also be an indicator, a dashboard warning light, to other conditions.
“It’s pretty amazing what you can find inside somebody’s eye with regards to the rest of their health,” said Dr. Hui. “I’ve found signs of colon cancer in a young guy’s eyes, increased pressure in a woman’s brain, I just diagnosed a 21-year old with Leukemia.”
Lymphoma , Melanomia, diabetes, and high blood pressure also present signs and symptoms that can be detected through a thorough eye exam.
“This sounds like hyperbole, but there have been times where I have probably saved a patient’s life, and they came in because they thought they just needed reading glasses because their vision was getting blurry, and they thought they were getting old. Good vision doesn’t mean healthy eyes, so even if you’re not having issues it’s still good for us to meet annually, like a physical, just to check in and make sure everything is looking good,” explained Dr. Hui.
However most people, including many men, tend to wait until there is a problem before seeing a doctor.
“The problem with that approach,” said Dr. Hui, “is usually if you feel that something’s wrong, it’s too late, because it never should have felt wrong in the first place. If you go in for routine checks, it’s a lot easier to manage things. It’s going to be easier to catch something early and to know your baseline from when you were healthy and normal vs. when there is a problem.”
Regular exams for children is also vital, said Dr. Hui, who noted the American Academy of Opthamology recommends the first exam at six months and annually starting at age three, even if they do well in vision screenings at school.
“That’s a big thing that we preach, get those kiddos in even if you feel they’re doing good, just to check in on them.”
How to become a patient
Call 319-324-2020 or go to https://visioncenterpc. com to schedule an appointment. For those who already have an eye doctor but wish to receive services in Solon, they will be asked to sign a record release form, which authorizes Vision Center P.C. to contact their provider and have their records sent.
“We’re excited to be here,” said Dr. Hui. “I’m genuine when I say I enjoy small town Iowa. I think this community is thriving and I think patients will love the care that they get. I’m excited to hit the ground running.”
“We’re excited, it’s been a long time coming for Solon, Solon has needed a primary care optometrist and we’re excited to be able to provide it and to get in and see friends and family and faces that I’ve been seeing forever.”