Q. You are about to launch a mobile screening project. What is it and why is it so important?

A. The Hawai'i Vision Project is going to be a screening and education mobile facility that is targeting diabetes in Hawai'i. When I first moved to Hawai'i about 10 years ago it was quite evident that the diabetes that we saw in our younger population is now causing a tremendous amount of (vision) loss. If we can take a screening tool, or an ability to get diagnosed early, this is really what we're trying to do for our community. We have recently purchased a rather large recreational vehicle that will have a computer station so we can get patients' medical histories and help them get triaged to all of the appropriate medical doctors. We have a visual screening center that will be able to test their vision and test how their side vision functions.

Q. What kind of equipment is required?

A. The most impressive piece of equipment is a special retina camera that can take pictures of your retina and the back of your eyes in less than 90 seconds and they can do this without the need of those drops that we normally have to use. From those pictures we can diagnose whether they have diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts. So we should be able to diagnose a number of problems that are usually very silent and how they actually steal our vision.

Q. What is the status of the project?

A. The van has been purchased and it's en route from Michigan to Los Angeles, where it's going to undergo some of its technical modifications.

Q. Once the program begins, how many people and communities will be served?

A. Our goal is to get our mobile van out every week. In Hawai'i, there are 100,000 people who have diabetes, and of that 100,000 25 percent don't even know that they have the disease. We're going to run it through O'ahu, and hopefully with the advent of the Superferry we might have the ability to take this to the outer islands to expand our outreach efforts.

Q. Will there be a charge to the patients?

A. It's going to be completely free. Hopefully we're going to get this sponsored and funded through corporations, anybody that cares about trying to prevent visual loss. We're still in the process of trying to find organizations to help us with this nonprofit cause. It's roughly $200,000 to initiate the cost of the van and to start the project. Myself and the Retina Institute have funded well over half of that.

Q. The exam is free, what about follow up visits and treatment?

A. Hopefully we're going to take it to the larger venues, whether it be the community centers, health-club walks, and the patients will have the opportunity to come in and get freely screened. If we do see any evidence of diabetes or glaucoma, we will help the patient get all of the appropriate referrals to the most convenient and the most qualified doctors. If they don't have insurance we will help them enroll in either the state-run medical plans or help them facilitate the paperwork to get them coverage

Q. Has this program been tried before?

A. This program has been done in a limited scope in a number of areas around the country. This will be a broad-reaching program that really is addressing the underserved. We're going to take a new twist on it and try to get even a better showing or a better outreach effort than what has been established.

Q. What are the challenges that you face?

A. The greatest challenge is we see a fair number of patients every day and the problem with most of the visual diseases is that they don't hurt. Patients, if they're uncomfortable, usually seek medical care very quickly. But as we start to age, we take some things and we hope that they get better, like our vision, and we assume that it may be something as simple as glasses. The greatest issue that we face in our clinic is we see people walk into the clinic with very, very poor vision and we know that if we could have had the ability to examine them maybe six months, or maybe even a year prior, they would have been able to maintain nearly perfect vision for the rest of their lives. But they walk in with such bad disease or such advanced proliferation that we're salvaging or fighting to maintain whatever vision we can. As far as medicine and those kind of issues, you have to take down those walls and allow the patient to get access to the care needed.

Q. You're an avid swimmer and a triathlete, do you find any similarities in training for or participating in an athletic event and your practice?

A. They go very well together. As an athlete I've never been the most talented or the most gifted, but if you persevere and if you stay on top of it and if you're diligent you can usually accomplish some pretty wonderful things. With medicine and trying to help people, it's very difficult to make an impact if you just do something once. But if you can stay on top of it and continue to do the best that you can, usually you can accomplish some pretty amazing things.

Q. You're a doctor, businessman, athlete and family man. Do you have any other goals?

A. The only thing that I have left that I really want to accomplish is to continue this legacy. I want to hopefully expand. We're already bringing new doctors on board. If we can be available and the patients can have access to care, I think we'll be able to fulfill what we're here for and that's just to help our community and to help those that we care about.

Q. The Hawai'i Vision Project is a nonprofit effort, so you won't be making any money from it.

A. It's entirely nonprofit. Any donations that we get will go into the nonprofit organization. I take zero salary or zero income and the Retina Institute of Hawai'i has already invested the initial $100,000 into the purchase of the van.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.