You can tell a lot about a person by looking into their eyes. Few know this as well as optometrists.

They can tell you about vision, perception, glaucoma and retinal disease. And at the State University of New York College of Optometry in New York City, in a unique blend of higher education and health care, they can tell you about the present and future of eye care.

Faculty, professional staff and student interns run what the college claims is the largest eye clinic in the country. Indeed, it is scored by floors in the 19-story building.

There's one for infant eye care, another for toddlers, one for patients with eye diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma, and another for patients with corneal disease and cataracts. There's a neurology clinic. Ophthalmologists perform eye procedures here.

The college educates the next generation of optometrists. Faculty use and track the most modern of technical equipment, advancing eye research.

Students see about 10 patients a day and present their findings to faculty. Dr. Sherry Bass, a distinguished teaching professor at the SUNY College of Optometry, leads the quiet charge as an attending in the retina clinic, the glaucoma institute and the ocular disease and special testing clinic.

She peers into machines that show every nook of a patient's eyeballs, looming like tiny versions of the planets suspended on the screen.

"The eye is the only place we can see a blood vessel directly (without surgery) " said Bass. She is vice president for academics for the SUNY Optometry chapter of United University Professions, the NYSUT affiliate representing SUNY academic and professional faculty. John Picarelli is the UUP chapter president for the college. Statewide, UUP is led by Phillip Smith.

Using Optical Coherence Tomography, lights can reveal the thickness in back of a patient's eyes. it can show images of the 10 layers of the retina.

"We didn't even dream of this two decades ago," said Dr. Jerome Sherman, also a distinguished teaching professor, using the OCT on a patient in a darkened room.

With this new technology, Sherman, a consultant to high- tech companies, can conduct research and lecture on the equipment, as well as find ways for the manufacturers to improve it.

Prior to the OCT, the only similar eye images that could be obtained would be from slicing the eyeball of a deceased person, he said. With the OCT, Sherman said he can study an abnormality and perform a cross-sectional analysis.

Waiting too long

The eyes are revealing, but unfortunately, the average person does not get an eye exam until they have a vision problem, Bass said. "Some patients don't come in until they're 35."

Meanwhile, high eye pressure can destroy the optic nerve without symptoms, she said.

"By the time you have difficulty reading, it could be too late," she cautioned.

Likewise, macular degeneration needs to be diagnosed promptly.

Diabetes can often be detected from eye exams, as well.

"We're at the gateway to determining if they have other problems," said Bass, herself a graduate of both the City University of New York and SUNY.

Optometrists, she explained, are trained to diagnose diseases of the eye, detect functional eye problems and determine corrective lenses.

She stops to quiz student James Li about his findings in a patient they are tracking every six months for macular degeneration. Li is a perfect case study in optometric intervention: In high school, an optometrist discovered small tears and holes in the back of his eye. They were repaired with laser surgery, fusing his desire to become an optometrist.

Bass is all business as she steers her group of students to the next treatment room.

SUNY's value

"Our students have access to patients with a wide range of diseases," Bass said. "This is the value of state education."

When Bass attended SUNY Optometry (she graduated in 1980 as a Doctor of Optometry), fewer than one out of seven students were women. Today, about 70 percent of the students are female.

Setting up student schedules for training and clinic rotations (handled by Hendy Hankins, who won the chancellor's award for excellence) is one of the many tasks handled by the professional staff at SUNY College of Optometry, said Kim Oliver, vice president for professionals.

— Liza Frenette