[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, my name is Steven Quan. I'm an optometrist at the University of Chicago. I started here about four years ago in 2017. Optometry, to me, we're all about patient education, kind of looking at holistically at a patient from vision to overall health.

I chose to become an optometrist because I wanted something that-- I wanted a skill that I can give people that allowed me to connect with them, but also give them something that could really improve their quality of life in a meaningful way. And working for those in need has allowed me to really have a sense of purpose and community that every day is really rewarding and, you know, really inspiring at the same time.

I came to UChicago because I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. And when I first joined, the department was undergoing a bit of a transformation. And I wanted to tap into that energy early on. There was a lot of work to do as the department sort of evolved. But I saw an opportunity to build a career path for myself and others like me in optometry.

And I'm really happy to say now that everyone here is really amazing. It's a great, diverse culture. I can call all of my colleagues friends. I'm very lucky to come here and be happy to see everyone every day.

I like to take breadcrumbs from every little experience I've done and sort of inject that into what I do now. I have sort done a lot of training across the country and coast to coast, different sort of places, from the VA to Children's Hospital to referral centers, corporate, private practices. And all of these I kind of live with today and use that to inform myself on how I approach care, tying it back into that. And so I think that gives me sort of a wide variety and perspective that really sensitizes me to the different circumstances that patients experience and go through when they're getting health care and how it's delivered. And so I think it's important to understand the diversity of patients' care which is really important here, but when you have so many different people from all over the world, really, that come here and understanding the inequities in health care and how that manifests as different medical outcomes. And my job sort of is also understanding how to overcome that and sort of coordinate with other people to improve our access to patients nationwide.

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