38 | JANUARY 5 • 2023 

HEALTH
T

he 94-year-old home-
bound patient was over-
joyed.
“Thank you so much,” she 
told her visitor. “You made 
such a difference to my life.”
She’d always loved reading 
and had a huge stack of books, 
but lately she’d been unable 
to do more than just sit in 
her favorite armchair. Her 
visitor was Dr. Yaakov Zacks 
of Southfield, Michigan’s only 
full-time house-calling optom-
etrist. He’d discovered her 
prescription for her faltering 
vision and given her appropri-
ate glasses. 
After months of just sitting 
and staring into a hazy oblivi-
on, her books gathering dust, 
the 94-year-old could finally 
read again.
“It’s things like that that make 
me feel like I’m doing some-
thing right,
” Zacks said. 
In 1977, Yaakov’s father, Dr. 
Joel Zacks, opened his optome-
try practice in Howell. By 1994, 
he noticed that some of his 
longtime patients weren’t com-
ing into his office anymore. He 
reached out to check on them 
and many said things like, “I 
had a stroke; I’m unable to leave 
my house now” or “I can’t travel 
anymore; I can barely walk.
” 
Then and there, Dr. Joel told 
them, “OK then, I’ll come and 
see you.
”
“There’s a whole underserved 
population that wasn’t being 
screened or treated,
” said Zacks, 
who joined his father’s compa-
ny, Eye Travel, after he gradu-
ated from optometry school in 
Boston in 2006. 
Together they made house 
calls until Dr. Joel made aliyah 
with his wife, Yaakov’s mother, 
Linda, about nine years ago. 
Now Dr. Yaakov does it on his 
own. 
“I go anywhere in Southeast 
Michigan — a little past 
Lansing, up to Flint, all the way 

down to the Ohio border, to 
Port Huron and its surround-
ing areas and everywhere in 
between,
” Zacks said. 
There are many reasons why 
people are unable to travel to a 
medical office. For some, it’s the 
cold weather; others are wheel-
chair or bed bound, others have 
regressed due to ailments like 
Alzheimer’s, stroke or other 
diseases. 
“Whatever their situation is, 

I’m able to get to their house 
and see them,
” Zacks said. 
On one occasion, a bedbound 
patient whose only interaction 
with the outside world was 
through his laptop computer 
could no longer see the screen. 
Zacks gave him a simple pair of 
reading glasses and his life com-
pletely changed. 
“There’s never a dull 
moment,
” Zacks said. “Many 
of my patients tell me that they 

can see fine, and they don’t 
know why I’m even there … 
They say things like, ‘I had cat-
aract surgery 10 years ago, so I 
don’t need eye exams anymore.
’ 
This is a myth.
”
According to the American 
Academy of Optometry, every-
one over the age of 65 should 
have a yearly eye exam. 
“We check for cataracts and 
glaucoma, which can cause no 
symptoms but can cause blind-
ness if it’s not treated in time, so 
patients often don’t even know 
they have it until it’s too late,
” 
Zacks said. “If someone has dia-
betes, a yearly exam is especially 
important because diabetes 
can affect the eyes significantly. 
Blood vessels change in the 
eyes; there’s bleeding, swelling, 
vision loss. Diabetes is one of 
the leading causes of blindness 
in the U.S.
”
Of course, much depends on 
lifestyle and genetics.
“I see 90-year-olds who have 
perfectly good vision, who 
keep their sugar levels nice 
and stable … and 60-year-old 
patients who don’t and who are 
completely blind,
” said Zacks, 
who’s also a father of five and 
husband of Devorah, an English 
teacher at Bais Yaakov middle 
school. 
Zacks packs up his instru-
ments, all of which are hand-
held, in a carry-on wheelie 
suitcase and drives his regular 
car to his patients’ homes. He 
uses eye drops instead of the air 
puff test. He has a whole set of 
loose lenses to help figure out 
patients’ prescriptions. 
“It’s handy because I can 
make sure the glasses really suit 
a person’s needs,
” Zacks said. “I 
can turn on their TV and say, 
‘Can you see the screen better 
now? Can you read the sports 
scores on the screen from your 
chair?’”
On one occasion, Zacks 
checked a patient’s eyes, and 

Southfield optometrist 
makes house calls.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dr. Yaakov 
Zacks

Eye Travel

