About Capital Eye Center (continued)

The clinic that Dr. Munn has established is the only one of its kind that accepts all patients whether or not they have the ability to pay. In addition, he has personally paid for access to argon lasers to treat patients who are at risk of going blind from diabetic retinopathy. He has also recruited a number of other ophthalmologists who donate their time and participate in this mission.

Dr. Munn received his undergraduate training in chemistry and his M.D. at UNC Chapel Hill, after which he completed a residency in internal medicine at New Hanover Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina. From 1986 to 1989 he was an ophthalmology resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and in 1989 came back to North Carolina where he practiced with Raleigh Ophthalmology and Surgical Eye Associates. He established the Wake Medical Center Ophthalmology Clinic in 1992. In 1995, he formed Capital Eye Center.

As an active member of the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Prevent Blindness Foundation, Dr. Munn is involved with several other community service projects. He donates time and equipment for projects that include screening migrant workers for correctable vision problems, participating in the annual glaucoma screenings in Raleigh, and assisting medical students and residents at Wake County Medical Center. He also donates the stipends from his continuing lecture series on diabetes, glaucoma, and eye diseases to the Prevent Blindness North Carolina Foundation, and serves the state legislature and the North Carolina Medical Society as "Doctor of the Day.”

In addition to being a recipient of the AMA Community Service Award, Dr. Munn received the Physician's Recognition Award in 1990 and 1995. In response to this recognition, particularly his most recent award, he said, "It was unexpected to receive this attention. I hope it raises awareness of physicians' commitment to community and the work they have always done in providing services to the poor." The goal of raising the public's awareness about community involvement by practicing physicians is one intent of the Community Service Award established by the AMA Young Physicians Section.

In explaining his effort to give back to the community, Dr. Munn recalls the work of two Raleigh physicians, Drs. George and Hale Thornhill, who began their practice in 1949 on the comer of Jones and St. Mary's streets in Raleigh. Today, he continues their legacy at the Capital Eye Center, 720 West Jones Street, caring for patients who cannot afford medical treatment as well as for other patients the Thomhills treated over the years.

The series of community projects established by Dr. Albert Munn, III has attracted statewide and national attention for both him and his colleagues. His medical associates have commented that such commitment seems more typical of the "old-time family doctor." Indeed, in all occupations today, not only medical practice, it is rare to see this level of kindness, generosity, and compassion extended without some type of tangible or financial reward. Recently, Dr. Munn was quoted as saying, "Simple, voluntary acts of kindness and charity are repaid ten times over, usually in unpredictable ways." He continued, "I was fortunate to find people at Wake Medical Center, Glaxo Wellcome, Durham Technical College, and Prevent Blindness North Carolina who still believe in this." Together, Dr. Munn believes, the synergy created by these groups allowed them to accomplish more than anyone could have imagined. This collaborative effort has resulted in medical care and services for many patients who otherwise would have gone untreated. In many instances, it has given patients the gift of sight, which may not have been possible without the work of Dr. Albert Munn, III and his colleagues.