Sight + Sound, Spring 2026
Colin Prensky, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, has established an endowed fund in memory of his parents.
Over the past couple of years, Dr. Prensky’s initial thoughts about this endowment began to take shape. “We all face situations where our patients’ care is negatively impacted by financial barriers, even with Dana’s [patient navigator] incredible hard work and the existing resources like medical assistance and the Addison Gibson Foundation,” he said. In the past week alone, he can think of three or four patients with retinal detachments who either had care delayed or deferred entirely due to the inability to pay. In some cases, even insured patients are stressed by the large out of pocket patient portion of the cost.
“I wish to care for patients, providing care that is the most appropriate medically, without the feeling that I am putting them in a position to try to put a price on their own vision,” Dr. Prensky said. While many patients are able to find resources eventually, the uncertainty in the initial phase can lead to delays that are uncomfortable/stressful at best, and “medically deleterious at worst.” The hope is that this endowed fund will provide a bridge to allow providers to offer care without interruption while more permanent solutions can be found.
In recent years, Dr. Prensky lost both of his parents, who passed away far younger than expected. The entire reason he is in the medical profession is because of them. They both dedicated their professional lives to serving the medical community. Dr. Prensky’s father was an accomplished retina surgeon, and his mother was a CRNA. “Caring for patients was a core part of our family identity,” he said. “Ophthalmology was almost a family religion, and I was raised in a home that treated the healthcare professions as a sincere privilege and responsibility. I have been looking for a way to memorialize their lives in a way that could allow their contributions to be perpetual. For this reason, in my initial donor agreement documents, I provided the initial gift to establish the ‘Dr. and Mrs. Jay and Colleen Prensky Endowed Patient Care Fund.’”
The expectation in establishing this fund is to grow it to the point where it can sustainably provide assistance to patients in ways that complement the other resources that exist. “I am hoping that, by establishing this, others will also be inspired to contribute and hope to be involved in future fundraising efforts where possible,” Dr. Prensky said.
While the fund now exists, it is still too small to provide enough to make the impact Dr. Prensky envisions. “I am very excited to work hard to try to grow it over the next few years to a point where it can make a real difference,” he said.