HPSP Vision Issues

[ucbmedquestions]

I want to do HPSP, but I have mild red-green color blindness. I also used corneal refractory therapy (ortho-k) as a teenager, but I stopped doing that years ago. Ortho-k is completely reversible and I can likely provide documentation from my eye doctor that my eyes are healthy. My vision is ~20/50 uncorrected and can be corrected to 20/20 with glasses. I heard that for the Army, you just need to pass the vivid red/green test which I can, but I want to make sure. I have no other health problems to my knowledge. Will either of those things disqualify me from service, and if so, what are my odds of getting a waiver. My MCAT is >520 if that helps for waivers.

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[d2305]

It's disqualifying but waiverable depending on how you do on PIP. https://www.med.navy.mil/directives...145, 150-152, 154-156, 160, 164, and 165).pdf

 

[ucbmedquestions]

It's disqualifying but waiverable depending on how you do on PIP. https://www.med.navy.mil/directives/Documents/NAVMED P-117 (MANMED)/Chapter 15 Medical Examinations (incorporates Changes 126, 135-138, 140, 145, 150-152, 154-156, 160, 164, and 165).pdf

I already assumed that it was disqualifying for Navy and Air Force. I heard the Army has a lower standard (vivid red/green), so I assumed I would need to apply there. I read on the file for the navy that they lowered the standard to 10/14 from 12/14, so idk, I might be able to scrape by.

 

[d2305]

I don't know how to look up Army regs.

 

[Trefoil]

I know color blind physicians in the Army. My assumption is that getting a waiver with an otherwise good application should be fairly easy. Colorblindness doesn’t disqualify you from any medical field.

 

[Apollyon]

Colorblindness doesn’t disqualify you from any medical field.

Not to be argumentative, but, what about pathology? Not necessarily "disqualifying", but definitely much more difficult, to, possibly, nearly impossible. I mean, if you can't see an H&E stain, for example, you can't do it.

 

[Trefoil]

Not to be argumentative, but, what about pathology? Not necessarily "disqualifying", but definitely much more difficult, to, possibly, nearly impossible. I mean, if you can't see an H&E stain, for example, you can't do it.

That’s a fair question. I personally don’t know of any color blind pathologists. I also simplified the meaning of color blind for the sake of argument. Obviously there is a large variability in what “color blind” means, but generally it indicates difficulty with discrimination between red and green colors. I’m sure there is some kind of stain that meets that criteria, but it’s probably not super common? I think a typical color blind individual can probably view H&E stains for example with no problems.

 

[Helpful Troll]

I don't know how to look up Army regs.

Army Publishing Directorate for all Regulations and Directives that aren't Classified are here... Army Publishing Directorate Then go to Publications > Administrative > AR- Army Regulations. Its in AR 40-501 chapter 2 but they've change the Regulation to reference DoD Issuance 6130.03 volume 1 for 'entrance standards' found here... DoD Issuances Scroll down to DoDI 6130.03