We all see the articles about what it takes to run a successful practice: slick marketing, conflict management, Web pages, team training, appropriate compensation packages, etc. The list is endless. Yet these topics are but condiments on a great hamburger. The substance of the hamburger is the patty. The substance of clinical medicine is a patient's assessment, diagnosis, treatment and plan. Do that well, and you will succeed. Do that poorly, and you must rely on the condiments for success.
Conversely, its absence causes a needlessly high risk of disease and death. For children, lack of vitamin A causes severe visual impairment and blindness, and significantly increases the risk of severe illness, and even death, from such common childhood infections as diarrhoeal disease and measles.
Blindness may be caused by diseases of the lens, retina, or other eye structures; diseases of the optic nerve; or lesions of the visual cortex or pathways of the brain. A small number of infants are born blind, but far more people become blind during life.