University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers, Dr. Stephen T. Mennemeyer, senior scholar at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy in the School of Public Health, Dr. Cynthia Owsley, department of ophthalmology in the School of Medicine, and Dr. Gerald McGwin Jr., department of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, simulated the effect that a proactive policy encouraging cataract surgery earlier for a lesser level of complaint would have on Motor Vehicle Collisions (MVC) among older drivers. They found that earlier surgery reduces by about 21 percent the average number of MVCs, fatalities, and MVC cost per person. The net effect on total cost – all MVC costs plus cataract surgery expenditures – is a reduction of about 16 percent.