focus on low vision

Summit Focuses on Low Vision

by Stephanie K. De Long

The Better Vision Institute recently held its second annual Vision Summit in Washington, D.C. The event brought together thought leaders in the low vision community for a day-and-a-half summit focusing on the importance of this burgeoning category, and how the three Os, as well as major institutions and associations, can work together to ensure that Americans have access to all the services that are, and will become, available in the low vision arena.

An independent, not-for-profit advisory board to The Vision Council, BVI is unique in the optical world. Not only is it one of the oldest organizations in vision care, founded in 1929, but it is the only group whose sole purpose is to bring together vision's three professional disciplines, ophthalmology, optometry, and opticianry, to provide a forum in which these professions can come together to address the major issues affecting vision health.

The stated goal of "2008: Focus on Low Vision" was to "generate effective strategies and best practices on the treatment of low vision patients, as well as to create an ongoing community for the rest of 2008 and beyond." Some 50 attendees, including key opinion leaders in the low vision world—clinicians, researchers, educators, manufacturers, association executives, eyecare professionals from all three Os, occupational therapists, policy experts, and even two patients who shared heart-wrenching stories of vision loss—participated in panel discussions, roundtables, and networking, as well as brainstorming breakout sessions.

Here's a close-up look at some of the Summit's events and participants.

1 Eleanor Faye, MD, medical director of the Lighthouse International, receives "The Visionary" Award from Jeff Moss, Eschenbach founder and president of The Vision Council's Low Vision Division.

2 Sharing a moment between sessions (l to r): Bruce Rosenthal, OD, FAAO, Lighthouse International and Low Vision Section of the AOA; Mary Lou Jackson, MD, chair of the AAO Vision Rehabilitation Committee and director of the Vision Rehabilitation Service at Harvard; and BVI Liaison Paul Michaelson, MD, from EyeCare of La Jolla, Calif.

3 Reviewing flipcharts from the brainstorming session where attendees broke into small discussion groups are R. Tracy Williams, OD, executive director, Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation, and Ron Cole, MD, founding member, Medical Vision Technology.

4 Heart-wrenching stories of struggle and success were told from the patient's perspective by CPA Bill Robinson (l) from Chattanooga, Tenn., and on-air personality Mark Farrell from 101.9 RXP in New York.

5 Incoming BVI chair Thomas Abbott, LDO, NCLE, from the Everett Clinic Vision Centers in Everett, Wash., addresses attendees on opening night at the prestigious National Press Club.

6 Cynthia Stuen, PhD, DSW, and senior vice president, Policy and Professional Affairs, Lighthouse International, exchanges business cards with Dan Roberts, founding director, MD Support, Inc., and International Macular Degeneration support groups. Both participated in the panel discussion on the current landscape of low vision.

7 The Vision Council CEO Ed Greene is flanked by BVI members Maria Carmen Perez-Blanco, OD, from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, and Dave Edwards from South Florida Vision.

Next month, we look at some of the important information shared at this groundbreaking event. EB