Page 5 - Research News 2019-2020 iPad

across multiple domains. Other noteworthy findings include a that can be leveraged in the creation of a national research initia-
significant increase in falls as well as depression within the low tive to develop tools to support clients in their journey through
vision population. the healthcare system.

Data from a study with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Ser- Exploring barriers that limit access to care among patients with
vices (IC/ES) that aims to better understand the economic bur- low vision, Drs. Rachel Curtis and Hassan Hazari under the super-
den of low vision in the province of Ontario found that the vision of Dr. Mark Bona have developed and validated a portable
attributable cost of low vision is approximately $7,000 per pa- toolkit that could be used to implement low vision assessments
tient per year. The study also demonstrated that patients with within the community via a telemedicine approach. In the dia-
low vision experience significantly more acute hospitalizations, gram depicted the study was executed by approximating a re-
emergency room visits, and physician visits, and that they have mote clinical interaction whereby the ophthalmologist was sit-
more comorbidities compared to age-, sex-, region- and, income- uated in a room adjacent to where an ophthalmic technologist
matched non-low vision controls. facilitated the clinical assessment.
A cost minimization analysis conducted in conjunction with the
These findings will serve as a foundation for future popula- telemedicine toolkit study was undertaken to determine the
tion-based projects looking at Ontario’s low vision population.
economic impact of deploying this toolkit. (Erin McClellan BSc,
Continuing work on a national standard for vision rehabilitation Ana Johnson PhD). This analysis suggested that a graduated in-
with partners at the CNIB and occupational rehabilitation re troduction of a telemedicine low vision assessment is less cost-
searchers at Queen’s and Dalhousie Universities, we were success- ly the standard out-patient hospital model, with cost savings of
ful in our application for a MITACS Accelerate Proposal focused on $311,534 over five years.
creating a new standard for vision loss rehabilitation in Canada. With an eye to the future, one of our ophthalmology residents
Dr. Tiandra Ceyhan, is designing a mixed-methods, survey-based
Ongoing investment into patient-oriented research has brought study to better understand the current educational landscape of
together collaborators from our patient population, the CNIB, vision rehabilitation training across Canadian post-graduate oph-
and Queen’s, Dalhousie and Western Universities. Our ongoing thalmology programs through the perspectives of program direc-
research into older adults with vision loss and the facilitators and tors and vision rehabilitation specialists.
barriers in their use of supports is anticipated to yield evidence

Ontario
Hospital Telemedicine Remote Site
Network

Physician VPN Remote Patient
Access Software

Two-way webcam Computer control Wearable electronic Binocular mobile
trial frame refractometer

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