Page 8 - Demo

RESEARCH PROFILE
Low Vision and Vision Rehabilitation
DR MARK BONA
The multi-focused research program related to vision rehabilita- tion has taken o well in the 2018-2019 academic year.
First, the South East Ontario Vision Rehabilitation Service was es- tablished, in coordination with the SELHIN, Vision Loss Rehabilita- tion Ontario, the KHSC, and Queen’s University to improve vision rehabilitation service delivery across the region. The pilot project brings together healthcare providers, certi ed specialists, and key stakeholders throughout the healthcare system in an e ort to improve access to care, reduce wait times, and optimize the ef- fectiveness of care for individuals with vision loss. We are current- ly evaluating year one of our data; we
hope to demonstrate results that sup- port our project’s goals. Further, the re- sults will be used in an ongoing itera- tive process to improve this new model of care.
Driving forward the national standard
for vision rehabilitation, we have col-
laborated with CNIB and rehabilitation
researchers at Queen’s and Dalhousie
Universities to support the submission
of a multi-year MITACS Accelerate Proposal focused on Creating a New Standard for Vision Loss Rehabilitation in Canada. We will be able to apply the results of these projects (including an environ- mental scan and policy review, and an examination of pathways of care) to further support integration of vision rehabilitation ser- vices and improve service delivery.
In line with the strategy for patient oriented research (SPOR), we are building ways to partner with patients in shaping research re- lated to their care. Partners at Western University collaborated with older adults with vision loss who identi ed the importance of having a means of learning about community supports and an interest in their healthcare professionals providing this informa- tion to them. Building on this, we have partnered with Queen’s School of Rehabilitation Science to examine the range of sup- ports used and clients’ experiences in using these supports. This research is informing ongoing resource development which will be used as the subject of further patient feedback and research over the next several months.
In an attempt to better understand the economic impact of the low vision population in the province of Ontario, we collaborated with the School of Public Health Sciences, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Services, and faculty members within the Department of Ophthalmology and applied for and received an Applied Health Research Question (AHRQ) grant from the MOHLTC. Among the various study results, the AHRQ convincingly demon- strated that the direct health care costs of the low vision popula- tion are much greater than a controlled, non-low vision cohort. The ndings from this study will serve as a foundation for future population-based projects looking at Ontario’s low vision popu-
lation.
Understanding that vision loss inher- ently limits access to care, Dr. Rachel Curtis along with Hassan Hazari, a Queen’s medical student, have devel- oped and are validating a portable tool- kit that could be used to implement low vision assessment within the communi- ty using a telemedicine approach. In or- der to evaluate the economic impact of deploying this toolkit, Erin McClellan, a
Queen’s undergraduate student, and Dr. Ana Johnson from the School of Public Health Services conducted a cost minimization analysis of this portable toolkit.
With an eye to the future, Arielle Brickman, a Queen’s medical stu- dent, is focused on how best to train graduating ophthalmolo- gists as they attempt to manage the exponential growth of pa- tients with low vision. The implementation of “competency by design” has rede ned medical education. Within ophthalmology, residency programs are heterogeneous in their exposure to vi- sion rehabilitation and it is important to understand what is cur- rently being taught, what should be taught, and in what formats in order to best implement an evidence-based competency- based curriculum. Through Queen’s undergraduate medical school Critical Enquiry course, Arielle designed a qualitative sur- vey-based study to better understand the current educational landscape of vision rehabilitation training across Canadian post- graduate ophthalmology programs through the perspectives of program directors, residents, and vision rehabilitation specialists.
8 | Research Report 2018/2019