New American Optometric Association Resource Available to Help Optometrists Rehabilitate Patients with Brain Injury
St. Louis, MO - The American Optometric Association (AOA) issued the next iteration of its Brain Injury Electronic Resource Manual, titled Volume 1B, Traumatic Brain Injury Visual Dysfunction: Optometric Management and Advanced Topics, to help doctors of optometrys evaluate patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
With nearly 50% of the brain devoted to vision, doctors of optometry play a crucial part of a multidisciplinary approach to brain injury care. Volume 1B provides an overview of optometric management protocols that are important to incorporate into the care of patients with visual sequelae of closed head trauma. It includes:
- Management of patients with visual sequelae of TBI
- The prescribing of contact lenses for TBI patients, management of low vision in TBI patients and more
- Sample case studies
- Practice management considerations
"This volume summarizes the foundations of optometric visual therapy/neuro-optometric rehabilitative therapy, thereby providing the primary eye care doctor of optometry with the basics, emphasizing the importance of co-management with colleagues who provide optometric rehabilitative visual therapy services," said Chrystyna Rakoczy, O.D., chair of the AOA Brain Injury Committee.
The Brain Injury Electronic Resource Manual is managed by the AOA Vision Rehabilitation Section (VRS), which works with associated professionals and consumer organizations to improve access to comprehensive vision rehabilitation services and programs.
The first volume of the Brain Injury Electronic Resource Manual, Volume 1A, Traumatic Brain Injury Visual Dysfunction Diagnosis, launched in January 2014, focuses on evaluation and assessment of common visual conditions associated with TBI.
Both volumes of the Brain Injury Electronic Resource Manual are exclusive to AOA member doctors, who may download the manual on the VRS website (AOA member login required): aoa.org/optometrists/membership/aoa-sections/vision-rehabilitation-section
About the American Optometric Association (AOA):
The American Optometric Association, a federation of state, student and armed forces optometric associations, was founded in 1898. Today, the AOA is proud to represent the profession of optometry, America's family eye doctors, who take a leading role in an individual's overall eye and vision care, health and well-being. Doctors of optometry (ODs) are the independent primary health care professionals for the eye and have extensive, ongoing training to examine, diagnose, treat and manage disorders, diseases and injuries that affect the eye and visual system, providing two-thirds of primary eye care in the U.S. For information on a variety of eye health and vision topics, and to find a doctor of optometry near you, visit aoa.org.