The goal of the Vision Rehabilitation Center (VRC) is to assist vision-impaired patients to effectively use all of their remaining vision.
The Center has offered vision rehabilitation services for more than 25 years to patients with eye conditions that restrict daily activities, mobility, productivity or independence. Even minimal vision loss can affect a person's daily functions. Macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma are examples of diagnoses that often can cause vision loss.
Rehabilitation begins after patients have received appropriate diagnosis and evaluation by their eye doctor. It is part of the continuum of ophthalmic care, just as stroke rehabilitation or cardiac rehabilitation is part of the continuum of health care. Patients continue to receive treatment from their regular ophthalmologists while participating in rehabilitation.
Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope for Macular Perimetry
The Vision Rehabilitation Service has one of New England's only Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopes for Macular Perimetry (SLO). This unique tool produces a real time, high resolution image of the patient's retina with a map of its functioning areas. With this tool, our staff are able to understand a patient's visual functioning and, if appropriate, teach the patient to use alternate peripheral areas of the retina.
