Blindness or partial blindness is a medical problem and should be included in the problem list for all primary care physicians. In many cases this affects the patient's ability to take their medication correctly or to continue with a prescribed exercise program. Loss of vision should not interfere with the patient's medical care, however, training and adjustment to visual impairment may be necessary and is readily available. It is important for the primary care physician to recognize the loss the patient has suffered and to treat depression appropriately. Patients today are more aware of the nature of their impairment and that significant research is yielding promising advances in both the treatment of their eye disease as well as the adaptive devices that allow use of their remaining vision.
Intercommunication ensures efficiency and thoroughness in the rehabilitation process.
All eyecare professionals should be able to provide basic refractive services that improve function for those patients with mild degrees of low vision. This can include fine refractive analysis, providing and instructing in the use of low power magnifiers and a discussion about the benefits of additional lighting and contrast. In cases of moderate to severe visual impairment the patient should be referred to an eyecare practitioner that has experience in low vision rehabilitation and a variety of optical and electronic visual aids to demonstrate to that patient. The arena of high-tech visual aids continues to expand allowing a greater range of functional benefit and ease of use. Many devices take advantage of microcomputer driven operation that require little user manipulation yet yield a highly interactive, real-time digital enhancement of the surroundings.