Clinical Research Directory

Validation of a Virtual Reality Test for the Assessment of Visually Impaired Patients Undergoing Low Vision Rehabilitation

Low vision rehabilitation is a vital part of care for visually impaired patients, who are usually referred to orthoptists to develop visual strategies and optimize residual vision. This rehabilitation significantly improves quality of life by enhancing autonomy and reducing depression. It employs various tools, from traditional exercises to specialized software. Advances in virtual reality (VR) offer new promising opportunities by creating immersive environments tailored to patients' residual vision, increasing motivation and exercise effectiveness. In this context, VisionumVR was developed-a VR test using the Meta Quest 3 headset to assess functional vision during rehabilitation. It evaluates hand-eye coordination, visual discrimination, and visual exploration through a daily-life-inspired task. This standardized 20-minute test aims to measure patients' progress throughout their orthoptic rehabilitation.

Obstacle Negotiation in Older People With and Without Vision Impairment

Falls are common among people with vision impairment and can lead to devastating health consequences. Understanding the functions of vision and how the visual characteristics of obstacles in the walking path impact the gait of people with vision impairment is necessary to create strategies to prevent falls in this population. The purpose of this study is to determine how adults with vision impairment change their gait behavior when stepping over obstacles that vary in height and contrast to the ground. We will then determine the mechanisms of gaze behavior that correlate to the gait behavior.

Wearable Echolocation Aids Using Parametric Sound

The objective of this study is to study a novel device designed to aid patients with impaired vision to safely navigate their environment. Subjects for this study will be individuals with normal vision, either with or without correction. The subjects will wear a device to simulate impaired vision and will be asked to walk a path with randomly placed obstacles during two trials. One of the trials will consist of the subject wearing the simulator alone. The other trial will consist of the subject wearing the simulator and the study device. The study device is designed to be worn by the study subject and will emit tones to indicate obstacles in the environment as the subject walks on the path with random obstacles. The tones will indicate that there is an obstacle in the individual's path and will increase in intensity as the subject moves closer to the object.Invest

Beacon Sensors and Telerehabilitation to Assess and Improve Use of Devices (BeST-AID) for Low Vision

One goal of this research is to conduct a non-inferiority trial of telerehabilitation versus in-office care to provide follow-up training to individuals with low vision to enhance their quality of life by using magnification devices and/or visual assistive mobile apps for important daily activities, such as reading and/or other valued tasks. This is a high priority given the increasing prevalence of low vision, paucity of low vision rehabilitation providers, and barriers related to access to care, such as transportation and geography, which can be essentially eliminated with telerehabilitation. Another goal of this project is to determine whether significant changes in environmental data collected by Bluetooth low energy beacon sensors can be used as a solution to monitor and indicate when low vision patients' have abandoned the use of their magnification devices, which has the potential to substantially enhance patient management by providing timely low vision rehabilitation services.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Structured Psychosocial Counseling On Mental Health And FI Individuals With Low Vision

Vision impairments affect 2.2 billion people worldwide, including 36 million who are blind and 217 million with moderate-to-severe visual impairment. In the US, age-related vision loss is a leading cause of disability among older adults.

Effectiveness of AV-stimulation in Immersive VR to Improve Visual Perception and Driving Performance

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of an immersive virtual-reality (IVR) based stimulation program, in improving visual perception for people who have lost their driver's license due to perceptual or cognitive impairments. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Can the 6-week IVR stimulation program help improve driving performance? 2. Will participants experience improvement in visual detection and perception after training? Study Design Summary: * Participants will be randomized into a waitlist group or intervention-first group * The VR-based intervention will consist of training every 2 days for six weeks * Waitlist group will wait 6 weeks before starting intervention at study midpoint (week 7) * Intervention-first group will begin with intervention (week 1-6) and then stop intervention at study midpoint * Participants will complete tests related to driving performance, visual attention, and visual fields at the start of study, midpoint, and end of study Researchers will analyze data for changes from baseline in outcome measures.

Socially Assistive Robots to Enhance Magnification Device Use for Reading

The aims of this exploratory research project are to customize, deploy and evaluate the preliminary efficacy of a socially assistive robot as a novel approach to motivate and encourage optimal, long-term use of new magnification devices for reading in individuals with vision loss. The goals are to promote patient acceptance, adherence and skills reinforcement to achieve proficiency in the use of the magnifier, in order to attempt to reduce visual disability while performing important daily activities, such as reading tasks. This is a high priority given the increasing prevalence of low vision, paucity of low vision rehabilitation providers, and barriers related to access to care, such as transportation and geography, all of which motivate the development of this complementary approach for the provision of additional support at home by the socially assistive robot.