Practitioner Diaries: What I Got Wrong about Eccentric Viewing Training

What do you do when a randomized controlled trial finds no benefit from a clinical practice you've used with success for years? Host Erika Andersen Ko, certified low vision therapist, shares how the aftermath of the EFFECT study on eccentric viewing training led her to Psychologically Informed Practice, and what she hopes the framework can do for the field of blindness and low vision.

This is the first episode of Practitioner Diaries, a recurring format that goes behind the scenes with a low vision practitioner working on implementing a specific strategy over time. Erika goes first.

You'll hear Erika Andersen Ko's insights on:

• Why the EFFECT study protocol looked so different from clinical practice, and why the study was needed anyway
• Why “eccentric viewing training” claims a mechanism the evidence cannot support, but that doesn’t invalidate the need for individualized support for central field loss
• What the difference between the biomedical and biopsychosocial models of rehabilitation looks like in the context of support for central field loss
• How Psychologically Informed Practice, a framework from rehabilitation medicine, organizes psychosocial support across care pathways and can help the field of blindness and low vision shift more fully towards a biopsychosocial model of care