Visual rehabilitation consultations through telemedicine

Telemedicine can be beneficial in providing excellent low vision care. Ideally, other specialists could be consulted via telemedicine in the rural hospital to increase the viability of telemedicine. A dedicated telemedicine presenter-coordinator would have been helpful. The grant did not provide funding for personnel involved with the telemedicine project, so the remote site presenter and consultants had normal duties with the additional burden of telemedicine activities. This model has the potential to be self-sustaining. In addition to reimbursement for the telemedicine consultant services, there would be income from visual aids purchased by the patients.