Electronic Tools for the Assessment and Rehabilitation of Post-Stroke Visual Impairments

Such impairments can have a significant negative effect on the stroke survivor’s ability to perform everyday tasks like driving, reading, and interacting with their environment and other people. Subsequent reduced independence has further impacts on emotional and social functioning. With improving stroke survivor rates, an increasing number of people are living with the long-term consequences of such visual perceptual impairments. Screening tools are often time-consuming meaning that these sorts of impairments can be frequently over-looked, and there is little consistency in the delivery of rehabilitation. With an increase in the availability of digital and portable devices, electronic tools have been identified as a credible future direction in health and social care. In this talk Dr Kathleen Vancleef will discuss the development of a novel assessment app that could allow more rapid, reliable detection of visual perception impairments in stroke survivors, and Dr Alison Lane will discuss the use of accessible and cost-effective e-therapies.

Speaker biographies

Dr Alison Lane is the lead for the Durham WRIHW Brain, Body and Behaviour Academy group. She is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department, and developer of the Durham Reading and Exploration (DREX) training app for people with partial visual field defects.

Dr Kathleen Vancleef is an NIHR Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department. She specialises in the accurate measurement of visual perception, and has developed the Oxford Visual Perception Screen (OxVPS) which is a quick screening tool for visual perception deficits after stroke.