CBIS Spotlight: Laura Dalmasy-Frouin

Born and raised in Guayama, Puerto Rico, Laura E. Dalmasy-Frouin, O.D., ABO, CBIS, attended Boston College in Massachusetts and obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1990. In 1994, she graduated cum laude from the Interamerican University School of Optometry. She spent her first years practicing in Maryland as part of an ophthalmology group called Capital Eye Physicians and Surgeons until 1998. In 2004, she started career at the VA Caribbean Healthcare System as Staff Optometrist. She has been a coordinator of the residency program in geriatrics and low vision and has held a faculty appointment as an Adjunct Clinical Professor since 2004. She became a CBIS in 2016.

Why is having your CBIS important to you and how has it benefited your practice and career?

Having the CBIS has been very important to me both in my career and personally. It has given me the opportunity to expand my knowledge in the field of brain injury and also to improve the quality of life of a special population of patients. In addition, it has contributed to the maintenance of my academic appointment as Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Interamerican University School of Optometry in Puerto Rico and the recognition as an expert in the subject matter. Lastly, it allows me to stay up to date in current trends to satisfy credit hours for the maintenance of CBIS.

What are some of the latest trends in the literature and practice that you are seeing in the field of vision impairment with survivors of brain injury?

The person that suffers a traumatic brain injury can have several degrees of visual impairments, like decreased visual acuity, loss of field of vision, and disorders of the binocular system. Any of these sequelae can impact activities of daily life significantly. One of the devices I use is the Dynavision to help compensate for visual field loss. It projects little points of light in different sequences in the area of field loss to improve scanning to the area and help the patient to compensate for the loss. This is specially important for safety in ambulation. Also, the use of different colored tints or filters in glasses help the patient with glare sensitivity and prevention of migraine headaches. These are only two examples of how optometrists can contribute greatly to the rehabilitation of patients with traumatic brain injury with visual sequelae and improve their quality of life.

Why have you chosen a career in brain injury? What are you most passionate about in the field?

I have the honor to work at the VA Caribbean Healthcare System and be a part of the Polytrauma System of Care. The career in brain injury chose me as I am the only optometrist under the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department in our hospital. The Polytrauma Clinic consists of an interdisciplinary group of professionals that include medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and others. We provide rehabilitation care for patients with mild traumatic brain injury mainly as outpatients. I am passionate about giving them a thorough eye examination in order to detect the obvious visual impairments but also those that are not so obvious to me or to them. In our patient population it is very common to hear complaints of “I cannot read for a long time” and “I cannot concentrate in my studies.” Most of the time they do not realize that a visual problem may be at the root of these complaints. This is where I come in and, like a private investigator, try to decipher the clues and solve the case. Solutions may come as correction of a simple refractive error; a complex prescription that incorporates prisms to correct a deviation that does not allow the eyes to work together properly and/or prescribing visual therapy to ameliorate symptoms of a binocular disorder interfering with reading. It gives me great satisfaction to contribute to the well-being of someone that has been through a lot and ultimately impact their quality of life positively.