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An Apology and Correction
An OD friend of ours sent me a link to a video of a talk I gave more than two years ago at a pitch event in San Francisco. In the video I mention briefly that patching and vision therapy don't work for adults and don't work well for kids. This was shortly after the first prototype of our software gave me depth perception for the first time, and I was looking at how to replicate that experience for others. I had basic eye exercises and patching as a kid and hated it and associated that with VT. I came to learn that much has changed, and that my experience wasn't representative of a lot of the work that is being done today.
I want to start by saying this video doesn't represent what I currently believe and I want to clarify what I currently believe. In the last two years since that talk I've met and spoken with hundreds of optometrists, read countless scientific studies, had conversations with dozens of vision scientists, and have brought on Dr. Tuan Tran to work as our Chief Optometrist full time and Dr. Ben Backus as our science advisor. All of this has taught me the power and potential of VT and perceptual learning in both adults and children.
When I started this company I began with reading the scientific literature and speaking to optometrists and ophthalmologists. The literature included years of studies espousing the dogma that the brain is no longer plastic after the critical age. I didn't read any strong, scientific evidence for the efficacy of vision therapy, particularly in adults. My plan at this time was to release a game directly to people that could help them with their binocular vision issues. Although it wasn't obvious then, over the last two years it became clear to me that amblyopia and strabismus are deeply complex issues that can't be addressed automatically. We've changed our direction since then. We want to empower optometrists with more powerful tools, not build replacements or alternatives to professional care. We don't think it is wise to provide treatment without an eye doctor prescribing and managing it. This is why Vivid Vision is only available through eye doctors, and won't be sold directly to patients.
We are now working with research institutions to produce more research that demontrates that vision therapy works, so people like me who go and read the literature aren't misinformed in the same way I was. I know this topic brings up old wounds that come long before Vivid Vision and any of the work we've done, and we want to do our part to educate people about the power of vision therapy.
At the time of the video I was misinformed and I made a mistake. I apologize for that and hope that we can work with optometrists to treat more patients more efficiently and effectively than ever before.
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