Dr.
Paul B. Freeman is an optometrist who graduated from the
Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia in 1974. Dr.
Freeman is presently the head of low vision rehabilitation services
at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
provides low vision rehabilitation services at Keystone Blind
Association in Sharon, Pennsylvania and Beaver County Association
for the Blind in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He provides
rehabilitative care for individuals of all ages, including those
suffering from the visual consequences of acquired brain injury. In
addition he is the optometric consultant to the Western Pennsylvania
School for Blind Children, and is involved in vision programs
throughout western Pennsylvania’s school districts. Dr. Freeman has
been an investigator in a number of vision research projects to
determine the efficacy of sophisticated low vision devices, to
assess the psychological implications of low vision, and to explore
the relationship of vision and the learning process. Dr. Freeman
lectures both nationally and internationally and was a Distinguished
Clinical Practitioner at the University of Houston, College of
Optometry, from 2000 to 2001. Dr. Freeman was part of AARP’s
Webinar: Keep Your Safety in Sight, Prepare for the Effects of Aging
Vision on Driving, presented for the AARP Driver Safety Program, May
2011,Washington, DC, and was also involved in AARP Smart Driver
training videos, AARP Driver Safety, November 2012, Alexandria, VA.
He has authored numerous articles, and served as the editor of
Optometry, Journal of the American Optometric Association from
February, 1999 to June 2012. Dr. Freeman is presently
co-editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier eye care portal PracticeUpdate.
He co-authored the book “The Art and Practice of Low Vision,” and
wrote “Believing is Seeing.”
Dr. Freeman is a low vision
diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry (1 of only 2 in
western Pennsylvania), and was chair of the diplomate program and
Low Vision Section of the AAO from 1989-1992. As one of the founders
of the American Optometric Association’s Low Vision Section, he
served as its chairperson from 1987-1989. Dr. Freeman has received
numerous awards, including the Golden Triangle Radio Information
Center Award, for working with the visually impaired (1985), the
Pennsylvania Council for the Blind’s Distinguished Service Award
(1996), the State University of New York, College of Optometry’s
William Feinbloom Award (1997), the Pittsburgh Business Times’
Healthcare Hero Award: Physician of the Year (1997), the American
Optometric Association Low Vision Section’s Vision Care Award
(1999), Pennsylvania Council of the Blind Honorary Service Award
2010, The COVD Distinguished Service Award in 2011, and the Merit
Award from the Pennsylvania Optometric Association in 2012. Dr.
Freeman has consulted with many private care practitioners in
establishing successful low vision services both nationally and
internationally.
Dr. Freeman has dedicated his professional
career to evaluating and managing visually impaired individuals of
all ages with a variety of conditions including macular
degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, inoperable cataract,
traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, peripheral vision loss,
cortical visual impairment, albinism, retinitis pigmentosa, optic
nerve dysfunctions, and achromatopsia, stroke, rod cone dystrophy,
cone rod dystrophy, toxoplasmosis, histoplasmosis, retinopathy of
prematurity.
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