Marianne McDaniel, OD, of Mascoutah, Illinois, completed her in-person training at the NeuroVisual Medicine Institute with Debby Feinberg, OD, in May 2021. Dr. McDaniel had been pursuing additional education in low vision for five years and had started using Neurolenses to expand her offered services at Mascoutah Eye Care, which she founded in 2010. She decided to pursue Dr. Feinberg’s training after seeing a post in an optometry group on Facebook.
Dr. McDaniel was pleased with how thorough the training was, and “I spent a lot of time shadowing Dr. Feinberg and seeing the impact that she was making on patients.” The follow-up coaching calls, toolkit and reference binder were valuable any time she needed a refresher. Dr. McDaniel adds that she is thankful that she could text Dr. Feinberg directly if she ever wanted a second opinion.
Her training in NeuroVisual Medicine has been a tremendous value to bring back to her established practice. “People had been coming to me for years with symptoms or complaints, and I didn’t know what to do with them,” Dr. McDaniel says. She could look back on the previous year’s record and see the notes of complaints about headaches and dizziness. Once she returned home from Michigan, she says that she immediately had several patients in mind that she thought she could help. “It’s been amazing to me the amount of people I could help with Dr. Feinberg’s method of putting the prism on patients in the exam room so they can feel the effects of it.”
Established ODs might feel hesitant adding and learning a new specialty later in their careers, but Dr. McDaniel encourages her colleagues to take the leap. “Listen to your patients; they have so many problems. Now, we can help them,” Dr. McDaniel says. She’s had patients travel up to five hours to receive this care in her office.
Dr. McDaniel reaches out to share the life-changing moments with Dr. Feinberg. “I had one patient recently who told me that he hadn’t been able to stand up and feel like he did in over a year. I told Debby, “I hope you never get tired of these texts. I made such a difference for this patient; thank you for teaching me!’”
Read more from WO about Dr. Feinberg’s work.
Learn more about training with Dr. Feinberg and her team.
