Andrew Toole

I attended three years of undergraduate education at The Ohio State University (1990 – 1993) prior to entering into the College of Optometry and earning a Doctor of Optometry degree (1997) from The Ohio State University. Following graduation, I completed an Advanced Practice Fellowship in Binocular Vision and Pediatrics and earned a Master of Science in Physiological Optics (2000) from The Ohio State University. From here I joined the faculty at The Ohio State University College of Optometry serving as the Associate Chief of the Binocular Vision and Pediatrics Services and becoming the Chief of the Aniseikonia Service. Subsequently I returned to graduate school funded by a T-32 training grant receiving a Doctor of Philosophy degree (2008) in the Vision Science program from The Ohio State University.

In 2008 I rejoined the faculty at The Ohio State University College of Optometry and am currently appointed as an Associate Professor of Clinical Optometry. I serve as the Chief of the Aniseikonia and Environmental Vision Service. Aniseikonia is a condition that very few doctors treat and as such I routinely see patients from around the country and have seen two international patients. Due to this I believe that it is important to pass my knowledge, skill, and experience in treating aniseikonia to the next generations of optometrists. In addition to teaching this topic didactically, I have had optometry students rotate through the service and currently mentor our Pediatric Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Rehabilitation Residents in evaluating and treating these patients throughout their yearlong residency. I also serve as the Associate Chief of our Binocular Vision and Pediatric (BVP) Service where I additionally serve as a clinical attending for our students, mentor our residents and advanced practice fellows, and act as a peer mentor/consultant for fellow faculty. I handle administrative duties and attend for our externs seeing often challenging patient cases at Twin Valley Behavioral Health (TVBH) inpatient mental health hospital. I also clinically attend for our students as they first begin seeing patients during their second year of the curriculum and in our Primary Vision Care Service.

Didactically I pass my clinical expertise and knowledge on to our students as instructor of record for two courses. The first is a course for our second year students on Diagnosis and Management of Common Vision Conditions. Here we breakdown the complexities of the relationship between eye focusing and eye alignment, and discuss the common clinical issues that arise when treating refractive conditions; two topics of importance as the students concurrently begin seeing patients for the first time. The following semester I teach the basic science course on Eye Movements and Binocular Vision. Here again I use my clinical experience to illustrate how these basic science concepts apply to the patients that we treat thus keeping my students more engaged in the material. I have also been able to share my knowledge on aniseikonia and binocular vision with the wider optometric community by giving continuing education lectures at the local and nation levels.

My research interests mainly are in the area of pediatric and binocular vision disorders. I have been a part of many large scale, multisite clinical trials and observational studies evaluating convergence insufficiency, amblyopia, intermittent exotropia, hyperopia, and vision of preschoolers. Several of these studies have altered the standard of care for treating these conditions. Locally I am part of an investigator team utilizing fMRI to evaluate the neurological underpinning of convergence eye movements in both binocularly normal patients and patients with convergence insufficiency. Recently I have also begun to evaluate the role of vision in sports. As the lead advisor for a Master’s student, we are preparing to evaluate how the duration of visual stimulus effects estimates of time to collision and localization in baseball batting.  

During my career I have also had the pleasure to serve at the college and national level. For the past three years I have been the inaugural chair for our Faculty Awards Committee and have overseen multiple nominations at the university and national level. Additionally I have previously chaired and will be taking over interim chair in January 2022 of our Faculty Advisory Committee. At the national level I recently performed a residency site visit for the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education.

In summary, I utilize my knowledge, clinical expertise, and research experience to effectively teach our students, in ongoing research endeavors, and in providing service to the college and the wider optometric community. Collectively, this makes me a well-rounded asset to the College of Optometry.