Pupillary Pathways

Optometrists play an important role in the co-management of patients who are taking systemic medications prescribed by their other physicians. We all know that many medications can have ocular side effects that vary from mild dry eye to serious retinal toxicity. 

At the end of April, hundreds of optometrists and optometry students from across the country met in Washington, DC to advocate for optometry.

As you have heard and learned many times throughout school, optometry is a legislated profession. This means that if there is something new that we as optometrists want to do, we need to pass legislation in order to expand our scope of practice.

In addition to expanding the procedures we are allowed to do, we must also protect our profession from others who may want to take things away from us.

Over the past couple of months, NBEO has made several updates in regards to exam eligibility, diagnostic score reports, and the addition of a new procedures examination. Let's review the details...

I recently saw a post on social media that asked the members of the optometry community to share encouraging words to students and to show young optometrists and students why they love their career.

One of the first things that I learned when I graduated from optometry school was that I knew NOTHING about investments and retirement, and what to do and how to do it!

Did you know that they first eye chart ever created was created by Dr. Küchler, a German ophthalmologist? He designed a chart in 1836 using figures cut from calendars, books, and newspapers glued in rows of decreasing sizes onto paper.

I don't remember learning about him in Optometry school! 

I'm sure you've heard the argument many times before... there are too many optometry schools (with even more on the horizon) and not enough qualified applicants to fill the seats.

This is leading to the decrease in pass-rates for NBEO® for optometry schools, and less students able to complete the rigorous program in order to graduate and become successful doctors.

So what can be done in order to protect academics and prevent a decline in standards?

I recently read an article about careers in which women are least likely to have children. When I clicked on the link I did not expect to see that our profession, optometry, was at the very top of the list! Taking the number 1 spot, this article noted that 47% of women ODs do not have kids!

With the Tecnis Symfony intraocular lens having been available for a little over a year now, we are starting to see many cases of this lens being implanted, the post-operative journey that the patients went through, and the refractive and vision results from the Symfony lens.