Should the term physician be restricted to MDs?

[Robin Hood]

they have all the biochem, physiology, internal, ortho classes that we do, much closer to a med curriculum than opto

 

Ok, it's because they don't seem to have courses dealing extensively with each body system (that what it seems to me).

[Robin Hood]

well, ophthalmologists probably don't want to spend their time giving prescriptions for glasses when they can better spend their time doing laser surgeries earning so much more $$/hr

 

i think having optometrists are good as long as they stay within their realm of expertise. Their primary job is to give prescriptions for glasses ---- measure visual acuity and identify how much of a correction is needed.

 

Like I said earlier, their role in primary care of the eye has JUST begun to be noticed -- but they don't do any of the treatments or diagnoses which I think should only be reserved to ophthalmologists (E.g. a corneal ulcer may be recognized by an optometrist during an eye exam but they would just not treat it and refer it off to an MD)

 

How about having physicians who can prescribe glasses and provide primary eye care without doing surgery?

That way, ophthalmos can only focus on their surgeries which give them plenty of $$$, especially if that ophthalmo workload is huge (I dunno if it is, I'm asking).

[Prince Medward]

How about having physicians who can prescribe glasses and provide primary eye care without doing surgery?

That way, ophthalmos can only focus on their surgeries which give them plenty of $$$, especially if that ophthalmo workload is huge (I dunno if it is, I'm asking).

 

What you describe is the pratice model in the United States, with ODs and OMDs working together. Take cataract surgery. The typically model is this: A group of OMDs owns a string of private cataract surgery centers. ODs are the permanent staff at these clinics. They do all the pre and post op management, which is what consumes the bulk of the time at the clinic. The OMDs travel from clinic to clinic doing surgery only.

 

What you described as "physicians who can prescribe glasses and provide primary eye care without doing surgery" are optometrists.

 

This model doesn't exist in Canada because you effectively cannot have private cataract sugery centers (well you can but you can't bill the provincial insurance plan) and Canadian hospitals don't employ ODs. However, many Canadians OMDs will tell their patients to see the referring OD for post op care and many ODs take it upon themselves to provide pre-op care. Obviously this is not as efficient as the US model.

[Partyboy]

optometry is far from being a medical specialty, they rarely learn pancorporel pathophysiology, its really the job of a glorified technician, just look at their curriculum

 

http://www.progcours.umontreal.ca/programme/index_fiche_prog/165511_struc.html

 

whereas for podiatry, they have more or less a similar preclerkship curriculum as standard medical schools do

 

They have to recognize signs and symptoms of diseases to make the appropriate referals. They got know if is serious or not.

 

Aren't MDs technicians in some ways ? Clinical reasoning we'd say but at the end of the day we follow guidelines, do procedures, and repeat over and over again, etc. Medicine is a game of statistics and guidelines.

[NLengr]

They have to recognize signs and symptoms of diseases to make the appropriate referals. They got know if is serious or not.

 

Aren't MDs technicians in some ways ? Clinical reasoning we'd say but at the end of the day we follow guidelines, do procedures, and repeat over and over again, etc. Medicine is a game of statistics and guidelines.

 

In a way, but a huge part of medicine is using clinical judgement to properly use guidelines tests and procedures. That's the real practice of medicine.

 

Guidelines exist to help GUIDE you, not to think for you.

 

If it was simply patient X has symptom 1, apply guideline Z, then a high schooler could do it.

[ldnk]

In a way, but a huge part of medicine is using clinical judgement to properly use guidelines tests and procedures. That's the real practice of medicine.

 

Guidelines exist to help GUIDE you, not to think for you.

 

If it was simply patient X has symptom 1, apply guideline Z, then a high schooler could do it.

 

Wait, so I should be treating some people who don't have ALL of the symptoms of a disorder? Crap....

[dazzle]

Why are medical doctors called physicians and physiologists called physiologists? Is it just arbitrary name-calling or is there something in the name, etymologically, that indicates that one is a physician and the other a physiologist?