Scope of work for Ophthalmologists

[Guest Beaver23]

Nova Scotia has allowed Optometrists to treat certain medical eye disorders, and there is a strong movement to introduce this to the other provinces. In New Jersey it appears that legislation has been passed to permit ODs to perform surgery, presumably after being properly trained. Will Optometrists in the long term take away many of Ophthos work?

It is relatively easy to become an OD by going to US.

[Guest statementofclaim]

Beaver23

 

Boy that is one kettle of fish that should gets lots of attention! This topic has been (continues to be) extensively debated on both the OMD and OD boards at

 

www.studentdoctor.net/forums/index.php

 

Big pissing match this one is!!! I hope the link helps.

 

Later...

[Guest Ian Wong]

The Ophtho's here in town have way too much work as it is doing their surgical procedures to get in the way of the optometrist's job, which I think includes annual check-ups, monitoring of chronic eye conditions (eg. glaucoma: IOP), and refracting and selling contacts and frames. An optometrist up here will never gain the licensing rights to perform cataract surgery, or do corneal or retinal surgeries, or anything like that. Being licensed to be a surgeon doesn't just mean that you are able to do the surgery itself, but more importantly that you have the good judgement as to whether the surgery needs to be performed, and also that you can manage any complications that arise (and there will always a fixed rate of complications for a given procedure).

 

I know folks here who see either their optometrist or their ophthalmologist for followups for their eye disease, but it is the ophthalmologist who is licensed to intervene surgically.

 

I know very little about optometrists and ophthalmologists up here in Canada, but I believe the professional relationship up here is a very strong one because the two groups have clearly defined roles in the care of patients.

 

I guess the bottom line is that currently, there's a huge amount of work available for ophthalmologists in Canada, and it's easily one of the hardest residencies to obtain here. I think because of the vast amounts of aging citizens here (and aging ophthalmologists!), that it will continue to be an extremely busy profession for many years to come.

 

Ian

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I'm not 100% certain, but I think it's the Opticians who refract lens and sell them. Optometrists perform yearly check-ups on the bulk of the population and can do some basic tests (ie tonometry) for diseases such as glaucoma. Ophthalmologists do any surgery on the eye, and can be involved in treatment of more complicated conditions of the eye (ie amblyopia or strabismus.)

 

A good link that explains the differences: www.lasersurgeryforeyes.c...rence.html

 

Hmm. I too think it's unlikely that Optometrists will be allowed to do surgery in the near future, but I'd never say never.