I support the draft regulations as presented without changes. These regulations were written conjointly by a regulatory advisory board consisting of highly trained optometrists and ophthalmologists alike who agreed that laser procedures are safely performed by optometrists and ophthalmologists alike. 

A recent study highlights that optometrists have been performing these procedures safely since 1988 in the United States, currently in 12 states, and also in the United Kingdom and New Zealand alike. With well over 150,000 of these procedures performed by optometrists as recorded in the US, there has been a complication rate of 0.001%.  I am sure ophthalmologists on this comment board, who have raised opposition to this regulation change, can agree that these statistics on procedures performed on REAL patients by optometrists show that their skills and outcomes are inarguably safe and similar outcomes to what ophthalmologists perform. 

I have been practicing for over 20 years and optometrists are properly and highly trained to perform these laser procedures. I have included a link to the referenced study above and am happy to advise further. Study Confirms Safety of Optometric Laser Surgery (reviewofoptometry.com)  Published 7/31/2024. 

Thank you