Legislators,

As an ophthalmologist, I have trained for 13 years to be a surgeon and endeavored to pursue this career since childhood. I have invested much to pursue this career and still owe a sizable debt for my education. There is a pathway to a career in performing surgery. It is through a degree in medicine and the training that comes with it. I encourage all optometrists and surgically interested students to follow this path. The laser procedures being discussed here took me 5 years to learn with both didactic and ophthalmologist-supervised training on real patients.

I know that there is a shortage of physicians and issues with access to care. I also understand that there is a decline in profitability of optical shops with a surge in the online glasses market that has led to an interest in finding other sources of revenue. Giving surgical privileges to those inadequately trained will not solve these issues. They will simply make bigger problems for the surgeons to clean up. There are many cases of cancers misdiagnosed as chalazia, glaucoma inadequately treated with numerous rounds of laser trabeculoplasty, retinal detachments from yag capsulotomies undiagnosed and so on…in states where surgical privileges have been granted and scope expanded.

I have the strongest respect and admiration for my partners in optometry. They play a vital role. I believe we can work together in a collaborative way that makes best use of our skills to allow us to best care for the patients in all of our communities. A model with optometrists as primary eye care providers, regulation against online retail of glasses, and utilizing ophthalmologists as more surgically oriented would be a start.

Thank you all,

Concerned Ophthalmologist