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Bottom line: dispensary is dying 4 REVIEW OF OPTOMETRY JUNE 15, 2020 Caring for patients with these conditions, especially the glaucomas, holds massive potential for building a dynamic practice, and possesses a strong firewall against technological advancements into traditional optometry. “Refraction” is a technical procedure, and bright, sharp, friendly high school graduates can be rapidly trained to perform this data-collection task, thus freeing the doctor up to have more time doing those tasks only a doctor can do. As doctors, it is our duty and responsibility to have quality-assurance oversight on the final refraction; thus, looking at the current eyeglasses prescription, the autorefraction, and the technician’s performance of subjective refraction accomplishes such. Now, we are keenly aware of how radical some of these changes and approaches may seem, but we implore you to begin to become proactive and not find yourselves scrambling to play “catch-up” when you are faced with technological advancements; they indeed are coming. KEEP UP WITH RESEARCH A very enriching way to fast-forward your expertise in these areas is to subscribe (as we do) to the following journals. These can be readily accessed via a simple Google search: 1. Ophthalmology 2. American Journal of Ophthalmology 3.JAMA Ophthalmology 4. Survey of Ophthalmology You can read these journals solely on your own, but perhaps a wiser way to increase your knowledge base would be to develop monthly “journal clubs” where four of you each subscribe to one of these journals, then get together over a nice dinner one weekday per month to review salient, relevant articles. The four of you will grow exponentially! Trying to feed yourselves via continuing education meetings provides a very low yield in professional growth, whereas perusing optometric and ophthalmological journals is a high-yield professional growth exercise. Another resource to keep you attuned to the latest research is the website www.practiceupdate.com. You can sign up to have a daily email newsletter sent to you each morning with important studies in eye care. Yet another way to increase your professional abilities is to call upon a colleague to gain his or her advice. There is nothing wrong in asking for help, or getting an opinion, but keep your patients in your practice. What about being “on call”? Doctors like to receive after-hours calls about as much as patients like undergoing air-puff tonometry; however, as doctors we need to develop a system whereby optometric patients have at least consultative access to optometric care outside of normal office hours. Here again is where coming together as teams provides the perfect solution. Find six or seven likeminded, patient-centric colleagues and form a formal call group. In this way, an OD is available to meet the needs of our collective optometric patient population. If you consider your fellow ODs only as competitors, that is a shallow, rather desperate view, and quite simply, is pitiable. We should all work together as colleagues in an effort to enhance patient care, and to keep optometric patients as optometric patients! Your practices will thrive, your patients will be well served, and public health will be enhanced. Remember, above all, you are your brother’s keeper. OUR PRACTICAL ADVICE Now that we have comprehensively laid the groundwork and have made the case for expanded care by ODs, we turn to sharing the knowledge gleaned from the literature and our combined 80 years of clinical practice. It is our hope that what we share herein enables you to further enhance your competence as a patient-centric caregiver and medical practitioner of the eye.
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