News From ‘the spleen’ – One MD Tells Me Why I’m an OD

Some of the dumbest things I’ve heard at one time from one mouth – on so many levels. This guy makes my ‘Marvin the Martian’ come out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm96CrO0CBs

From this article:

Dr. Hunter, representing the American Academy of Ophthalmology is altruistically protecting the world against greedy and cynical OD’s. He asserts “pediatricians often lack the time and training to do a thorough exam.” Correction: They always lack the training, and the DON’T take the time (not can’t). “As a result, more than 100,000 U.S. children are expected to have permanent vision loss because intervention for their vision problems didn’t come soon enough” – and more, and the vision loss is more likely to be permanent if you allow current medical ‘standard ofcare’ to ‘fix’ it.

“Dr. Hunter said the solution is developing better tools to help pediatricians better determine when referrals are necessary.” – Does he also feel a machine can do his job? Maybe that’s where he gets this idiotic rationale. “He has founded a company, Rebiscan, that’s working to develop a pediatric vision scanner that he hopes will do just that.” – Ahh, as John Lennon said ‘follow the money and you will find the truth’. Or, maybe, instead of playing with kids’ health, you can just recognize expertise elsewhere are refer to those folks who know best – the one’s who study this and do it for a living. I’m convinced this guy gets his taxes done by his mechanic.

I refuse to paint all MD’s by this extreme and poor example of clinical ethics and professionalism, but I also regret that voices like this are too often taken as the gospel by family MD’s. It is as though that 100 000 just isn’t high enough, the AAO wants it much higher. Proof: Think about your family MD, does he/she know even your child’s or your refractive error? If they don’t, it’s because they are following the AAO’s guidance: It doesn’t matter enough to refer to trained professionals. It’s one of the most important elements in behavior and health in a computer-based economy, so why wouldn’t your family MD know this? They know how big your child’s head is, surely the refractive error is at least as important as that?

August is around the corner. I see too many affected kids to stop saying this – Take the lead in your child’s health: Bring them to an optometrist and make sure their vision is checked, especially if you have never done this, or it’s been more than 2 years. Vision problems are real and happen a lot more often than you think.

Either that, or I spent 12 years studying this stuff so I could make a fool of myself up on this soapbox trying to sell glasses.