I read with interest the recent op-ed from a Georgia Public Policy Foundation representative maintaining that the pandemic justifies removing medical professionals from the eye examination process.
Dr. Darrell Sorah
As a doctor of optometry who has been practicing in Georgia for 26 years, I would like to respectfully disagree with your position. It puts not only the visual health of the patient at risk, but potentially the very life of a patient at risk.
Each day in Georgia, thousands of people visit their doctor of optometry for a simple eye exam and are alerted by that doctor to medical conditions of which they may not be aware. More than 270 serious health conditions can be detected during a comprehensive eye exam, including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and multiple sclerosis.
This has been especially true during these pandemic times when many people have put off routine visits to their physician and a visit to their doctor of optometry for an eye exam may be their only point of contact with the medical system.
Doctors of optometry are on the front lines of patient care. At my practice, I see patients every week who not only have vision issues but also have ocular manifestations of systemic, cardiovascular or neurological disease they were unaware of and that sometimes require immediate, life-saving intervention.
My colleagues, members of the Georgia Optometric Association, routinely remark on similar instances. For example:
The young girl whose parents thought her vision issue was perhaps caused by sunscreen, but learned during a visit with their doctor of optometry that she required treatment that identified a rare brain tumor.
The man who had had vision issues but put off telling his regular doctor, yet told his optometrist during an eye exam and who got him immediate medical care that discovered his carotid arteries were over 90% blocked.
The veteran whose telehealth provider supplied eyeglasses based on an improperly administered eye exam that caused him severe headaches and triggered feelings of PTSD.
These are but a few examples of how essential it is for a doctor of optometry to be involved, present and in the room, for what others may casually reference as a routine eye exam.
Earlier, I mentioned the long term impact. A doctor of optometry keeps careful records on a patient’s visual health, including subtle changes to you that are more obvious to us. We can diagnose, intervene and manage the treatment of medical eye conditions found in a routine eye exam before they become a bigger health problem.
What may also interest your readers is that the free market has shown us that telehealth eye exams do not benefit consumers.
In fact, unscrupulous businesses have attempted to circumvent Georgia law and implement the GPPF proposal on their own.
Currently, a franchise business is operating in our state that utilizes telehealth as it promises two pairs of eyeglasses with a “remote” eye exam for $59, which turns out to be a bait & switch for consumers.
Often too late, consumers discover that no doctor of optometry is involved, present in the room or at the other end of the videoconference when their eye exam is conducted.
What is the impact? Seemingly every week, GOA members see victims of this fraudulent business.
Some consumers have been so frustrated they have gone to consumer affairs TV shows to air their grievances. More than one consumer has shared how they’ve had to pay upwards of $800 for eyeglasses, not the promised $59, for products often made incorrectly after retail employees with no medical or optical training manufactured eyeglasses based on inaccurate test results.
It is important to note that Georgia’s optometrists are not against technology in an appropriate setting. in fact, since the Georgia Optometric Association’s founding in 1904, you would find that Georgia ODs have invested heavily in technology that improves the care each doctor of optometry delivers to their patients.
However, in times such as these, removing medical professionals from what may be a rare opportunity for a patient to be in the presence of a doctor will be detrimental to the overall health of the citizens of our state.
An eye exam is the only medical procedure where a doctor can examine human blood vessels and nerve tissue without performing an incision. In these times when Americans need access to every health resource available to them to stay healthy for themselves and their loved ones, removing a doctor of optometry from the eye exam process is just not wise.
Dr. Darrell Sorah, president of the Georgia Optometric Association, lives in Winder, Georgia. He is CEO and senior partner at Winder Eye Care Center/d.b.a. Vision Source Winder, located at 279 N Broad St Suite C, Winder, GA 30680. Dr. Sorah earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of Georgia and received his doctorate in optometry from the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn.
