Planning is underway for the 2nd annual community wet lab.

An email will be sent once dates and location are finalized.

Please revisit the website periodically for updates and registration information.

An Evening With Dr. José-Alain Sahel
Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine The Eye & Ear Foundation Endowed Chair

MARCH 21, 2018, 5:30 TO 7:30 P.M.

Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services,

1816 Locust St., Pittsburgh, PA 15219

RSVP: 412.368.4072 or lmontgomery@pghvis.org

Dr. Sahel will speak on retinal degenerations, evaluation of visual impairment and vision restoration therapies and the Department’s Vision for the Future.

We will be offering 1 CME credit for attending. The presentation will last 30-45 minutes. We will provide light refreshments and the evening will conclude with a tour of our Low Vision Rehabilitation Center.

This article reprinted with permission from the Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology.

You have heard it before but here it is again, 2017 has seen an unprecedented attack by organized optometry to increase their scope of practice into surgery and ultimately, to equate themselves to ophthalmologists. The scorecard so far isn’t good. So far this year, we have faced eleven concurrent OD surgical challenges – Alaska, California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Optometric bills have been stopped in Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, and North Carolina, but losses have occurred in Georgia and Alaska.

In Georgia, optometrists are now allowed to administer subconjunctival, subcutaneous, and intralesional injections. In Alaska, the Board of Optometry now has free reign to regulate any ophthalmic, or should I use the term, optometric, surgical procedure! While the vague language of the legislation states that they are not allowed to perform “invasive surgery” their board has the ability to define what invasive surgery would entail. Alaska is the new optometric frontier.

Each additional expansion of optometric scope into surgery makes every future battle in every other state all the harder as optometry proudly points out what their profession is allowed to do in other states. Optometrists, already far more involved in advocacy than most ophthalmologists, see encouragement in each of these wins and their expectations for surgery as a part of their profession increase. We cannot lose any further battles, especially like Alaska, or the dominoes will start to fall.

The line in the sand has been well crossed by organized optometry and it is well past time for all of us to unite and stand up for our profession and patient safety. The optometrists of PA hope to cross that line too. There is a PA optometric bill, SB 668, which would allow optometrists to perform injections and some lid procedures, as well as call themselves optometric physicians and a host of other expansions to their scope of practice. Our Definition of Ophthalmic Surgery bill, SB 758, stops optometric expansion into surgery. So far, over the past few years, the two bills and our two sides have been at a standoff in the PA Senate and neither bill has advanced out of committee. The net result is that optometrists are not allowed to perform surgery in PA, yet.

We can only maintain this position with more grassroots help from you! If you care about optometrists performing surgery here in PA you must make a decision now to get involved. You must call your Senator and your Representative to let them know that there are ophthalmologists in their district who care deeply about patient safety. They need to know that you are out there and that you see patients from their district. You must make a contribution to the PA EYE PAC. Optometrists consistently out-donate ophthalmologists in PA and they are sitting on a PAC war chest right now that is at least 4-5 times as larger than ours. You must contribute to the Surgical Scope Fund also as we are all in this together across the country. Finally, you must talk about this with your partners and friends, both in PA and in other states, as far too many in our profession have simply chosen to look the other way. Our profession and safe quality eye surgery for our patients are at a crossroads.

Kenneth Cheng, MD
PAO Legislative Chair
AAO State Affairs Metro East Regional Representative
Chair, AAO Surgical Scope Fund