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Oklahoma’s Optometrists Encroach on Surgical Rights of Ophthalmologists; Place Politics Above Patient Safety
Arch Ophthalmol. 2005;123:559-560.
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Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the culprit—life!
Emily Dickinson, poem No. 108, c. 1859
When the poet Emily Dickinson wrote these lines, it likely never occurred to her that in the future, nonphysicians would be performing medical surgery. Yet that is exactly what is happening right now in Oklahoma.
This past October, Governor Brad Henry approved regulations allowing optometrists to perform surgery with a scalpel in Oklahoma. Governor Henry’s decision essentially gave the green light to regulations developed and approved by the state’s optometry oversight board. In essence, nonphysicians wrote laws giving themselves the same rights to perform surgery as physicians. By placing politics above patient safety, Oklahoma became the only state in the nation to allow optometrists to perform eye surgery.
In the waning days of the 2004 Oklahoma legislative session, the state legislature quickly passed legislation (HB . . . [Full Text of this Article]
AUTHOR INFORMATION
William A. Hazel, Jr, MD for the American Medical Association Board of Trustees
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The Ophthalmologist or the Optometrist as Surgeon
Daya Papalkar and Ian C. Francis
Arch Ophthalmol. 2006;124(4):604.
EXTRACT
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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
The ophthalmologist is still difficult to clearly distinguish for the public.
Kurup
Arch Ophthalmol 2006;124:1669-1669.
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The ophthalmologist or the optometrist as surgeon.
Papalkar and Francis
Arch Ophthalmol 2006;124:604-604.
FULL TEXT
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