Board certificaiton: Is it tearing optometry apart?

Optometric Management, Apr 2000 by Bowling, Ernest L

Yet others say the profession will be further divided - another hoop will have been added to jump through, another layer of bureaucracy upon an already unwieldy and expensive credentialing and licensing process.

Brian Kahn, president of the Georgia Optometric Association, shared his summary of the matter: "If board certification is a way for us to improve ourselves, then we should. We have the opportunity to establish our own standards, rather than have another set imposed upon us by others."

According to Jan Donnan, executive director of the New York Optometric Association, this is "the most significant core issue that optometry has faced in the last quarter century." And its outcome will affect how each and every one of us does what we do for a long time to come.

Your opinion is important. Have a voice in deciding where the ABOP train is going. Read all you can on the issue. Talk with your colleagues. Form your own opinion. Then, above all, contact your state leadership. Everyone's thumbprint does indeed need to be on this. Including yours.

(References available upon request.)

ERNEST L. BOWLING, O.D., M.S., F.A.A.O. Summerville, Ga.

Dr. Bowling practices in northwest Georgia. He is a member of Optometric Management's editorial board. He is a multiple recipient of the AOA Optometric Recognition Award and is a clinical examiner with the National Board of Examiners in Optometry.