UCLA faculty voice: Don ’t let unqualified doctors perform eye surgery

UCLA Dr. Bartly Mondino Dr. Bartly Mondino is chairman of the department of ophthalmology at UCLA and director of the Jules Stein Eye Institute. Dr. Roger Steinert is chairman of the department of ophthalmology at UC Irvine and director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute. This op-ed was published in the Los Angeles Daily News. We never dreamed that we might one day be quoting a pop singer. But in saying, “There’s no shortcut to learning a craft; you just have to put the years in,” Kylie Minogue makes the clearest argument against a proposal being considered by the California Legislature for the fourth straight year. Senate Bill 622 would permit optometrists to perform scalpel and laser eye surgeries and medication injections — including injections directly into the eye — after optometry school by taking just two 25-hour courses and completing a handful of training cases on living patients. That’s a big difference from the many years of training spent by ophthalmologists in medical school, internship and residency. It should go without saying that surgical procedures done on and around what nearly everyone would consider one of the most delicate organs in the human body must be performed with the highest precision by extensively trained and well-regulated surgeons. The minimal training outlined in this legislation seems cavalier because it would not qualify anyone — a medical doctor or an optometrist — to meet accepted standards of care. Physicians and the Med...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news