Charles F. Mullen

Emerging Trends in Optometric Patient Care

November 25th, 2007 | by Charles F. Mullen |

• Incentive-based compensation plans that integrate student and resident training will become an essential component of optometric education and provide the means to enhance faculty income and improve the ability to recruit and retain highly qualified clinicians.
• Patient-centered and efficient health care will replace the current educational or training environment in college-operated clinics.
• Telemedicine technologies, such as imaging and interactive care management systems, transmitted from practitioner to centers of excellence for immediate consultation on cases will become the standard of care in rural areas and certain urban areas where access to specialists is limited.
• In an environment made possible by advances in technology and made necessary by economic imperatives to be as efficient as possible, there will be unprecedented pressures for academic optometry and ophthalmology to work together in a cooperative spirit. For more information see the articles posted in the Academic Affiliations section.
• Interdisciplinary care will become the standard as optometrists manage more complex clinical conditions requiring consultation and the close coordination of care with other disciplines.
• Electronic medical records will become the standard of care.
• New technologies and the need for optometrists to be more efficient in a competitive health care market will lead an increased demand for more optometric technicians.