Welcome to Optometry Simplified.
In this weekly newsletter, I've curated the best resources to help you grow personally and professionally.
My mission is to find what's best for my patients and my practice.
Here's what I've found...
Links I Liked
The gap between patient experience of dry eye and diagnosis.
Patients know something is wrong, but the clinical system is not consistently labeling or managing it as a disease. For those of us practicing primary eye care, that gap is an opportunity. When we build clear triggers, document consistently, and treat dry eye as a chronic condition rather than a complaint, we close the space between patient perception and clinical action. Primary Care Optometry News
Orthokeratology is no longer just a pediatric myopia tool.
This piece walks through how ortho-k fitting considerations evolve across the lifespan, from axial length–driven myopia management in children to refractive freedom and ocular surface realities in adults. It highlights differences in corneal biomechanics, tear film stability, and patient expectations that should shape your design choices and follow-up cadence. Review of Cornea & Contact Lenses
Research I'm Reading
Glaucoma management used to follow a predictable script.
This review of five landmark trials, LiGHT, ZAP, EAGLE, TAGS, and PTVT, suggests that the script needs updating. Evidence now supports a more proactive, individualized, and decisive approach to managing glaucoma. Current Opinion in Ophthalmology
Deep Thoughts
This week, I read the American Academy of Ophthalmology patient education page titled “What Is an Ophthalmologist vs Optometrist?”
You should read it too.
What caught my attention wasn’t how they described ophthalmologists. It was how they described optometrists.
The first sentence under optometrists reads: “Optometrists are not medical doctors.” The sentence is repeated again later in the article.
That is factually true. But it is also revealing.
How you begin a definition signals what you think matters.
And in this case, the framing suggests a binary model of eye care that does not reflect modern clinical reality.
Before unpacking that, let’s be honest.
Not all ophthalmologists agree with that characterization.
Not all optometrists practice comprehensive medical eye care.
And some optometrists still function primarily in a refractive model.
So yes, I understand where the description comes from.
However, it presents a static distinction that ignores the scope of licensure, the evolution of clinical training, and the legislative and educational advances in optometry over the past several decades.
Is the AAO stuck in the 1980s?
Either the organization is unaware of how optometry has evolved, or it is choosing language that does not fully reflect current reality.
The modern optometrist is trained and licensed to fulfill the responsibilities outlined in the AAO’s own 2014 definition of primary eye care.
This is not just professional irritation.
It is a patient access issue.
When patients read simplified descriptions that minimize what optometrists are legally and clinically capable of doing, they may:
- Delay appropriate care
- Travel unnecessarily
- Avoid comprehensive primary eye care
- Assume their local optometrist “just does glasses”
Meanwhile, many optometrists are managing acute and chronic diseases daily at a high level.
That disconnect matters.
Because the real question is not “OD or MD?”
The real question is: Who is providing comprehensive, accountable, longitudinal primary eye care?
This is not about attacking ophthalmology. It is about accuracy.
It is about modernizing public language to reflect current law, training, and clinical reality.
Too often, articles like this and the predictable backlash that follows devolve into ego, hurt feelings, and straw-man arguments that feel more like middle school debates than professional discourse.
If I am honest, my first reaction was not noble. It was pride. It was the feeling of being diminished. It was the instinct to defend.
That is human. But ego does not elevate a profession. It divides it.
At their best, ophthalmology and optometry are not adversaries.
They are distinct, independent, and complementary professions.
One is deeply trained in surgical intervention and complex medical management.
The other is deeply trained in primary eye care, functional vision, prevention, and chronic disease management.
Different emphasis. Different responsibility. Different expertise.
Not subordinate. Not patriarchal. Not big brother and little brother.
Different and equally valuable.
The issue is not that optometrists are not ophthalmologists.
The issue is when either profession forgets what it uniquely brings to patients and communities.
What I would love to see, from my own profession, is confident clarity:
“Yes, I am an optometrist. Not an ophthalmologist. And that is a good thing.”
Not “just” an optometrist.
Not ophthalmology lite.
But optometry practiced to the fullest extent of its licensure: comprehensive, accountable primary eye care.
If we believe we are the best-trained and best-positioned providers of primary eye care, then we should say it clearly and practice like it.
Less mudslinging. More maturity. More collaboration.
Because our communities do not need turf wars.
They need doctors who know who they are and live it.
Practice Performance Partners Pick
If you’re leading a clinical team right now, this conversation is for you.
In this episode of Book Nerds, Brianna Rhue, OD, Aaron Werner, OD, and Ben Thayil, OD, unpack Tribes by Seth Godin and wrestle with a hard truth: in today’s environment, playing it safe in your practice is often the riskiest move you can make.
They talk about leadership versus management, why alignment matters more than agreement, and practical tools like Rope Theory and the RICE method to help you move your team from maintaining the status quo to actually building something meaningful.
Can you do me a favor? If you found any of these resources helpful, share this newsletter with one of our colleagues!
See you next week!
--Kyle Klute, OD, FAAO