David Langford & Optoblog

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imemily

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Anyone familiar with David Langford and his blog?

Is he really an Optometrist? How credible is his blog?

It seems as if he works at walmart and shares his experience with readers of the optoblog.

Particularly, this entry, was very eye popping:

Do Not Become an Optometrist

http://www.optoblog.com/2007/01/21/do-not-become-an-optometrist/

I know the negativity on these boards has gotten beyond excessive lately, but I would like to challenge the negative comments made by David Langford.

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He's real, as far as I know. I used to read his blog a lot. As I recall he opened a practice somewhere and was very anti commercial optometry. Then his practice failed and he started working at walmart. Now he's very pro-commercial optometry. Surprise, surprise.
 
I think it is cool for ODs to express their frustrations but titling a blog "don't be an optometrist" is not appropriate. I think renaming it "Things to consider when becoming an OD". Question for the board? My brother asked me why we call ophthalmologists OMDs and not MDs. He pointed out that MD in this setting is obviously referring to an ophthalmologist and his degree is MD not OMD. What is the history of that? I didn't know but just remember that from optometry school.
 
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Just an informal abbreviation for the degree. I haven't seen anyone call an ophthalmologist DO an ODO :p
 
Just an informal abbreviation for the degree. I haven't seen anyone call an ophthalmologist DO an ODO :p

I try and stay away from the abbreviations altogether. I'm an MD/PhD, but that doesn't tell you what I do. I know OD/MDs, DOs, MDs, ODs. Then you can add in other degrees, like MPH, MBA and the superlative junk, like FAAO, FACS. Just alphabet soup, as far as I'm concerned. I'm an ophthalmologist (retinologist, if you really want to get that specific--though I never understood why that subspecialty warranted a separate title). Likewise, I try to refer to optometrists by that title. Always thought the abbreviations were dumb. Sure, it saves you a few keystrokes, but so what?
 
It is b/c nobody really knows how to spell ophthalmologist (where the heck does that first 'h' come from?!) so OMD saves the effort of looking it up.
 
It is b/c nobody really knows how to spell ophthalmologist (where the heck does that first 'h' come from?!) so OMD saves the effort of looking it up.

In case you weren't kidding (or for others reading this), the first "h" is because the pronunciation is actually "offthalmologist," not "opthalmologist." :D
 
In case you weren't kidding (or for others reading this), the first "h" is because the pronunciation is actually "offthalmologist," not "opthalmologist." :D

I may or may not been drawing off personal experience.

Hahaha, I used to shadow in an office that was a combined setting and the young OD would always really stress the "op" instead of "off" (intentionally) b/c it would tick off the old ophthalmologist on staff.
 
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