color vision in subspecialties

[abcde]

I know the topic of color vision deficiency has been brought up before but was wondering if there is a ophtho subspecialty that being "color blind" would be more of a problem?

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[Andrew_Doan]

I was going to say retina; however, I now retina surgeons who are color blind.

Unless you have decreased visual acuity, I think you can do anything you want.

 

[MPS]

I can recall attending a meeting where a retired deutan GP presented his findings on physical signs missed by doctors with red-green colour vision deficiency. He suggested that some ophthalmologists with red-green colour vision deficiency might be hard pressed to distinguish pigment from blood. This wasn’t exactly a revelation. However, one of the audience, an eminent Swiss ophthalmologist who had trained under another eminent - though red-green colour deficient - ophthalmologist almost blew a turbo. The latter claimed that his mentor “was one of the finest ophthalmologists” he'd ever met and that “he never made any mistakes because of his colour vision deficiency”. The GP's answer was - "Well, how to do you know?". The story illustrates the fact that we don't really know what sort of physical signs you'll fail to detect within the sphere of ophthalmology - the only evidence out there is anecdotal.

 

[SteelEyes]

I was on an ophtho interview and they tested our color vision and stereopsis on the day of ther interview. I was kind of surprised they did that, as it seems like grounds for discrimination.
So I know I've always had problems with the Ishihara tests (stupid dots . . .) so naturally I failed that portion, then they came and gave me the Farnsworth test (the colored tiles you put in order, based on hue). Now that test I passed with flying colors (no pun intended). My question is why can I pass the one test and still not see the numbers in the dots?

 

[abcde]

Was that just at one place that you were tested?

 

[MPS]

I was on an ophtho interview and they tested our color vision and stereopsis on the day of ther interview. I was kind of surprised they did that, as it seems like grounds for discrimination.
So I know I've always had problems with the Ishihara tests (stupid dots . . .) so naturally I failed that portion, then they came and gave me the Farnsworth test (the colored tiles you put in order, based on hue). Now that test I passed with flying colors (no pun intended). My question is why can I pass the one test and still not see the numbers in the dots?

These tests have some important differences. The Ishihara plate test is inherently harder to pass - the colours have been deliberately chosen so that even those with mild forms of anomalous trichromacy will fail. The D-15, which is likely to be the other test you did (though it may have been the FM 100 Hue) is an easier test - the colour differences between the caps is quite large. About 25% of those with colour vision deficiencies will pass the D-15 (depending on the criterion for failure). The D-15 is often seen as a means of practically assessing colour discrimination - i.e. you're unlikely to make any gross errors in discriminating between colours if you can pass this test.

You might be interested to learn that in Japan those with red-green colour vision deficiencies aren’t admitted to medical school.