I agree with mpp's description of the two professions. My blanket statement was probably too big of a blanket, but I do think that the training, though not entirely equal as you described, is comparable. The differences lie in the manner in which students of both professions get to the eye, and to the length of which study of the eye is carried to. OD students dive right in to the eye with ocular specific courses along with several of the general systemic courses that a first year med student would encounter. Are these general courses as rigorous or in-depth as the med school first year courses? I don't know, but many people might be suprised to find out exactly what OD students are required to learn. Of course, opthalmologists are completely trained in general medicine, as they rightfully should be to be performing surgery on the eye. In my opinion, it is the surgery aspect that most distinguishes the professions, and is the basis for my statement. mpp's statement would have been the more appropriate first response to the poster, I'll save my blanket opinions to later posts in the future. I apologize for the confusion, and I will be more specific with my opinions. As far as research, mpp's statement may be a correct generalization, but I believe optometrists research all aspects of vision including clinical, but probably not so much surgical research.
