Can you please clarify what fellowship you're referring to? And please don't say American Board of Optometry.
with all due respect Dr. KHE, i heard you graduated with Morgan and gave him the idea for his norms.
all kidding aside, i think someone who is both an OD and an MD is probably one of the very best resources to answer such a question. all you have to do is look at the curriculum of any of the optometry schools to see why the OD degree is a 4 year program. ODs are doctors, not techs. the 4 years (or more for those that do residency afterwards) is to build the knowledge base on which you diagnose patients. what the hell can any program less than 4 years teach someone about vision? ODs deal directly with the brain--vision is more perceptual than an actual "sense"--other professions aren't in direct contact with the brain like ODs. lol is there a diagnostic tooth test dentists do to tell you about a possible cranial nerve palsy? "when i touched tooth 7, it didn't move, therefore, we have a cranial nerve 7 palsy."
(again, just a joke here, please don't get all worked up.) maybe in a followup post, i'll present the 4 year program of just one school--this post is long enough as it is and i don't think anyone is reading anymore.
at any rate, here is someone who has done both an OD and an MD program
separately (
source)..
OD vs OMD
RileyD | Jan 5,2013 6:23PM
I'm both an OD and MD. After graduating optometry school, I practiced full scope medical eye care for 3 years. However, I felt that the limits of full surgical eye care limited my capacity to treat my patients and expand my practice. I elected to enroll back into medical school and hired an OD to cover my practice with myself only seeing patients only on Satudays and days off from medical school.
This is what I can share. After 4 years of optometry school, optometrists are way ahead in the knowledge of eye care than after 4 years of medical school. Although an optometric curriculum is dynamic, it is also very specific. In addition to all of the core medical sciences, courses in advanced medical/ophthalmic optics/ ocular biology/ neuroscience and neuro - anatomy gave me a clear cut understanding of the ocular system and disease processes. Topped with courses in ocular disease, glaucoma, pharmacology, binocular vision and retina, countless hours in clinic and externship. I had seen nearly 2600 patients before I graduated OD school! I only ever looked into a handful of eyes during medical school - mostly as a part of my training as an OD. I had amassed a much greater knowledge base in eyes in the first 4 yrs of OD school than the whole 4 years of MD school. That is simply the nature. OD school is very specific/ MD school very broad.
Now, this is where the key difference lies, after OD school, there is an optional one year residency that most ODs defer. This can be in areas of primary eye care, ocular disease, pediatrics etc. After medical school we complete additional required residency, one year in general and 3-4 years in ophthalmology.
It wasn't until my residency that I began to "focus" on eyes and diseases. I saw that a lot of what my fellow residents were doing were self learning and hands on training in eye care. They were often impressed at my knowledge base in eyes/ refraction and technical skill. When one of my colleagues found out that I was an OD first, he commented, "Wow, they really teach you a lot about the eyes in there dont they?'. I replied, "Yes, they do. "
Being on both sides of eye care has given me a perspective that has helped me grow tremendously. Unless they've done it, neither profession knows exactly what one another has gone through to earn the responsibilty to care for the health and vision of another person's eyes. I can say that ODs are trained very well in primary eye care and therapeutics, however their lack of surgical training limits the scope of their practice. Only MDs who have done post graduate residency and training in ocular surgery can perform these procedures safely.
With that said, I've had discussions with fellow ODs and MDs alike who ask... "What if ODs came out of school and enrolled into an ophthalmology residency?" What result would you have? I would like to think that we would have an amazing eye care professional who has an ultimate understanding of ocular health/disease and vision.
All of the health professions have good and bad practitioners. That's just how it is. Not every player in the NFL is a superstar, some are certainly better than other. Don't judge the ECP that you're seeing based on title alone (OD vs MD), but rather on your experience and the level of trust you have in him or her. I've seen patients that had previously seen an OD or another MD and the story is always the same when you hear about why they left. If they don't trust you and you don't educate them on their eye health, they'll go find someone who will. A good doctor will always put your concerns before his, whether he is an OD or an MD.
