Chris Bennett: The Foresight saga

Phoropter-less refraction, an optical profession with no practices and the Uberisation of eye health are all potential prospects raised in The Foresight Project report.

First of all let’s acknowledge that Alan Tinger deserves praise for persevering with the Foresight project. Predicting the level technology will have reached by 2030 is an impossible task so discussing its potential impact on the UK optical sector was never going to be easy.

The spectre, or opportunity, depending on your outlook, of those opening trio of prophecies will have markedly differing reactions.

Foresight doesn’t make so bold as to tell optical professionals what they should be doing but suggests that retail-dependant health providers could be among the first to feel the chill wind of a changing health climate. Technology could be the force that smashes the Tower of Babel built by the medical monopolies – a bitter prediction for those who have been striving to embed optics within primary care for so long. It’s a desire backed by arguments laid down by the ophthalmology community again this week (read our In Focus report) but a desire apparently thwarted by that same community in the past.