Moneo: Eye health technology brings progress – if we use it wisely

The other day I was testing the eyes of a patient who I have known for years. She commented that she had been coming to see me for more than 30 years and that my job must have changed radically in that time. This set me thinking – has much actually changed over those years?

When it comes to refraction, I would suggest little or nothing has changed in terms of what I actually do. True, there are different methods of refraction nowadays but I could still quite happily cope with a trial frame, a set of lenses and a set of cross cyls. Possibly the biggest advance in refraction over that time is the accuracy and reliability of autorefractors which poses the question, do we actually need optometrists to refract people in the vast majority of cases?