The recent groundbreaking news from Moorfields about the pioneering stem cell operation for AMD should be seen by everyone connected to the eye healthcare sector as wonderful news. We should all now hope for the success of this project and wish those leading the way well with their endeavours.
So how does such surgery impact on the world of Optometry? This is a very fundamental question that gives us all an insight into the future for the clinical optometrist. With an ever ageing population the incidence of AMD will inevitably increase. However the age at which this process starts can be very heavily influenced by social and environmental factors.
Traditionally the two roles of the optometrist have been to detect and remedy defects of sight and then to carry out investigations for the purpose of detecting signs of disease or abnormality and the deal with these accordingly. Today I want to suggest to you that optometrists now have a third and far more fundamental role to play. This role should be the first that we engage in. This role is that of vision preservation. We should be moving the role of optometrists to be, first and foremost, the role of vision preservationist.
What use is it refracting a patient with advanced ARMD who can barely make out shapes? Far more important is to offset the start of that condition inm0order to delay the point at which the vision becomes so bad. Regular readers of this column will know I have called many times over the years for every practice to appoint stop smoking advisers. I am pleased that at last at least one area has taken up this longstanding cry. But it should be the role of every practice to do this. Every practice should have at least one person trained in nutritional aspects of vision preservation. People should be prepared to talk about lifestyle and weight management. These are all factors that, if got wrong at an early age, will have a detrimental impact on vision in later life.
We, as vision preservationists, should be leading the way in patient education. The future for good long term vision lies in getting things right from the start and then a lifelong trail of ensuring our patients observe the good habits that will allow retinal metabolism to be maintained for longer before breakdown.
The prospect of this will be exciting for anyone who truly realises that preserving vision is the foundation on which a lifetime of good sight is based. This is an opportunity for optometry to show the part it can play in a fuller more holistic approach to overall healthy living. Those that believe that we still have only our traditional two roles to fulfil are way behind the times. Organisations such as the London Project to Cure Blindness are breaking new ground but if we take on the role of modern clinical optometry we will form an integral part of reducing the numbers who need to access this new groundbreaking surgery.