Visus writes: Get OK with OCT

In this week’s column I want to highlight a throwaway comment made by one of the erstwhile statesman of the profession Mike Kilpartrick. In the Optician feature on different towns and cities of the UK discussing his practice in Bath, Mike is attributed as ‘expressing some reservation about investing in OCT facilities because he says they can often lead to bad practice, over-reliance and a rise in hospital referrals’.

I am purposely leaving some wriggle room because he may have been misquoted or misunderstood, but taking this at face value what on earth are the major players in the field of OCT – Topcon, Heidelberg, Nidek to name but three – doing in marketing such equipment to optometrists? Surely they could find a few plano ret mirrors and internally illuminated Snellen charts and plonk us upstart pseudo-clinicians back in the dark room we came from.