cushball08 Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Anyone hear of pas working in this speciality? My eye doctor mentioned that he heard his co workers were looking to hire one or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocialMedicine Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 that would require a lot of on the job training. a lot. not sure how easy it would work out. hire an optometrist. i would like to see a PA residence in ophtho in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted August 30, 2015 Administrator Share Posted August 30, 2015 I do recall someone else discussing this previously. I've assisted with ophthalmologic surgery on mission trips, and there's no real first assist role. Where I can see a PA really helping an ophthalmologist is in pre-op/post-op, where an optometrist is simply not trained to do those tasks like a PA can be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktheshark89 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Yale had a PA faculty member working in the yale opthalmology clinic 1 day/week. Not entirely sure of his role or scope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 I've seen posts in the past where folks whose background is some sort of ophtho tech went on to work in the field after PA school. I don't remember what their scope was. It definitely would require a whooooooole lot of training to do much other than pre-op clearances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpackelly Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 VAMC had a PA working on ophth. Did ED consults for FB using slit lamp, etc. Pre-rounded on all inpatient consults. Pre and post ops, coordinated all diagnostic testing. Coordination for complex cases of which there were many. Helped run the residency program in conjunction with people from the academic medical center next door. Supervised the service for the department head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SocialMedicine Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Not to stir the pot but there was a news report a few years back about a PA in Florida who performed a number of eye surgeries. It surfaced becaue the attending surgeon had a team of people doing this and was billing something like 13 million medicare dollars. If the quality of care was high then kudos to that surgeon for creating something that works. I could not find the article unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpackelly Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Several countries in Africa train PA equivalents for cataract surgery. In some prior post I had a link to what clinical/medical officers and PAs are doing in surgery in Africa. There are some basic bread and butter surgical procedures that are apparently pretty easy to teach and can help millions.....countries are training PAs/medical/clinical officers for these and cataracts are one that is frequently mentioned. So I would not be surprised if a US PA "could" do these but jumping along to the competition issue, I do not think it will ever be a reality because that is just like chopping some physician's yacht in half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk732 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Boss of mine was an ophthalmic technologist as well as a military trained PA - job included diagnosis, prescribing various meds and eyeglass and assisting in surgeries. There are a few programs available in Canada for those interested, not sure about the US. SK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliOne Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I recently did my capstone project on this topic. Its not very common, but they are out there. I found more on the east coast than the west coast. Of the few I spoke with, only a few had previous ophthalmology experience. The others were trained on the job and stated that it took about 6 months to feel comfortable. I found them working in all aspects of ophthalmic specialties. Recently there has been more information published in ophthalmic journals. This article came out late last year: http://www.ophthalmicprofessional.com/articleviewer.aspx?articleID=111731 A great white paper on the topic; it starts on page 22: http://www.aao.org/assets/507e2a61-7bf9-4972-9c43-5c554d8c5f50/635576223939230000/ldpxiii-2011-abstracts-pdf?inline=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatChecko Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 With the right training and a motivated MD, this can be a win-win. I considered it for a short period of time and saw the possibilities. The majority of work would be pre and post ops in clinic and evaluating/managing emergencies and pop up appts for the MD. With training, the PA could also start certain surgical procedures, increasing throughput in a surgical clinic. I spoke with a PA who does just that and does quite well, while doing an incredibly high number of cataract "procedures" along side the MD. They have a set up where they have 3 operating suites, he starts, the MD finishes, with a nurse running in between. Cool stuff if you ask me. There are some really good one month courses one can enroll in to get the book knowledge, so that's not an issue. The challenge isn't as much training, its more the MDs seeing the possibility and investing the time and money to make it happen. A medium to large practice would benefit, but the effort and planning to optimize it might be too much for some. Honestly, there's a huge opportunity here for consulting for a PA/MD team that has made it work and is willing to sell their expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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