Optometric education's past helps predict the future

Optometric continuing education (CE) is the barometer of our history and our future.

Tracing the origins

In the early 1990s, LASIK co-management classes were guaranteed to fill the classrooms, yet today those classes hardly draw a soul.

Glaucoma diagnosis classes became particularly popular when optometric pioneers, such as Murray Fingeret (often referred to as the "Godfather of Glaucoma"), began giving visual field interpretation courses. Later, glaucoma co-management and treatment courses began appearing and remain popular today.

Niche meetings, such as the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), could be counted on to emphasize new research in vision and continue today to be the place to go to learn about these new developments, even though they may lack in daily clinical application. SECO remains a popular "clubby" home to southeastern practitioners, and emphasizes practical clinical training for primary care optometrists like myself. I never miss it.