Preventing Blindness in Underserved Communities

[Paul Farkas]

New Optometry Colleges are opening which will add many new Doctors of Optometry in the United States.

Will these new colleges and their graduates assist the needy in underserved rural and inner city communities?

 

[Lloyd Pate]

We need more doctors to help the under served; however, more grads will not help. None will be able to afford to help the poor and under served with their large debt from school.

 

[Michael W Ohlson]

Other professions have travelled this path. Without significant incentives, new graduates simply don’t do the work. In addition, more colleges add next to nothing. The students require large numbers of varied conditions and diseases for supervised clinical training. Academic approaches to clinical care are inappropriate in this century. My current work involves clinical care in both the hospital and outreach settings.

 

[Paul Farkas]

We need more doctors to help the under served; however, more grads will not help. None will be able to afford to help the poor and under served with their large debt from school.

How to fund students who wish to spend 8 years of education and training to become licensed ODs?

Beginning practice with a student debt guarantees many years of struggle. How can they pay off this debt and serve in communities that need their expertise?

That is the challenge!