A Word from Our Chair

Happy New Year and congratulations to all Diplomates who recently completed their first CAP assessment cycle. As individual doctors you have benefited from Board Certification through continuous education and assessment. Thank you for your dedication to improving your knowledge, competency and patient care.

When I graduated from the Ohio State University College of Optometry in 1985, optometry was only a “refractive profession”. In other words, if a patient had any other significant ocular health problem, they needed to be referred to an ophthalmologist. Then in 1987, through the efforts of our profession’s leadership, optometrists achieved physician parity under Medicare. From that day forward we became optometric physicians and along with that came the importance of aligning optometric continuing education and assessment with all other medical specialties. We can no longer view optometry as apart from other medical specialties. Board Certification is a well-recognized and accepted standard in medicine that optometry must adopt.

This past year ABO has been working to promote the expansion of scope of practice in targeted states and increase the acceptance of CAP assessments for state board CE credit. Our work is ongoing, and I am hopeful that in the year ahead additional progress will be realized in these areas. ABO will continue to search for partnerships with interested private and government organizations who may be interested in leveraging our educational and testing resources in the future. If you know of any potential opportunities in your state, please reach out to our Executive Director, April Wilhelm.

Again, thank you for your continued support and engagement in setting standards through board certification. Our profession will grow in recognition through your efforts.

David Sterna, OD, FAAO
Chair, American Board of Optometry