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Massachusetts bill would allow optometrists to treat glaucoma
A bill working its way through the Massachusetts state senate would allow optometrists to treat glaucoma, according to information issued by the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons.
The bill would “provide nonphysicians with broad prescription privileges,” the state ophthalmic society said.
According to the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, the bill would allow optometrists to treat glaucoma patients with drugs “after only 60 hours of training.”
The physician group noted that topical glaucoma drops and oral medications used to treat other ocular diseases are “extremely potent and can have severe systemic side effects. … and should only be employed by trained medical doctors.”
The language of the proposed bill specifies that the bill should not “be construed to permit optometric utilization or prescription of (a) therapeutic pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of systemic disease; (b) invasive surgical procedures or (c) pharmaceutical agents administered by subdermal injection, intramuscular injection, intravenous injection, subcutaneous injection or retrobulbar injection, except as authorized…for the treatment of anaphylaxis.”