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Board certification: looking forward
One of life’s great pleasures involves coaching youth sports. It provides an opportunity to work with kids, develop athletic skills and instill a lifelong love for the sport at hand. Of course, it also teaches kids a bit about life skills: hard work, discipline, team play and, perhaps most importantly, the lesson of always being prepared. Every youth sport coach echoes this sentiment when reminding their kids, “It’s not what you just did that’s important, rather, it’s what you’re going to do next.” It is a sage statement, for sure, and one that has implications throughout life, even today, and especially in optometry.
 Michael D. DePaolis |
Next month optometry’s leaders will convene at the American Optometric Association’s 112th Congress in Washington, D.C. Among the many issues to be debated in the House of Delegates, none has been more contentious than that of board certification.
ABOP: beginnings of board certification
Board certification has a well rooted and divisive history, originating from the early days of the American Board of Optometric Practice (ABOP) a decade ago. ABOP was largely criticized for being conceived and nurtured in a vacuum, for inadequately representing the entire spectrum of optometry and, therefore, for being a flawed process. While ABOP failed to garner the requisite support to move forward, it did plant the seeds for the concept of board certification.
Many felt the demise of ABOP closed the chapter on board certification. Others, however, believed ABOP was a valuable lesson – and the springboard for the Joint Board Certification Project Team (JBCPT).
The JBCPT was formed to “legitimize” the process of board certification, to bring together virtually every stakeholder in optometry, including: American Academy of Optometry, AOA, American Optometric Student Association, Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry, Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry and National Board of Examiners in Optometry. For the past 2 years, the JBCPT has diligently crafted the template for a verifiable, credible and defensible board certification process. Where, then, lies the controversy?
Is there a need for board certification?
While the JBCPT has certainly silenced many of ABOP’s critics, one issue remains: Does optometry even need board certification? While the sentiments for and against board certification are numerous and arguable, this is really about much more than board certification. It is about the future of health care in our country and optometry’s place within the delivery system. It is about answering to consumer groups, the government and third party payers. It is about assuring quality of care, being accountable and demonstrating competency … now and on an ongoing basis.
While I’m not sure of how our leadership will vote in Washington this June, I’m confident optometry will get it right. We’ve got a pretty good track record of doing just that. That being said, what I see as the bigger issue is how we move forward.
For certain, there are forces outside of optometry that are poised to influence our fate going forward, for better or for worse. After all, let’s not forget, it’s not what optometry has just done that’s so important, rather, it’s what we’re going to do next.