In 20 years, will optometry as we know it still exist?
Eye health aside, any optometrist honest with herself will concede the primary purpose of an optometrist is to refract. Refraction, although definitely a skill, is at risk of extinction due to advances in technology. Although technology is a threat to many aspects of modern eyecare, and while one can argue about the timing/immediacy of such events (i.e. are we on the cusp of wholesale change now, or is the landscape going to largely be the same 10 years from now?), I consider refraction particularly susceptible to obsolescence in the continuum of facets of eyecare (which includes things like eye health assessments, appliances for seeing, and surgery).
I consider visual/seeing appliances to eventually be at the mercy of technology as well, but I believe that era remains farther off. But when we have the world's most wealthiest corporations such as Google blurring the line between technology and every-day consumerism/physiology (e.g. Google Glass), and predicting that the human brain will be embedded with data chips by 2030 (while actively pursuing that goal), it's hard to see how human-performed refraction will continue to be a paid-for service in the future. Kiosks already exist for refraction today in the U.S., not to mention an iPhone app.
How long do optometrists have? For those who will not be "retired" in 20 years, how much longer will the practice of optometry be able to sustain an optometrist's career? Will those early in their careers today have to eventually re-educate themselves and re-enter the workforce in another capacity?
Eye health aside, any optometrist honest with herself will concede the primary purpose of an optometrist is to refract. Refraction, although definitely a skill, is at risk of extinction due to advances in technology. Although technology is a threat to many aspects of modern eyecare, and while one can argue about the timing/immediacy of such events (i.e. are we on the cusp of wholesale change now, or is the landscape going to largely be the same 10 years from now?), I consider refraction particularly susceptible to obsolescence in the continuum of facets of eyecare (which includes things like eye health assessments, appliances for seeing, and surgery).
I consider visual/seeing appliances to eventually be at the mercy of technology as well, but I believe that era remains farther off. But when we have the world's most wealthiest corporations such as Google blurring the line between technology and every-day consumerism/physiology (e.g. Google Glass), and predicting that the human brain will be embedded with data chips by 2030 (while actively pursuing that goal), it's hard to see how human-performed refraction will continue to be a paid-for service in the future. Kiosks already exist for refraction today in the U.S., not to mention an iPhone app.
How long do optometrists have? For those who will not be "retired" in 20 years, how much longer will the practice of optometry be able to sustain an optometrist's career? Will those early in their careers today have to eventually re-educate themselves and re-enter the workforce in another capacity?
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