Poll Shows Few Kentuctuckians Support the New Optometric Law

The first bill to be signed into law in the 2011 General Assembly didn’t go over well with a majority of Kentuckians surveyed in the cn|2 Poll.

And it wasn’t by an eyelash.

Just 15% of the 804 respondents in this week’s cn|2 Poll said they agreed with the proposal that now allows optometrists to perform certain eye surgeries. Up to the passage of Senate Bill 110, optometrists were licensed to perform eye exams, diagnose problems and prescribe corrective lenses.

S.B. 110, which Gov. Steve Beshear signed into law last week, allows optometrists to perform certain surgeries including several using lasers. That had been the domain of ophthalmologists — eye doctors who have medical degrees.

In the cn|2 Poll, 79% of respondents said any surgery should be performed by ophthalmologists.

But the cn|2 Poll results showed the most opposition to optometrists performing surgeries came in the most rural areas. In the 1st Congressional District covering western and southern Kentucky, nearly 87% said surgeries should be performed by an ophthalmologist and nearly 84% said that in the 5th Congressional District in eastern Kentucky.

Via cn|2 Poll: Few in Ky. support optometrist bill that was first to pass legislature in '11

It is time for physicians to be united to put the patient's safety first in order to thwart the special interest groups to advance their agenda and dictate how to practice medicine. Collective bargaining right of union workers have been on all over the news, where is the physicians' collective bargaining right? We are facing the impending medicare and medicaid reimbursement cuts at the mercy of the politicians.

Time for MDs and DOs to Stop The Infightings Among Each Other: We Are All Physicians After All!

Dr. Niall McLaren, a psychiatrist practicing in Australia, embraces the holistic approach of osteopathic medicine. Holistic approach to mental disorders or diseases should be emphasized instead of the reductionist approach which places priority of bio-chemical imbalances.

"In a thoughtful commentary, Delengocky offered three reasons why osteopathic medicine should remain parallel to but distinct from allopathic medicine.

First, there is the widespread and growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States. For a number of reasons, osteopathic medicine is an alternative to the reductionist biological tradition of allopathic medicine. Osteopathic medicine places great emphasis on the fact that the body is a self-regulating unit in which structure and function are reciprocally interrelated, providing a basis for a rational, holistic therapy.

Second, he argued that because of the prevalence, the morbidity, and the huge cost of musculoskeletal disorders, there is a place for a form of medicine that sees a need to manage these debilitating conditions as more than “simply pains.”

Third, he saw a political advantage in medicine having two “separate but equal” traditions to counter the aggressive push by nonmedical professions for equal rights (eg, laboratory investigation, prescribing, procedures) with physicians within their narrowly defined areas. Medicine must see the patient as a whole, must advance by rational scientific research and must be distinct from the paramedical professions, which seek to advance themselves by legislative advantage. Medicine is strengthened, not weakened, by having the two traditions of allopathic reductionist biology and osteopathic holism."

Open Letter to Dr. Ransom About His Testimony that MD Faculty Members Do Not Want to Teach His DO Students

Dr Ransom presented in his testimony that ‘culture’ is the primary reason why MDs want to teach MD students and DOs want to teach DOs students.

We respectfully and fundamentally disagree with this statement. We believe that MDs and DOs at all levels are true professionals and are passionate about teaching and passing on their medical arts to ALL medical students regardless of race, sex, national origin, or osteopathic/allopathic degree/heritage/philosophy. We further believe that Dr Ransom’s statement regarding such alleged ‘culture’ only reflects a miniscule minority within the MDs and DOs community.

Moreover, is Dr Ransom implying in his testimony that a majority of his clinical faculty members ‘CULTURALLY’ DO NOT WANT to teach his TCOM DO medical students? (Note: 2/3 of clinical faculty members at UNTHSC are MDs). If Dr Ransom truly believes that, we respectfully ask that he undertake immediate and appropriate measures to ensure that his TCOM DO medical students are not ‘short-changed’ by the  ‘culture’ of  MD faculty members at his state-funded institution. We believe that those hard working and dedicated DO medical students deserve it. Indeed, we believe that the state of Texas deserves and expects this, at the very least, as well.

Dr. Ransom testifies before the Senate that MD faculty members do not want to teach his DO medical students

Commentary and Fact Check

When asked about the plan for the MD school, for which no funding request was submitted to the Legislature, Dr. Ransom replied that he had all the funding necessary for the new school and would not ask the state for a dime for the first 5 years. Dr. Ransom estimated that the start-up cost and operational cost of the new MD school would be only $21.5 million and he had garnered $25 million in pledges from the community to sustain the school free of charge to the state for the first 5 years (2011-16).

Fact check:

§  The UNTMD plan calls for admitting the charter class in 2013; therefore, from 2013-16, MD students enrolled during those years would normally receive the appropriation funding from the state, which would amount to a total of $30 million. Is it the intention of Dr. Ransom to ask or not ask the state for that funding? If he waived the $30 million from the state, how would he cover the operational cost of the new school unless he had the intention of raising more money or diverting resources from TCOM?

• The Foster School of Medicine in El Paso cost $100 million to the state in addition to a donation of $50 million.
• UT South Texas Medical School, approved by the legislature in 2009, won’t receive funding from the legislature until 2015.  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) estimates the cost to be $98 million.
• THECB estimated in 2008 that the start-up cost (e.g., administrative and faculty costs) for a new medical school of 60 students per class is $92.6 million, without including the cost of a 160,000 square-foot building.
• Across the nation, the average cost of a new medical school is $100-150 million.[1]