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American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry

How Medical Optometry Originated in DVA

Introduction

Until 1974 the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) lagged behind the Department of Defense in providing optometry care to its beneficiaries. But Congressional legislation, critical external reviews and the findings of a General Accounting Office investigation then set the stage for the development of a national DVA Optometry Service that now treats over one million unique patients per year utilizing some 700 optometry medical staff members while pioneering and now operating 81 optometry resident programs training 220 optometry residents each year in medical optometry, the only optometry specialty requiring postgraduate residency specialty training and passage of a national specialty examination that leads to national board certification in medical optometry.

The following article from the web-based textbook Optometric Care within the Public Health Community published in 2010 describes how those reforms in DVA optometry care mirrored those reforms used to achieve other signal improvements in DVA medical care.

Public Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs (This is the full article)

Development of Medical Optometry Within the VA (Pages 1-5 and 16-28 from above)

The author (Kenneth J. Myers, Ph.D., O.D.) served as founding director (emeritus) of the DVA optometry service, 1974-1989 and is founding director of the American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry.

October 25, 2017
Filed Under: News

ABCMO News, Updates & Editorials


Email Updates

ABCMO News

  • ACMO Exam Scheduled for Thursday, June 22, 2023
  • Newsletter – ABCMO News and Updates – May 2022
  • A Reminder to VA Residents
  • Newsletter – ABCMO News and Updates – September 2021
  • Newsletter – ABCMO News and Updates – January 2021

Reflections – Articles of Interest and Editorials

  • 10 Administrators for Every Doctor
  • What is Medical Optometry?
  • A Letter to VA Optometry Residency Coordinators: Benefits of ACMO
  • Retail and Clinical Pharmacy
  • It’s Time to Rethink Board Recertification

Comments are welcome and can be sent to editor@abcmo.org for publication under the author's name.

Certification Requirements

The following are in addition to an O.D. degree from an accredited North American school or college of optometry and a current state license to practice.

Residency: Completion of a full-time, ACOE (or equivalent) accredited, postgraduate clinical residency training program having major emphasis on medical optometry.

ACMO Exam: Passage of the Advanced Competence in Medical Optometry exam (or equivalent) offered by the National Board of Examiners in Optometry.

Practice: Documented significant practice of medical optometry for a minimum of two years immediately prior to application for certification.

The Practice requirement is waived in the two years immediately following residency training.

Complete Application and Requirements

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