Cynthia A. Bradford, MD

We are living in a time of the greatest changes in medical practice since the mid 20th century when Congress created Medicare. Ophthalmology, as a subspecialty surgical profession with a primary patient base of Medicare recipients, has a huge stake in the pathway of healthcare reform. The ballooning federal deficit is focusing decision makers on how to cut federal support of healthcare. Health policy advisors are encouraging improvement in quality of care as a mechanism for more judicious use of our financial resources. Without advocacy for our profession and patients, our strong foundation of education and research cannot survive.  

To expand our advocacy on a federal level we have combined the OPHTHPAC committee with the Congressional Advocacy committee. This new committee is simply called the OPHTHPAC committee. The members of this committee not only raise money to elect to congress those individuals that support ophthalmology's goals but also have developed a network of advocate ophthalmologists throughout our country who are matched with over 85% of Congress. Many of these relationships are of the very highest levels. 

On the state level, slowly over the decades optometry has expanded its scope of practice using the phrase, "this is all we want," forgetting to add the disclaimer, "for now." Ophthalmologists must realize optometry is not going to stop, unless we act together to stop the progression. As a young ophthalmologist in Oklahoma I was witness to one of the early laser shots by optometry; a patient that came to me for a second opinion on a laser peripheral iridotomy performed by an optometrist.Her problem? An epiretinal membrane. The year? 1988. Until that time, I thought state government protected patients, but I learned that we must all be active in the political process to protect patients and our profession. As state ophthalmology society president after the 1998 optometric laser bill and subsequent "scalpel law," the political process was painfully obvious. Serving on the State Affairs Secretariat I learned more about state politics. This year in Kentucky another "Oklahoma" law was passed. This bill was not passed with open discussion but through strong-arm politics. Every other state challenge has been defeated when intelligent discussion occurred. We need the support of every ophthalmologist to continue to be successful. I have had the privilege to meet hundreds of ophthalmologists who actively represent our profession. On a federal level we have equally talented ophthalmologists that are known both inside and outside our profession as experts in the complex system of Medicare. Without this expertise, ophthalmology's reimbursement levels would be lower.  Our Washington DC lobby team is extraordinary and recognized as one of the best. 

I look forward to leading our state and national advocacy teams in promoting our profession as the leader of the eye care team. As ophthalmologists we should be paid reasonably for our work and others without equal training should not be able to legislate the right to masquerade as our profession.