A Message to Ophthalmologists on National Doctors' Day

National Doctors’ Day takes on special meaning this year. America has never more desperately and acutely needed its physicians. And physicians and their practices have never been as beleaguered. Many of us and many of our non-ophthalmologist physician colleagues are intentionally putting themselves and their families in harm’s way to fulfill their professional mission and specific patient care responsibilities.

Today, March 30, 2020, National Doctors’ Day finds almost no ophthalmologists doing business as usual. The vast majority are seeing only patients with urgent problems. Some of these patients are (knowingly or unknowingly) SAR-CoV-2 positive.

Some Academy members, particularly those at higher risk, are sheltering in place at home. Others are serving as generalist physicians in hospitals, emergency departments and testing facilities. And most are also searching for the resources they will need to resume the "normal" practice of ophthalmology in the months ahead.

We at the Academy view our primary role in the COVID-19 pandemic as working to provide you with the resources you need today—and in the months ahead 

These resources have been and will continue to be a mix of science, public health, practice pearls, and advocacy (lots of advocacy) for the physical and economic tools you and your practice require. We must be your voice to the policymakers and decision authorities. It is our mission and our honor to serve you.

I join all ophthalmologists in hoping that we do flatten the curve, that fewer suffer, that effective treatments and vaccines come sooner than anticipated, and that in the months and years ahead we can all return to the core of ophthalmology we love—providing as much of the best care we can to as many people who need that care.