About Surgery by Surgeons
Through the Surgical Scope Fund, the Academy works with state ophthalmological and medical societies to ensure patient safety and surgical standards.
We uphold this commitment by opposing state-level efforts to grant medical and surgical privileges, legislatively or through regulations, to non-physician health care practitioners. Statistics show that safety risks to patients are far too great to grant certain surgical authorities to health care practitioners who lack adequate training and expertise as a primary surgeon. Only physicians have obtained the appropriate levels of medical education and clinical training to safely perform delicate eye surgery.