July 15, 2016

Features

Comanagement

How Comanagement Reinvented Optometry

A pioneer looks back on the conflicts and conquests that unfolded as ODs and MDs established an uneasy new collaboration.

Contact Lenses

Contact Lenses: A Perfect Fit for Optometry

Though its origins may stem from ophthalmology, the contact lens was mastered and perfected in the hands of optometrists.

Diagnostic Skills & Techniques

Bridging the Generation Gap

Before ODs had either legal or technological ability to diagnose the way they do today, how did they practice? One doctor asks his optometrist father.

Education

A Fight for the Right to Learn

Nothing has come easily for the profession of optometry, and education is no different. But it’s come a long way from the days of apprenticeship.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma Through Time

Through educational, legal and technological barriers, optometrists have been managing glaucoma for decades.

Optometric History

“We Shall be Known as Optometrists”

Review has always been there to chronicle—and even influence—the journey to the profession’s name.

125 Years of Optometry: A Timeline

Milestones in the profession, cultural events of the day, and the evolution of this publication.

A Black Eye for Optometry

In 1937, Reader’s Digest took a swing at the young profession in a scathing investigative report, but optometry came back fighting.

A Review of the Review

Experts in the field reflect on their early contributions to the magazine and how things have changed since.

A Witness to History

See more than 70 years of challenge and change through the eyes of an optometrist who lived through many seismic events in the profession’s evolution.

Days of Diversity

Wartime needs, demographic shifts and the elevation of women in society remade the identity of the profession.

Legalizing Optometry

A behind-the-scenes look at the people, the moments and the legislation that made the profession what it is today.

Optometric Societies: Catalysts for Change

Early organizations had to fight in the trenches to pass legislation, battle organized medicine and create a path forward.

Optometry’s Lifelong Friend

This magazine was created 125 years ago to be “a fountainhead of reliable information,” and has held itself to that standard ever since.

Speaking Frankly

He fought for his country in World War II and for his profession back home. A conversation with Frank D. Fontana, OD.

Refraction

When the Retinoscope Ruled

The earliest optometrists didn’t need much more than this essential handheld instrument, an eye chart and an inquisitive mind.

Refractive Surgery Update

Refractive Surgery in Retrospect

ODs once feared this threat to their livelihoods, but its boom and bust left optometry smarter and stronger. Here, we look at the sentiment then and the reality today.

Retina

The Retina: We Came, We Saw, We Treated

As our technological developments grew, so did our capabilities.

Therapeutics

Patently Absurd

Early drug ads were rife with wild claims that promised too much. Modern ones, hemmed in by regulations, say too little.

Departments

Chairside

One Billion Chairsides Later...

This column has been marking its territory in these hallowed pages for a quarter of a century. So watch where you step.

Outlook

An Origin Story

Optometry’s gains were hard won. An awareness of the past will help you create a vision of the future.