Of the many things going on behind the scenes, making friends with optometrists has been high on the list. Why bother, you may wonder?
Because, I’m the outsider. Not sanctioned to talk about vision health.
This gives me a lot of latitude and I don’t have to be concerned about the type of harassment that some of our behavioral optometrists are subject to. I’m just the eye guy, teaching not treating.
It’s something that works but in the long run we shouldn’t paint ourselves into any particular corner. There are lots of advantages of playing the not-medical “eye guru” card. Though on the flip side we miss out on opportunities to work with curious or prevention minded individuals in the optometry field. And “eye guru” makes it more risky for journalists to write pieces that endorse our premise and approach.
So it would make sense to invite others to be part of this dialog. Long time practitioners with lots of experience and an open mind, might be ideal to open up new ideas. Optometry friends!
But there’s a problem with making optometry friends.
For one, there’s my taking shots at the profession at every turn. I’ve been told more than a few times that this isn’t helping my cause. Oops.
That’s one thing. Though the bigger problem is the reality that those guys are busy paying their bills. They aren’t just sitting around with lots of free time on their hands. It’s a bit much, asking an optometrist to spend lots of hours investigating my method, and then further partaking in the dialog. People have jobs.
So I’ve been off on a tangent offering paid placement. You’re an optometrist, how about if I pay you whatever you’d make selling lenses, you look at whether my method has merit, and then we’ll figure out how a collaboration may make sense.
It’s still a long shot and very much in the arena of experiments.
And maybe it’s a waste of time. Maybe I need to just go get a degree in the field and deal with the wrath of the mainstream, like the behavioral optometrists do. (though seeing how that’s working for them, I’m not so inclined to take on their credentials and play by their rules)
That’s where we’re at, in the current behind-the-scenes experiments. All in the name of getting some prevention talk happening.
Stage one has been paying for investigation of the method. Still too soon to tell what’ll happen, although some of the early reactions are encouraging. Here are some initial thoughts from a London-educated optometrist with over 25 years in the field:
Awe!
That’s actually bit too glowing, for my skeptical mind. When I first read that one, I thought … somebody is looking for a job. :-)
But hey. 25 years in the field, the requisite fancy optometry degree, and strong writing skills to boot. Who’s going to look the various almost-gift horses in the mouth?
Which is getting us one step closer to answering the question whether it even matters what an optometrists says about myopia prevention and reversal. Since ultimately that’s the question we really want to see answered. Is me being an outsider just another excuse to ignore better alternatives to the rampant prescription practice?
We’ll see ….
