Article Date: 6/1/2008  Is "Optometric Physician" a title or
Oxymoron? o.d. to o.d.  Is "Optometric Physician" a title or
Oxymoron?  If you choose to redefine your practice, focus more
attention on what you do, rather than on who you are.  Chief
Optometric Editor  The description of who and what we are, both
as individuals and as a profession, has been in a state of flux
for years. Folks in the profession have made efforts to better
describe who we are, but mostly these efforts describe what we
do.  This interest in "redefining" began in the mid-1980s, as
many states began allowing optometrists to prescribe medication
and provide treatments that had never fallen within the scope of
optometry. I hear several terms used for our profession. Perhaps
the two most popular are "medical optometrist" and "optometric
physician." To me, "optometric physician" is the least
cumbersome and most descriptive.  In some cases, however, I see
the term "optometric physician" used as an oxymoron. I find it
interesting that Wikipe