Concept of specialist training at PI Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy from University of South East Norway (USN)

Abstract

Rezumat. Confirmarea Planului de studii pentru programul de studii 0914.4 Optometrie. Universitatea de Sud-Est a Norvegiei consideră că formarea specialiștilor în optometrie este vitală pentru sistemul medical din Republica Moldova. Planul de formare a acestor specialiști are scopul de a asigura crearea unei noi specialități în medicină, o specialitate autonomă și licențiată în acordarea asistenței medicale primare, orientată spre depistarea erorilor de refracție, prescrierea corecției optice, diagnosticarea, managementul și reabilitarea patologiilor oculare.

USN sees that the students in this plan can form a medical profession, autonomous, licensed to provide primary health care, and deals with ocular refraction errors and prescribing optical correction, detection/diagnosis, management, and rehabilitation of visual diseases. The optometrist is the one who deciphers in the initial phase the first aspects of the visual defects, evaluates, and can correct them. Optometric activity is part of those activities that aim to ensure a proper visual capacity of the population throughout life. The need for the training program were identified at a national level through the study - Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness and diabetic retinopathy in the Republic of Moldova, held in 2012, which revealed a prevalence of blindness in the Republic of Moldova of 1.5%, and visually impaired - 19.5%, so approx. 150,000 thousand of the country’s population have varying degrees of visual impairment, their main cause being uncorrected refractive errors - 51.5%. According to data presented by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (atlas.iapb.org/about-vision-atlas/) if in 2010 about 28% of the global population suffered from myopia, by 2020 this number will rise to 34%, and in 2050 to 50%. One further argument is that in the structure of primary visual disability among the working-age population in the Republic of Moldova, eye pathology constitutes 4,4%, the annual average for the years 2013-2016 is 21.3, cases per 100,000 inhabitants (Analysis of primary visual impairment in adults in the Republic of Moldova, Scientific-Practical Conference of Ophthalmologists from Chisinau, 2017). The World Health Organization and the World Council of Optometry include optometrists among health care professionals who actively participate in the fight against preventable blindness. According to the VISION 2020 strategic plan to combat preventable blindness worldwide, The World Health Organization according to the developed regulations recommends an optometrist per 10,000 inhabitants. Therefore, taking into account these recommendations, the required number of optometry specialists in the Republic of Moldova would be 350 (and apr 400 including Transnistria). The current program of study in the field of optometry is based on the requirements and standards (http://www.ecoo.info/european-diploma/) and includes 240 ECTS credits spread over four years of university studies. Optometry has very strong connections with visual science, which refers to the eyeball and the visual system, respectively to visual perception and the associated anatomical, physiological, neurological, and cognitive mechanisms. The first year of study is based primarily on fundamental disciplines such as higher mathematics, optical physics This Bachelor’s study program makes the education of optometrists one of the best in Europe. I hope the accreditation from the board of the European Council of Optometry and Optics will prove that in some years.