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.
