o.d. to o.d.

What if Wellness Were the New Normal?

Our healthcare system focuses on those who are sick, but rarely is there a word about keeping people well

BY SCOT MORRIS, O.D., F.A.A.O.
Chief Optometric Editor

A few weeks ago, I attended a healthcare talk, unrelated to eye care. In answering a question from the audience, the speaker gave an eloquent response in which he completely marginalized wellness as though it were an alternative medicine concept. I thought that odd because at its root, isn’t wellness the actual standard? I mean, aren’t we all supposed to be well?

A sick foundation

Our entire healthcare system is based on the premise of being sick (or at least not well). We see patients because they are sick; we get paid because they are sick; medications are created to treat people who are sick; we follow patients who are sick. You get the picture.

Does it not seem odd that we focus so much on sick people, and yet rarely is there ever a word in medical education about keeping people well? How many courses have you taken or how many books have you read about how to improve your wellness? Instead, most people hear the word “wellness” and they think of a spa, gym or massage parlor. What occurs in these places typically doesn’t happen inside the walls of a medical facility.

What if, instead, our healthcare system was more focused on people being well? Most people automatically dismiss this novel concept because. . . well . . . it could never happen, right? I mean, patients have no skin in the wellness game. No one ever considers being well as being normal. Maybe we should. Maybe in the future, we will be compensated for how well our patients are instead of how sick or diseased they are. But that is a future discussion.

The benefits of “being normal”

Wellness or “being normal” has lots of added benefits. When you are well, you don’t wake up or move around in pain. You don’t feel horrible all day. You are more productive. You are happy. You can focus on what makes life better, not just the things that your body tells you are not working correctly. In summary, we just function better when we are well.

As eyecare providers, we have a great opportunity to enhance wellness and improve quality of life through vision. The nature of our primary business is well vision care. Our goal is to enhance and protect our consumers’ vision.

In this month’s issue, we focus on wellness of the visioncare patient, including the ocular surface, the retina and the overall patient through nutrition and eyewear. Maybe if we can catch disease states at an early stage, nutritional supplements or dietary changes can have a significant impact in delaying or preventing disease altogether.

Do your part

We all need to do our little part, and for each of us this starts with a simple question: What are you doing to protect your eyes? That simple question involves a discussion about sunwear, nutrition, safety wear, general wellness, annual check-ups, ocular surface wellness, etc. It’s only one little question, but it just may be the most important one we could ask! OM