Colorado Challenge: The Court Battel for the Prescribing of Soft Contact Lenses, The Use of the Tonometer and the Diagnosis of Glaucoma

Abstract

There have been many challenges to the profession of optometry at both the state and federal level during its 110 years of legalized existence. These challenges have involved the passage of the original state practice acts, clarification of the original optometry laws, passage of state board rules and regulations and efforts to eliminate commercialism. This was followed by the expansion of state optometry practice acts authorizing the use of diagnostic drugs, therapeutic drugs or other clinical procedures. Additional challenges have been federal in nature and therefore broader in scope but still of great importance for the profession. Colorado is unique in that the Colorado Optometric Association (COA) defended optometry’s right to use the tonometer and fit soft contact lenses in a lawsuit that had national implications.