Pharmaceutical Sampling Among Michigan College Of Optometry Alumni Practicing In Michigan.

Optometry Today's November 1998 cover asked the question, "Why Don't Optometrists Do More Drugs?(8)" Dr. Bruce Onofrey, the article's author, gave several suggestions for optometrists to more fully participate in the therapeutic management of patients. He noted that optometrists tend to "give away" free samples rather than reserve them for initial management of glaucoma, dry eye, and ocular allergies. This creates conflict between optometrists and pharmacists, and does not fully credit optometrists with
using the therapeutic pharmaceutical agents that were once part of a hard fought political battle.
To ascertain the role that drug sampling plays among Michigan
College of Optometry graduates practicing in Michigan, a survey was created
(appendix 1)(1,5,7). The questionnaire was mailed to 180 alumni of the
Michigan College of Optometry at Ferris State University who graduated
between before 1998 and were known to practice in Michigan, a population
size of 411.