Looming Worldwide Shortage of Optical MDs

"Despite more than 200 000 eye doctors in practice around the globe, capacity is not keeping pace with the growing demands of ageing populations and the current needs of developing countries, finds research published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology," reports Eureka. "The responses (192 countries) showed that there were 205,000 ophthalmologists in 2010, half of whom were in China, USA, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and India. The number of ophthalmologists by country ranged from zero to more than 28,000 in China. Some 131 countries had less than 5% of the total number between them. The average number of ophthalmologists per million of the population varied according to the level of economic development, ranging from 9 per million in low income countries to 79 per million in high income countries―an eightfold difference. Read more.