Ophthalmic Medical Technician Assist ophthalmologists by performing ophthalmic clinical functions. May administer eye exams, administer eye medications, and instruct the patient in care and use of corrective lenses.
Ophthalmic Medical Technician is Also Know as
In different settings, Ophthalmic Medical Technician is titled as
- Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technician (Certified Ophthalmic Medical Tech)
- Certified Ophthalmic Surgical Assistant
- Certified Ophthalmic Technician (COT)
- Certified Ophthalmic Technician-Surgical Assistant (COT-SA)
- Health Technician (Health Tech)
- Ophthalmic Assistant
- Ophthalmic Diagnostic Sonographer
- Ophthalmic Medical Assistant
- Ophthalmic Medical Technician (Ophthalmic Medical Tech)
- Ophthalmic Tech (Ophthalmic Technician)
Education and Training of Ophthalmic Medical Technician
Ophthalmic Medical Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Ophthalmic Medical Technician
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Ophthalmic Medical Technician
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Ophthalmic Medical Technician
- Bachelor in Optometric Technician/Assistant
- Associate Degree Courses in Optometric Technician/Assistant
- Masters Degree Courses in Optometric Technician/Assistant
- Bachelor in Ophthalmic Technician/Technologist
- Associate Degree Courses in Ophthalmic Technician/Technologist
- Masters Degree Courses in Ophthalmic Technician/Technologist
- Bachelor in Orthoptics/Orthoptist
- Associate Degree Courses in Orthoptics/Orthoptist
- Masters Degree Courses in Orthoptics/Orthoptist
Training Required for Ophthalmic Medical Technician
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Ophthalmic Medical Technician in different industries are
- Ophthalmic Medical Technologists
- Medical Assistants
- Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians
- Surgical Assistants
- Neurodiagnostic Technologists
- Surgical Technologists
- Radiologic Technologists and Technicians
- Endoscopy Technicians
- Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
- Respiratory Therapists
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric
- Cardiologists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Optometrists
- Anesthesiologist Assistants
- Physician Assistants
- Dermatologists
- Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians
What Do Ophthalmic Medical Technician do?
- Administer topical ophthalmic or oral medications.
- Assess refractive conditions of eyes, using retinoscopes.
- Assist patients to insert or remove contact lenses.
- Call patients to inquire about their post-operative status or recovery.
- Clean or sterilize ophthalmic or surgical instruments.
- Conduct ocular motility tests to measure function of eye muscles.
- Conduct visual field tests to measure field of vision.
- Instruct patients in the care and use of contact lenses.
- Maintain ophthalmic instruments or equipment.
- Measure and record lens power, using lensometers.
- Measure visual acuity, including near, distance, pinhole, or dynamic visual acuity, using appropriate tests.
- Operate ophthalmic equipment, such as autorefractors, phoropters, tomographs, or retinoscopes.
- Take anatomical or functional ocular measurements of the eye or surrounding tissue, such as axial length measurements.
- Take and document patients' medical histories.
- Adjust or make minor repairs to spectacles or eyeglasses.
- Assist patients to select eyewear.
- Assist physicians in performing ophthalmic procedures, including surgery.
- Conduct binocular disparity tests to assess depth perception.
- Conduct tonometry or tonography tests to measure intraocular pressure.
- Measure corneal curvature with keratometers or ophthalmometers to aid in the diagnosis of conditions, such as astigmatism.
Qualities of Good Ophthalmic Medical Technician
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Tools Used by Ophthalmic Medical Technician
- A-scan biometers
- Amsler grids
- Automated lensometers
- Autorefractors
- B-Scan biometers
- Bio-microscopes
- Brightness acuity testers
- Color blindness tests
- Corneal pachymeters
- Corneal topographers
- Digital pupillometers
- Eye chart projectors
- Flat nose pliers
- Fundus cameras
- Handheld occluders
- Hertel exophthalmometers
- Jaeger lid plates
- Keratometers
- Laser facsimile machines
- Loose prisms
- Luedde exophthalmometers
- Maddox rods
- Manual blood pressure cuffs
- Manual lensometers
- Manual pupillometers
- Millimeter rules
- Naugle exophthalmometers
- Ocular transilluminators
- Ophthalmic perimeters
- Ophthalmic slit lamps
- Ophthalmic syringes
- Ophthalmic tonographers
- Ophthalmic tonometers
- Ophthalmoscopes
- Optical coherence tomography OCT scanners
- Optical interferometers
- Optical screwdrivers
- Optokinetic drums
- Personal computers
- Phoroptors
- Potential acuity meters
- Retinal tomography machines
- Retinoscopes
- Snellen eye charts
- Snipe nose pliers
- Steam autoclaves
- Stereo vision tests
- Tangent screens
- Titmus vision screeners
- Visual acuity cards
- Wavefront aberrometers
- Wide jaw angling pliers
Technology Skills required for Ophthalmic Medical Technician
- AcuityPro
- Email software
- EyeMD EMR Healthcare Systems EyeMD EMR
- ezChartWriter
- iChartPlus
- Medflow Complete
- MediPro Medisoft Clinical
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- NaviNet Open
- Web browser software