What is happening in Sweden?

Sweden has witnessed significant, fast, and sustainable evolution in the optometry profession over the past 3 decades. We recommend a visit to the webpage of Sancta Lucia Gilles for a fantastic compilation of the history of optometry in Sweden — https://www.sanctaluciagille.se/optikeryrkets-historia. In this editorial we share some exciting news about the optometry education and extended responsibilities for optometrists. After about 20 years of solid first-cycle bachelor education, Linnaeus University opened a new master program in optometry and vision sciences in 2021 (Linnaeus University, 2022). From September 2023 the bachelor education at Linnaeus University will be available from Campus Kalmar and Campus Gothenburg. Thatmeans an annual intake of about 75 first-cycle students and up to 25 second-cycle (masters) students per year. With an annual intake of 100 new students Linnaeus University will be a big player in optometry in theNordic countries. In parallel, the responsibilities of Swedish optometrists are expected to be extended by the Swedish authorities. We aim to shed some light on the impact of these developments on optometry education in Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries. Recognising the evolving healthcare landscape and, probably, appreciating optometrists as a major asset for the chain of eye care, Socialstyrelsen (the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare) is planning to extend optometrists responsibilities. Socialstyrelsen is an agency under the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Socialstyrelsen, 2019; 2020) and is responsible for ensuring the quality, accessibility, and equity of healthcare and social services. From January 2024 the main planned changes to the law that controls optometric practice are: (a) optometrists will be allowed to perform eye exams and prescribe refractive correction to children of any age (currently Swedish optometrists cannot prescribe to children under the age of 8 years), (b) the text “optometrists cannot touch the eye” will be removed from the law, and (c) the “contact lens license” will cease to exist as a speciality, that is, all optometrists will be licensed to work with contact lenses. In addition, despite it not being mentioned in the law, the current consensus amongst all eye care professionals is that optometrists must be more selective when referring patients to hospital care. In many cases, optometrists can follow up their patients themselves instead of referring them to hospital. This seems particularly relevant for conditions such as non-exudative age-relatedmacular degeneration and glaucoma (Landgren & Peters, 2021). The law will also include some updates about the vision assessment for driving licenses, but that has less impact on the scope of practice.