Bringing the optometric community together

Today, ODs on Facebook has more than 46,000 members and is an influential voice of optometry. It has come a long way since it was just an idea and a set of ideals scribbled on a napkin. 

The online community’s founder, Alan Glazier, O.D., has described it as a place “to bring the optometry community together in order to elevate the profession and patient care." 

Dr. Glazier spoke with the AOA about the mission and evolution of ODs on Facebook. 

What inspired you to create ODs on Facebook 11 years ago?  

I always enjoyed participating in online communities, networking and learning from others about their clinical and practice management experiences. We all can learn so much from one another. It’s comforting to connect with people who do the same thing you do and learn from shared experiences.  

I was a member of a major online log-in style forum in the mid-2000s. I found myself engaging less and less over time, marginalized and ultimately sitting on the sidelines because the admins allowed all types of what I saw as “toxic” behaviors that interrupted the learning and collegiality I was there for. I often thought to myself, “if this was my community, there would be guardrails.” I felt I understood more about how to create a community without needing the shock effect and toxicity that enabled a small group of doctors to suck the wind out of the conversation and leave the vast majority of others marginalized and sitting on the sidelines because of the behavior. When Facebook launched its group function, I decided I would create a small group of my brightest thought-leader and influencer OD friends and impose guidelines that required positive engagement. That day at lunch, literally on the back of a napkin, I wrote down all the things I didn’t like about that community, which became the framework for the original set of guidelines. I had the intent to actively administrate the guidelines as well. I created the group, posted the guidelines and wrote an intro post saying, “this community will be for sharing clinical and practice management information, having fun and networking but not at any members’ expense.” I invited about 40 people to join and went back to seeing patients.  

How was the new online community received? 

What I didn’t know is that members had the ability to invite other members into the community. When I emerged from clinic three hours later and looked at the community, there were all kinds of comments like “this is great” and “we needed this” and “what a great idea,” and there were now 120 members. From there it skyrocketed. Every day I’d add 100 or more members. As great as that sounds, I was now committed to admin an exponentially growing community I hadn’t planned on. It became quite a chore, but when you see something catch on like that, you know you tapped into an unmet need. 

Why did you decide to use your platform and influence to elevate the AOA? 

One thing I learned was the power a network of people can have. As the online community grew, I felt a growing responsibility to use it not only for networking and learning, but for the good of the profession. I was privy to the great work our national organization did and how important it is to the advancement of our profession. From conversations that were taking place in the community, I saw that many people didn’t understand that work. Basically, I felt I knew things many ODs didn’t about how the AOA works, and that if people only knew what went on behind the scenes, they would see things differently. The AOA cannot telegraph everything it does, because people who seek to hold optometry back (such as almost the entire medical profession), should they get hold of that information, would use it against us in our legislative efforts. The lack of their ability to share their behind-the-scenes efforts with members is why many people believed that the AOA wasn’t an effective organization when, in fact, the AOA was doing tremendous things to advance the profession. That’s when I decided that, aside from providing a safe space to share clinical and practice management info and networking, I could help advance the efforts of the AOA and point things out to members that may not have been so obvious.  

What do you think makes online communities, such as ODs on Facebook, successful?  

The networking, fraternity and learning it offers among those who share common experiences. As the internet became more engrained in our daily lives, more people looked to it for communication. Now, online communities are the go-to place for finding information, and part of that process is through communication. That, and the fact that you can ask a question and get back to the comments and answers at your leisure instead of having to schedule a conversation or meeting offline to get the information you seek. If you have an agenda that you want to advance, you need to be where the eyes and ears are looking and listening. If you don’t in this modern era, your agenda will be lost and instead of telling your story, the internet will tell it for you. 

Why is your AOA membership so important to you? 

I grew up in optometry, and while I didn’t set out to be an optometrist, that’s where I ended up. I am a second-generation optometrist. My father graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) in 1963. He was very active on the state level in advocacy, serving ultimately as president of the Maryland Optometric Association, president of the Maryland state board of examiners and served as a clinical examiner for Part III NBEO at PCO. He would tell the story about Maryland’s battle for the right to use DPAs (diagnostic pharmaceutical agents) in which he was very active. Before the late 1980s, Maryland optometrists were not even allowed to dilate, much less prescribe. He often joked that the battle for the privilege to use diagnostic agents turned his hair gray! He helped me understand how the state and national organizations add value to our professional lives, how legislative advancement is important to the expansion of our scope of practice, and how expansion of scope of practice directly correlates to the well-being of our patients, and how this translates into greater professional success, esteem and income. The legacy of my father is a lot of what drives me and motivates me to advocate on behalf of the profession.