The Trouble With the Term “ECP”

Today, there are legions of care team providers within every health care profession, including doctors, nurses, technicians, phlebotomists, ultrasonographers, laboratory technicians, and more. While each of these roles significantly contributes to the enhancement of patient care, in the field of cardiology, for example, there are only two actual “heart doctors”: cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, who have MD or DO after their names, respectively.

THREE NEEDLESS LETTERS

In the same manner, within eye care, there are whole teams of people contributing to the needs of patients, including doctors, opticians, optometric assistants, ophthalmic technicians, scribes, etc. And again, while each of these team members greatly contributes to providing excellent patient care, there are only two true “eye doctors”: optometrists and ophthalmologists. These doctors have OD, MD, or DO after their names.

Where the ill-named moniker eye care provider (ECP) originated is uncertain, but it may have been an attempt at political correctness. However, as stated above, there are only two true ECPs, optometrists and ophthalmologists, who have each spent 8 years achieving academic doctorate degrees. Perhaps it may be better to simply state “optometrists and/or ophthalmologists” or “eye doctors,” rather than use a pseudo-descriptive term.

This phrasing is already in use. Harry A. Quigley, MD, the acclaimed former chief of the Glaucoma service at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, published an article in JAMA Ophthalmology in July 2022 in which he used three terms other than ECP to characterize the eye care professions: “ophthalmologists and optometrists,” “the ophthalmic community,” and “eye care specialist.”¹

Similarly, in a January 2025 article published in Ophthalmology,² the authors wrote of “ophthalmologists and optometrists.” They further referred to either ophthalmology and optometry and stated: “both types of eye care providers.”² This language clearly supports the idea that there are only two ECPs, and they are both eye doctors.

To offer another example, in the December 10, 2024, edition of Ocular Surgery News,³ referring to ECPs, the authors stated, “The best way for an optometrist or ophthalmologist…,” again establishing that there are only two ECPs—so why don’t we just make it easy and state “eye doctors”?

KEEP IT DIGNIFIED

I urge us all to use proper and descriptive terms, rather than the nebulous ECP, when speaking of eye doctors.