Features: Problems with colour vision deficiency?

28 September 2009

Help is at hand for doctors who have difficulties with colour vision in recognising clinical signs.

Dr Tony Spalding has set up a website to offer fellow doctors help and information.

Pallor, cyanosis, jaundice and rashes are just some of the clinical signs doctors with colour vision deficiency can have problems identifying. Colour codes and histological stains can also be a problem. Moreover, doctors with the deficiency have been shown to have diminished confidence in their observations and medical students to be anxious about their abilities.

The issues involved are clearly sensitive and it is not surprising that there has been hesitation about how to act. On the one hand, there is the threat to a doctor’s career if legislation excluded practice in certain branches of medicine. On the other hand, if no action is taken, there is the possibility of harm to the patient.

In a survey of general practitioners with colour vision deficiency remarks made included: ‘You do not necessarily know you have a problem - others point it out’, and ‘I do not know what I am missing’, and ‘I feel very vulnerable… there are times when patients describe rashes and I cannot see them and the nurses point out the invisible dots.’

The experience of the effects of my own colour vision deficiency provoked my interest in the subject. But awareness of its effects almost universally comes slowly. Late in my career, with the help of others, studies of general practitioners were performed that provided a major part of the evidence.

I have set up an online resource to advise doctors and medical students with colour vision deficiency. The website offers information and advice to help avoid errors and in enabling students to adapt and make an informed choice of career.
Visit www.colourmed.com.

Both questions and comments are welcome.

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