Optometric Director (Optometry Lead) - Contractor

The Community Solution Education System • Wichita, KS

6d

About The Position

KansasCOM, a college of Kansas Health Science University, is seeking a licensed optometrist to serve as Optometric Director for its Rural Health Transformation Program. The program deploys autonomous artificial-intelligence diabetic retinopathy screening at up to seven rural primary-care and Federally Qualified Health Center sites in Kansas, and a robotic telehealth slit lamp at a rural clinical site. The role is a part-time independent-contractor engagement for a fixed fee over the grant performance period, October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. Expected effort averages approximately 0.2 FTE and is heaviest during site onboarding. The contractor does not examine, diagnose, treat, or interpret individual patient images under this engagement; patient-care decisions remain with treating providers at participating sites.

The Optometric Director provides administrative and clinical-quality oversight of the screening program across participating sites. Work includes monitoring screening quality, establishing referral workflows and closed-loop referral tracking, integrating screening with existing care-management and EHR processes, developing program-level guidance for staff, and supporting onboarding, training, protocol development, evaluation, reporting, and dissemination. The role also involves project-team meetings about twice monthly.

The engagement is under an independent-contractor agreement with a fixed fee of $30,000, paid in equal monthly installments. The contractor is responsible for their own taxes and benefits. Travel outside Sedgwick County is reimbursed separately at applicable State of Kansas rates. The agreement is subject to prior written KDHE approval and federal award requirements. Applicants must submit a current CV, Kansas license information and good-standing verification, a one-page experience statement, availability confirmation, and two professional references by email by November 13, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Central.

Requirements

• Doctor of Optometry degree.
• Current, unrestricted Kansas optometry license in good standing.
• Experience practicing in, or in a formal co-management relationship with, an ophthalmology practice, in addition to optometric practice experience.
• Ocular disease management experience, including diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, or other chronic ocular disease, consistent with Kansas scope of practice.
• Experience with diabetic eye testing and management, including dilated examination, retinal imaging (fundus photography and/or OCT), grading or interpretation of diabetic retinopathy findings, and coordination with primary care or endocrinology.
• Experience providing eye care to underserved populations, such as in an FQHC, rural health clinic, safety-net hospital, community health program, or comparable setting serving uninsured, Medicaid, or rural patients.
• Must not be excluded or debarred from federal health-care or procurement programs.
• Confirm availability during the engagement term, including any limits arising from current employment.
• Selected respondent must comply with HIPAA and participating-site policies, sign a conflict-of-interest disclosure, and complete human-subjects (CITI) training if listed on the project’s IRB-approved protocol.
• Contractor must carry automobile insurance for any vehicle used for site travel.

Responsibilities

• Provide oversight of diabetic retinopathy screening quality at participating sites, review image-quality and positive-screen metrics, and recommend corrective action.
• Establish, document, and manage referral workflows for positive or ungradable screening results at each site, including closed-loop tracking of completed referrals and compliance with scheduled subspecialty appointments.
• Work with site clinical leadership to integrate screening and referrals into existing diabetic care-management programs and EHR workflows, and represent the clinical perspective in EHR/IT integration planning.
• Develop and maintain written program-level guidance for site staff on screening-result categories and standard patient-communication language, and support alignment of screening protocols across sites.
• Participate in site onboarding and training with the Clinical Trainer.
• Provide clinical input to the IRB-approved protocol and program evaluation, contribute to data interpretation and reports to KDHE, and support dissemination.
• Participate in project-team meetings approximately twice monthly.

Benefits

• Travel outside Sedgwick County reimbursed at actual cost under applicable State of Kansas travel rates; lodging and meals are subject to destination GSA per diem limits adopted by Kansas, and mileage is reimbursed at the State of Kansas rate.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree