Optometric Director (Optometry Lead) - Contractor

Kansas Health Science Center•Wichita, KS

About The Position

Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (KansasCOM), a college of Kansas Health Science University, Inc., seeks a licensed optometrist to serve as Optometric Director for its Rural Health Transformation Program. The program will deploy autonomous artificial-intelligence diabetic retinopathy screening at up to seven rural primary-care and Federally Qualified Health Center sites in Kansas, as well as a robotic telehealth slit lamp at a rural clinical site. This is a part-time independent-contractor engagement for a fixed fee, averaging approximately 0.2 FTE over the grant performance period from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027. Work is expected to be heaviest during site onboarding. The Optometric Director will provide administrative and clinical-quality oversight of the screening program. The role does not include examining, diagnosing, or treating patients, or interpreting individual patient images; patient-level clinical decisions remain with treating providers at the sites. The director will oversee screening quality and referral workflows, support integration into site care-management programs and EHR workflows, develop program-level staff guidance, and contribute to onboarding, training, evaluation, reporting, and dissemination. The director will participate in project-team meetings approximately twice monthly. The fixed fee is $30,000, paid in equal monthly installments. The contractor is responsible for their own taxes and benefits. Travel to sites outside Sedgwick County is reimbursed separately at applicable State of Kansas travel rates. The engagement is subject to prior written KDHE approval and applicable federal award provisions.

Requirements

Doctor of Optometry degree and current, unrestricted Kansas optometry license in good standing.
Experience practicing in, or formally co-managing care with, an ophthalmology practice, in addition to optometric practice experience.
Ocular disease management experience, including management or co-management of diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, or another 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 patients in FQHCs, rural health clinics, safety-net hospitals, community health programs, or comparable settings 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 limitations arising from current employment.
Provide a current curriculum vitae, Kansas optometry license number and verification of good standing, a one-page experience statement, and two professional references.
Complete human-subjects (CITI) training if listed on the project's IRB-approved protocol; comply with HIPAA and participating-site policies; and sign a conflict-of-interest disclosure.
Carry automobile insurance for any vehicle used for site travel.
Disclose employment by a participating site and recuse from KansasCOM decisions concerning that site.

Responsibilities

Oversee diabetic retinopathy screening quality at participating sites, review image-quality and positive-screen metrics, and recommend corrective actions.
Establish, document, and manage workflows for patients with positive or ungradable screening results, including closed-loop tracking of completed referrals to eye-care providers 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; represent the clinical perspective in EHR/IT integration planning.
Develop and maintain written program-level guidance for site staff on negative, positive, and ungradable screening categories, including standard patient-communication language; 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, reports to KDHE, and dissemination.
Participate in project-team meetings approximately twice monthly.