Geographic areas where population health care needs are not met due to inadequate access to medical infrastructure or human resources are often referred to as medical deserts. They are an emerging public health concern that reveal the disproportionate geographical distribution of the health care workforce and services attending to the needs of a particular group of people.¹

In this issue of JAMA Ophthalmology, Siegler and colleagues² describe the geographic distribution of pediatric eye care practitioners in the US in 2023. This work builds on the 2022 report that showed that 90% of counties in the US did not have a pediatric ophthalmologist listed in public databases. By also investigating alternatives sources of pediatric eye care, mainly the distribution of pediatric optometrists—which has not been previously analyzed—Siegler and colleagues demonstrate a remarkable overlap in geographic distribution of pediatric eye care practitioners while exposing the continuing and substantial lack of access to pediatric eye care across the US. Siegler et al² have essentially mapped the pediatric eye care deserts that exist in the country, where 87% of counties have no access to at least 1 pediatric eye care specialist. It is possible that in the regions where pediatric eye care specialists are scarce, adult-trained eye care practitioners may be providing care to children to fill in the gap, but more research is needed to understand the scale and patterns of care provided.