Students, Faculty,
Staff, Residents, Alumni, Board of Trustees, and Friends,
Greetings from a nice
and sunny Elkins Park! Last week kind of got away from me as I was down in
Washington DC attending “Optometry’s Meeting” along with many of our faculty and
students.
While in DC, I had
the opportunity to participate in a round table discussion addressing optometric
services at the VA. The roundtable, which was held at the Capital
building, was hosted by Senator John Boozman from Arkansas, who also
happens to be an optometris. It was also attended by Congresswoman Julia
Brownley from California; Dr. Chris Quinn, president of the American Optometric
Association; Dr. Chris Wroten, from the American Optometric Association’s
Federal Relations Committee; representatives from the Blinded Veteran’s
Association (VA) as well as other Veteran Services Organizations (VSOs) that have
very much appreciated and supported optometric services the VA has offered over
the years.
During the course of
the discussion, I had the opportunity to point out there are over 900
optometrists currently working within the VA medical system, noting that the VA
is the largest clinical training ground from optometrists. There are
approximately 1,500 optometric interns rotating in VA facilities annually
and over 170 post-graduate VA optometry
resident positions available for clinical training. I also stated there are
three VA Optometric Research Fellowship Program sites that are training the
next generation of optometric eye and vision care researchers. Most
participants didn’t realize that of the 900 clinically privileged optometrists
in the Veterans Health Administration, about 60 percent have faculty
appointments at a school or college of optometry and are actively involved in
the clinical training and education of future eye doctors. Senator
Pat Roberts from Kansas was in the room and commented on the importance that
the VA brings to optometric clinical training. He also cited the need to
have highly trained ODs in his rural districts. It proved to be a very informative and worthwhile session, which garnered
a great deal of support from both legislators who participated as
well as from the VSO’s in the room.
A high point of this
year’s Alumni and Friends Reception was honoring our 2017 Pennsylvania College
of Optometry Albert Fitch Alumnus of the Year, Dr. Chris Quinn. Dr.
Dennis Lyons, the chair of our Alumni Board of Directors eloquently
described Dr. Quinn’s many contributions to New Jersey optometry and the
profession as a whole. You can read more about Dr. Quinn’s numerous
accomplishments here. Congratulations
Chris on this award and being installed in as this year’s AOA president! You’ve
made us all very proud! We also had the opportunity to celebrate five-year
reunions for classes graduating in the “2s” and "7s”. It really
was a fun event!
In our College of
Education and Rehabilitation, the Blindness and Low Vision Studies program received a $75,000 grant from the Northeast Pennsylvania Lions Service Foundation to help further assist those in need of low vision
and blinds services. Congratulations to Dr. Fabiana Perla and
her team for making this happen!
For those of
you headed over to The Eye Institute, you will see progress on the new
parking lot as well as progress on the outside of the building with new windows
installed along the wall nearest the Community College. Work should be
finishing up within the next week or so with a “grand opening” for
the new CityLife primary care clinic just a few weeks away.
As you begin your
week, enjoy the nice weather as I understand it’s going to get hot in a few days!
Mike
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