Greetings from Atlanta: Week of March 6th, 2020

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Greetings from Atlanta, where it’s been raining since Monday and I have ordered wood from Home Depot to begin building an ark! I saw a peek of the sun before sunset last night which was very encouraging! Hopefully, today will be much nicer. Many of us are here for the annual meeting of the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO), which has been a great meeting, so far! Several of our faculty are lecturing which, of course, raises the quality of the meeting logarithmically! Before you ask, we’re all routinely washing our hands, using hand sanitizer and not getting too close to one another. 

Last Saturday I was honored to commission one of our students, Payton Burke ’21AUD, into the Army in a special ceremony that was attended by her family, friends, classmates and administrators. Payton has been a fantastic student leader and the Army is getting a real winner. I think any of the Services offer our students a very unique opportunity not only to serve our country, but also to really learn how to practice their professions. I encourage as many as are interested to look at this as an option. It’s a great way to serve and learn.

Many of you have heard that Salus has partnered with National Vision to advance optometric education by developing a pilot program focused on training students on conducting remote eye exams utilizing high-tech equipment and real-time secure HD video conferencing. The technology enables optometrists to see patients remotely in locations that do not have a doctor or when the doctor is not available. What makes this relatively easy is that we’re leveraging a very robust system that has been in use for a while up and down the east coast. While we realize that this may be considered somewhat controversial by some, we feel strongly that we have the responsibility to expose our students to the most up-to-date practice models available and telemedicine is already making inroads across many locations across the country. Just think how this technology can be leveraged for populations in the inner cities or rural areas that don’t have routine access to high quality eye care.  Our goal is to ultimately place some of these remote-care modules in Federally Qualified Health Centers and even busy rural practices across Pennsylvania. 

We will be hosting our annual Scholarship Reception from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at the Hafter Student Community Center. Please join us as we recognize the generosity of our scholarship donors and celebrate the achievements of the recipients.  

Please mark your calendars to attend the Salus University Leadership Forum from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, April 3, in Room S305A on the Elkins Park campus. The event will feature a panel of Pennsylvania legislators and members of the Salus Community. The program will include a question and answer format on several topics, including leadership skills; mentorship experiences; career path choices; gender-specific challenges; achieving goals; and community service and support.  For more information and to register please go to our website here. 

If you’re attending the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO) meeting this week, please join us for our Alumni and Friends reception from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. today, March 6, at the Omni Atlanta Hotel, Ballroom 1. 

This week’s Mental Health Minute discusses how to handle the stress surrounding the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus. The linked article, “How to Manage Your Anxiety about Coronavirus”, was sent to me by one of our faculty members who was helping her son complete a current events assignment for school. I thought it should be shared with everyone. 

As we continue to monitor the COVID-19 virus, up-to-date guidance will be maintained on our website here. As a reminder, please continue to: 

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing. Then wash your hands immediately.
• Routinely wash your hands with soap and water often for at least 20 seconds. You can use an alcohol-based (60% or greater) hand sanitizer if you cannot access soap and water, but you need to use copious amounts and still rub your hands for 20 seconds.
• Stay home if you’re sick and do not travel so you do not spread germs to coworkers, patients or others.
• Take flu antivirals, if prescribed by your doctor. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. Remember to set your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night as we begin Daylight Savings Time this weekend! Stay safe, try to check our website or the local news periodically for any updates on COVID-19 and look out for one another.

Mike