Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,
Greetings from a hot and steamy Elkins Park. It seems every week I see more students and faculty on campus, which I’ve enjoyed. The Eye and Ear Institutes have been at about 50% capacity, but given the conditions we’ve had to work under, it’s appears to be a nice way to break into our new clinical routines. I greatly appreciate how our faculty, students and staff have fully embraced this next normal we’ve had to adopt to in order to teach and see our patients safely. I’ve also observed how much our patients have appreciated having access to a safe and familiar clinical environment where they can receive their necessary care.
For many legacy students and their families, attending Salus University feels preordained. Although each student has a unique reason for choosing the University, lucky for us, they share a common pride in making a Salus education part of their family tradition. Check out our “All in the Family: Legacy Students Series” at salus.edu/LegacySeries.
Of course, many things are not quite the same thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) program has made it as close to business as usual for its students, primarily by utilizing existing technology to its fullest potential. Find out how our summer residency students are successfully making the adjustment at salus.edu/BLVSsummer.
Being quarantined didn’t stop research from continuing at the University. Our researchers recently completed a large study that has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The study identified two clusters of surface-exposed amino acid residues that enable high-affinity binding of retinal degeneration-3 (RD3) protein to retinal guanylyl cyclase. Retinal degeneration causes various forms of congenital blindness. You can read more about the work being done by Dr. Alexander Dizhoor, PhD, and Dr. Igor Peshenko, PhD, at salus.edu/NewResearch.
Don’t forget about Clinical Grand Rounds later this morning. Dr. Ashley Maglione, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Tina Zeng, Second Year Neuro-Ophthalmic Disease Resident, will be presenting, Double Down on Double Vision. This should be a very interesting lecture.
Salus' Department of International and Continuing Education is providing administrative support for a continuing education program on July 29. Salus' very own Robert Serianni and Patricia Mayro will be speaking to a group of faculty members at Penn Medicine on the topic of “Advancing Clinical Supervision Knowledge and Skills for Practitioners. For more information about the program, click here.
As Congress prepares to debate the next COVID-19 aid bill, we have been writing to our Senators and Representatives to ensure they understand the importance continuing to support higher education in the bill. We’ve also asked that they treat graduate-only institutions, such as ours, equally to our undergraduate counterparts. In past aid bills, those schools with Pell-eligible students received about two-thirds more aid than those who don’t have Pell-eligible students. These funds could be used to off-set additional costs incurred due to the pandemic, as well as directly to students to offset some of their additional expenses. While we have not been successful in the past when lobbying for this, we’re hoping to gain some traction as it moves forward. Keeping fingers crossed!
I wanted to give a shout out to Dr. Rachel Levine, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health and a Salus honorary degree recipient. Dr. Levine has been effectively leading the charge to ensure we all remain safe in the face of the pandemic. Most recently, Dr. Levine, a transgender woman, has been targeted by critics of the state’s shutdowns and health mandates, not because of her official position, but because of her gender choice. I find this totally reprehensible. We all need to speak out against transphobia, especially in light of the conversations we’re having about social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. Levine is a consummate professional who is successfully executing our state’s very effective pandemic mitigation strategies under extremely difficult conditions. She deserves a great deal of thanks and respect, not derogatory and hateful comments.
Unbelievably, there still is a debate about the efficacy of wearing face masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in our country. The science behind the effectiveness of wearing face masks is unequivocal, which makes this discussion even crazier than it should be. Check out this article posted on NPR’s website. People have taken the stance that having to wear a face mask is a violation of their rights. I would argue that those not wearing a face mask are violating my rights and everyone else’s who might be exposed to them. It is our policy that anyone coming to campus will wear a face mask indoors, at all times, unless they are alone in their office. This, along with social distancing and frequent hand washing are currently the only tools we have to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While this pandemic will end, because people have not been following the current guidelines across the nation, it will take longer than it should. We need to serve as examples for others, as health care providers and members of the Salus community. That will help keep us all safe and hopefully those around you. Remember, what you do off campus directly affects us all on campus.
Have a great weekend. It looks like the temperatures might moderate a bit, so try to get outside, wearing a face mask if unable to socially distance from others, and enjoy yourselves. I plan on going for a long bike ride (with a face mask, if needed). Be safe, be smart, stay hydrated and remain Salus Strong.
Mike
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