Celebrating the Grand Opening of CityLife and Other Exciting News

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board members and friends,

It’s a beautiful fall day in Philadelphia.  This week seems to have flown by!

In our College of Education and Rehabilitation, congratulations are in order for the Director of the Speech-Language Institute, Bob Serianni, who has been elected to Distinguished Fellowship of the National Academies of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology. This is a true honor that recognizes Bob’s professional achievements and contributions to both his profession and Salus.  

Last Monday I spent the day in Harrisburg, along with about 35 of our optometry students and many more Pennsylvania optometrists, to discuss several pieces of legislation that will affect the practice of optometry in the Commonwealth.  All of our meetings were met with a great deal of interest and provided an opportunity for us to explain the public health implications of allowing optometrists to practice at the highest level of care as well as to educate legislators about optometric education. We invited legislators we met with to visit Salus to see, first hand, the breadth and quality of education we provide.  

On Wednesday, we celebrated the grand opening of the CityLife primary care clinic that is located on the second floor of The Eye Institute. We’re extremely excited about our partnership with CityLife and the opportunity a primary care medical clinic integrated into The Eye Institute presents to our students, faculty and staff in addition to the wonderful health benefits this will bring to our East Oak Lane and surrounding communities.  If you get a chance, please try to stop by the clinic to see what a great environment of care they will provide for our patients.  

Looking Out for Kids is just a few short weeks away, and we still have tickets left to sell. Remember, this event supports our charity that provides vision care to underprivileged children in the Philadelphia, Norristown and other surrounding school districts. We’ve screened thousands of children to date and really have changed the lives of those we’ve touched. The event is on November 11 at the Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill.  We hope to see as many of you as possible there!

Have a great weekend.  I hope you can get out and enjoy this great fall weather!

Mike

Summer is Flying By: Week of August 4th

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

I can’t believe it’s August already! This summer is flying by. Orientation begins in just two short weeks when we will, once again, welcome our largest incoming class. It’s an exciting time as we’ve made some changes to include moving our traditional White Coat Ceremony from October to the end of Orientation Week. Not only have we changed the date, but we’ve changed the venue to reflect the stature of the event as well as the size. This year’s White Coat ceremony will be held in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts at 2 p.m. on August 17. This year's guest speaker is Vice Admiral Forrest Faison, Surgeon General of the Navy, who I know will have a great message for our new students. I’m hoping many of you can join us for this important occasion.

The Osborne College of Audiology has been conducting Summer Workshops in which many attendees are international students who are advancing their education through our AuD Online Bridge Program. We provide this very unique program because in some countries a master’s degree is the highest level of education required to practice as an audiologist, but the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree allows interested providers to deepen their clinical skillset and expand their scope of practice. 

Our Speech-Language Pathology Department co-hosted a special continuing education workshop with The Hanen Centre, a Canadian-based charitable organization, entitled, “It Takes Two to Talk – The Hanen Program for Parents of Children with Language Delay.” The three-day program focused on the role parents play in their child’s early language intervention and how speech-language pathologists can facilitate parents’ involvement.

As a reminder, the CityLife clinic is now open at The Eye Institute (TEI) and is continuing to enroll new patients. If you have a chance to stop by TEI, check out their new site as well as how nice the whole building now looks. I know you’ll be able to find a parking space as we’ve added 70 new spaces to our lot.

For those of you who are walking around the Elkins Park campus, you’ll notice some minor construction going on in the West building. This is secondary to a water leak we experienced a couple of weeks ago. To that end, we anticipate the work will be completed within the next couple of weeks allowing us to open up areas that have been closed since the incident occurred. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Finally, it looks like it’s going to be another nice weekend.  I encourage you all to get out and enjoy the sunshine (with sunscreen, of course) and have some fun.  Please be safe and stay hydrated.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Health Academy: Week of July 21st

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board of Trustees, and Friends, 

I’ve spent most of this past week attending Thomas Jefferson University's Population Health Academy.  During the week, we discussed methods and strategies in which health systems can positively impact the health of the communities we serve. We explored the key stakeholders in today’s U.S. healthcare system; discussing some of the complex interrelationships that influence population health, the economic impacts and concept of risk management as it applied to population health management, quality improvement, compliance, health informatics and how to best leverage all the data we collect and ways we could transition all these theories into an executable plan. This was an extremely timely program since the CityLife primary care clinic housed at The Eye Institute will begin to see patients this week with a key intent of this partnership being to impact the health of our local community as well as to provide the potential for student observation opportunities. I’m extremely excited about the prospects of where this new found knowledge will lead us!

Last evening, we celebrated the wonderful and impactful 23+ year career of Dr. Avi Gonen who retired at the end of last month. Dr. Gonen was responsible for helping to establish our international programs, specifically in optometry, first in Europe and Scandinavia and now in Asia. Through Avi’s work, the way optometry is practiced in Europe, Scandinavia and Singapore has been advanced to the point where their scope of practice has been expanded significantly. We wish Avi and his lovely spouse, Raya, the very best as they get ready to start their next adventure.

Last night on the other side of town our Contact Lens Club hosted the first-ever contact lens cocktail party workshop entitled “Color Me Chic” at our Chestnut Hill satellite facility. About 30 Salus students, faculty and staff learned about the different types of colored contact lenses available, which also included our students fitting one another.  We’d like to thank Johnson and Johnson and Alcon for donating the lenses for this fun exercise and well as Dr. Kriti Bhagat, the club’s faculty advisor, for helping to make this happen.

I’ll be participating in the N.J. State Triathlon tomorrow morning at Lake Mercer State Park, so please think of me as I swim, bike and run. This is my small way of actively supporting Salus’ wellness, population health initiatives and practicing what we preach!   Have a great weekend - stay hydrated and be safe.  

Mike

First View of the New Clinical Procedures Lab: Week of June 9th

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

Finally, the rain has stopped and the sun is shining! While we always can use the rain, it’s really nice to look out the window and see our beautiful pond lined with students eating their lunch and just enjoying the serenity of the campus.  

This week started out with a bang. We hosted our Alumni Association board meeting at a hotel near Citizens Bank Park last Sunday. It started with a wonderful brunch followed by a business meeting and a very informative presentation from Ryan Hollister, the University's coordinator of Career Services and Enrollment, on the importance of employing social media in one’s practice, and doing it correctly.  He also described the new and improved Bennett Career Services Center and what the University offers to graduating students as well as alumni from all of our programs. It was extremely informative and well received. After all the “official” stuff, about 70 of us headed over to the ballpark to watch the Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants. This was a great way to end the day! 

This week we also celebrated students and faculty using our new Clinical Procedures Lab for the first time.  It was wonderful to see both groups taking advantage of the new facility as well as "Exercising" some of the great technology and equipment that's been installed there. I happened to walk through while Dr. Jeff Nyman was lecturing about gonioscopy in one corner to about eight students, displaying normal PowerPoint slides on one screen and diagrams and photos on another. While this was going on, in another section of the lab an additional faculty member was working with a student to hone their 90D fundus exam skills. It was great to overhear that particular student say how clear the image was through the brand new slit lamp!

Construction on the parking lot at The Eye Institute (TEI) is moving forward in earnest. While it’s a bit inconvenient right now, when this is completed we will have an additional 70 parking spaces and some really nice landscaping on the Spencer Street side of the building that faculty, staff, students and patients can all enjoy.  

The CityLife Neighborhood Clinics at TEI will have  a soft opening later this month with a more formal grand opening scheduled for July. We are so excited to embed a  primary care facility in The Eye Institute as well as to our East Oak Lane neighborhood. 

Earlier this week the University's President’s Council bid farewell to Dr. Larry McClure who served as our director of Institutional Research and Strategic Planning as well as our director of Financial Aid for over 40 years.  Rumor has it he started when he was just 16 years old :-). Larry will retire at the end of this month and transition to having fun and relaxing a bit. We all wish Larry the very best as he gets ready to start his new adventures.  

Finally, I’d like to remind everyone to save the 11th of November for our annual "Looking Out For Kids" charity fundraiser dinner. This year we’ll be having the event at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, located in Chestnut Hill.  I know it’s going to be a very special evening as we honor Shelly Yanoff with our Lighthouse Award.  Ms. Yanoff is the former Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY).  PCCY works to improve the lives of our region’s children by developing initiatives and advocating for quality healthcare, child care, public education and family stability.  We’re very excited about having Ms. Yanoff join us for the event. To learn more about Looking Out For Kids, visit our website. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay safe and have some fun!

Mike

Busy Time Leading up to Commencement: Week of May 19th

Students, Faculty, Residents, Alumni, Board of Trustee members and Friends,

Progress continues with the construction work at The Eye Institute (TEI). The parking lot and outside of the building is nearly complete. There is also updated signage with our new logo on both Spencer Street and Godfrey Avenue. The CityLife Clinic has officially taken possession of their clinic with a “soft opening” to happen in a couple of weeks and a more formal opening to happen in July.  

The Clinical Procedures Lab now has computers installed in each of our 32 eye lanes that will allow students to learn how to integrate our Nextgen EMR while in the lab, which will be ready for use in the upcoming semester. The VR Magic virtual reality training equipment should arrive on campus in early June. I think everyone will be very pleased with the results of this project. 

A week ago, Kerry Lueders and three Low Vision Rehabilitation students Lindsay Johnson, Grace Fontanez and Christian D’Angelis presented the poster “Nighttime Glare: A Case Study” and conducted a presentation at the Penn Del AER conference in Harrisburg, Pa., describing their upcoming research study. At the same conference, Lachelle Smith, Director of the Vision Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT) Program, and Dawn Ciccarone, Occupational Therapy (OT) clinical instructor, conducted an inter-professional presentation: "VRT and OT Practice: Bridging the Gap in Adapted ADL Service Delivery.”

Speaking of conferences, on Tuesday, Dr. Scharre and I headed out to Las Vegas to participate in the annual meeting of the American Association of Physician Assistants to host a reception for students, faculty and alumni of our program.  It was great to see so many alumni and current students at the event.  Thanks to everyone for making this such a successful meeting for everyone!

Community service is another important part of the work we do at Salus. This week, Drs. Kelly Malloy and Erin Draper presented a lecture entitled, "Increase Your Understanding of Stroke,” to older, active adults at the Ambler YMCA. Their lecture was part of a monthly Lunch and Learn series Salus has participated in since January where faculty from various programs present topics aimed to keep our neighbors healthy and informed. 

If you have not had the chance to visit the D’Arrigo Family Art Gallery located in the Hafter Center recently, I invite you to check out the new mosaic art collection that curator Elynne Rosenfeld has obtained for viewing. The current collection from the Mosaic Society of Philadelphia showcases a wide variety of mosaic stylistic artwork using an array of conventional and unconventional materials.  It’s a very interesting and beautiful collection!

I’d like to share with you that I was recently inducted as a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia at their annual College Night. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which is also the home of the Mutter Museum, was founded in 1787 and is one of the oldest professional medical organizations in the country.  One of the memorable parts of the evening was, as a new inductee, was getting to sign my name in a ledger that dated back to the establishment of the College and actually has Benjamin Rush’s signature in it.  Now, there’s a little history for you!  Also of note, Salus Board of Trustee member, Dr. Thomas Beeman has been a Fellow of the College for many years and he was one of my sponsors. Tanis and I were honored to have Dr. Beeman and his wife Betty join us for the evening’s festivities. 

It’s going to be an action-packed week starting with our quarterly Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, followed by the annual commencement awards lunch on Wednesday and culminating with commencement on Thursday afternoon.  I cannot tell you how proud I am of each and every one of our students on the completion of this significant professional milestone in your lives. I especially want to thank our faculty and all those who helped to support our graduating students.  

Getting Ready for Commencement: Week of May 12th

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board of Trustees and Friends,

I hope everyone has had a productive week. Ours has been filled with students finishing finals and getting ready for break or commencement. I started out my week in Harrisburg, Pa. where I spent the day meeting with state legislators and many of their staff members to educate them about what we do here at Salus. I also provided support for the optometric scope of practice legislation (SB 688) introduced by Senator John R. Gordner (R-27) a few weeks ago. I wanted to let all of the legislators and staff members be aware of everything requested in the bill was taught here at Salus as well as other optometric programs around the country. I stressed the importance of our students being permitted to practice at the level at which they are being trained. I also explained the significant access to care and public health implications of moving forward with this and even more progressive legislation. We’ll keep our fingers crossed this will have a positive effect on the legislative process.  

On Wednesday evening, the University’s director of Institutional Advancement, Lynne Corboy, and I flew down to Palm Beach, Fla. to honor Dr. Morey X. Powell, who is one of our oldest living alumni. Dr. Powell graduated from PCO in 1936 and was one of 49 members of his class who helped to pave the way for how optometry as a profession is practiced today.  Dr. Powell was a pioneer in fitting contact lenses (glass and plastic) and was one of the first doctors to actually fenestrate (make holes in) lenses to allow oxygen to reach the cornea. We spent two hours talking about his time at PCO and beyond. The high point of the day was conducting a virtual dedication ceremony over FaceTime. We named the classroom in the new Clinical Procedures Lab suite after Dr. and Mrs. Powell in honor of their service to the profession and philanthropic support to PCO. I’ve attached a photo of Dr. Powell being virtually "walked through" the classroom and new lab on my iPad by Dr. Melissa Trego, our interim dean of PCO.  It was truly a memorable morning!  I also had the opportunity to catch up with one of my classmates, Dr. Michael Hecht, who is currently the medical director for Premier Eye Care in Boca Raton, Fla.  

Speaking of our Clinical Procedures Lab, the majority of the clinical equipment was delivered and put together this week. Our staff did a fantastic job of having everything put together in the span of two days. It was great to walk through the lab to see all of the new equipment filling the spaces we arduously planned for so long. The next step will be installing computers with electronic health records that will allow our students to transition seamlessly from lab to clinic. VRmagic, a virtual reality ophthalmoscopy suite, will be installed early next month while the Powell Classroom is waiting for some finishing touches to make it complete.  

The exterior of The Eye Institute is basically as complete as the interior construction of the primary care clinical suite.  Ampersand/CityLife Neighborhood Health Clinic will hold a “soft” opening in June with a larger grand opening in July as they finish hiring staff and getting things set up. 

As you can imagine, it’s an exciting time to see these projects finally come to completion. At the same time all of this is happening, we’re also preparing for commencement on May 25. That being said, we have already started planning for the White Coat Ceremony, which will be held in conjunction with orientation week this summer at the Kimmel Center. 

Best, 
Mike