Snow is Coming! Week of December 8th

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

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!  It’s cold and the weather forecasters are predicting snow for the first time this year tomorrow.  We’ll see…

This morning, many of us were treated to a wonderful Grand Rounds lecture from Dr. Bernie Blaustein. Dr. Blaustein has been a member of our optometric clinical teaching staff since 1974, which is a bit over 43 years! He’s been an optometrist for over 50 years and we have been so very lucky to have him on staff. Today’s engaging Ground Rounds lecture covered 50 years of clinical experiences that were priceless.  Many of us remember having Dr. Blaustein when we were students at The Eye Institute. Always patient and willing to provide students with the time to teach and explore options, Bernie has influenced the way we practice this great profession for as long as he’s been a teacher and mentor. Dr. Blaustein, who will be retiring after this month, was awarded Professor emeritus status by the Board of Trustees several months ago. Some of Dr. Blaustein’s many accomplishments include serving as Chief of Optometry Services at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville, Pa., and as editor for both the Ocular Manifestations of Neurologic Disease and Ocular Manifestations of Systemic Disease. During his professional career, Dr. Blaustein has written numerous professional articles and chapters in optometric texts, has also regularly presented papers and has lectured at various professional conferences. He also previously served as director of the PCO Residency Program and has always taken a special interest in educating our young optometric interns and residents. We wish him “fair winds and following seas” as he begins his well-earned retirement - but also hope to see him around The Eye Institute from time to time doing what he loves and also what he does best - teaching and mentoring all of us!

Last Friday, Mr. Don Kates and I attended the Metropolitan Caucus, a political event in New York sponsored by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia. We had the opportunity to meet and more importantly, tell many local politicians and civic leaders about Salus and the wonderful services we provide for children and others in the greater Philadelphia and Montgomery County regions. There were over 500 people at this one event which, hopefully, helped to raise awareness about Salus and all of the great things our faculty, staff and students do for our communities on a daily basis.  

Earlier this week, Drs. Janice Scharre, Brooke Kruemmling, Gregory Benjamin, Radhika Aravamudhan and I attended the annual meeting of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. As our University's accrediting body, we had the opportunity to learn more about new standards and rules that will affect us over the coming years. While each one of our programs also has individual accrediting bodies, Salus, along with over 560 other universities in the Mid-Atlantic region of the country, is accredited by Middle States. Since we successfully completed our Periodic Review Report last year, our next accreditation visit will be in 2020. But, it’s never too early to begin to prepare for these visits and to learn about any new incoming standards in which we need to adhere.  As always, we learned a great deal and felt confident we’re moving in the right direction.  

At 5 p.m. this evening, PCO will be hosting a reception for the American Optometric Association’s InfantSEE program in the Hafter Student Center. Tomorrow, an InfantSEE community event will be held at The Eye Institute at 10 a.m. The InfantSEE program is a public health initiative managed by Optometry Cares, the Foundation of the American Optometric Association. It’s designed to ensure vision care becomes a vital part of an infant’s wellness program. Optometrists who are part of this program provide a no-cost initial eye assessment to children between 6 to 12 months of age. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that on December 7th we remembered the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. This significant event thrust the United States into World War II, thus defining a generation of Americans as “Our Greatest Generation." Many American service men and women lost their lives or were injured on December 7, 1941. Please take a moment to reflect on this and the brave men and women who sacrificed everything to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today.  

Finally, on a much lighter note, tomorrow is the annual Army-Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field here in Philadelphia. As many believe, last year’s Army win was a fluke, but we’ll see how this year’s event turns out :-).  

GO NAVY - BEAT ARMY!

Have a great weekend,

Mike