State Representative Visits Salus: Week of October 26, 2018

Good morning from a cold morning in Elkins Park!

It’s been another great week at Salus. Here are some of our highlights:

On Monday, we hosted State Representative Marcy Toepel at our Elkins Park campus. We had the opportunity to discuss all of our programs, but concentrated on why the legislature needs to update the current optometric scope of practice laws to reflect what’s being taught at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and other optometry programs around the country. After a great discussion and tour of our facility, where Melissa Trego, OD, PhD, dean, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, had the opportunity to show Representative Toepel our virtual reality training lab first hand. I think Rep. Toepel came away with a renewed appreciation of what optometrists can and should be doing to care for their patients. These visits are important to ensure our legislators understand the high quality and comprehensive education our students receive, not just in optometry but in every profession we train. It’s also a great opportunity for elected officials to learn what services Salus provides to our local communities - often at no cost to the people we serve.

NBC-10 news spotlighted our School Vision Program, our doctors and students while they conducted screenings at McCloskey Elementary School in Philadelphia just the other day. TEI resident Dr. Ryan Kern and a team of third year optometry students did an excellent job showcasing the great work that we do through our school screening program.

Congratulations to Mitchell Scheiman, OD, PhD, director, Graduate Programs, Biomedicine and his team at New Jersey Institute of Technology for winning two of three Auggie Awards – the most recognized industry virtual reality awards in the world.  The awards were given for two projects - Excellence in collaborative projects between industry and academia and the most impactful breakthrough and honoring a Women XR Laureate. Congratulations Mitch!

The American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) will hold its annual Optometry Cares 5K run/walk on Sunday, October 28 from 9 a.m. to noon at Alverthorpe Park in Abington, Pa. All proceeds will benefit the American Optometric Association’s Optometry Cares foundation. Please try to get out there to support this great cause.

Our annual Looking Out For Kids (LOFK) charity fundraiser is only a week away! If you haven’t already purchased your tickets, it’s not too late. This year’s event is being held at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue which is a beautiful venue in a great location. If you can’t come, please consider donating on our website.

Finally, there’s been a good bit of distracting and distressing news this week about politics, mail bombs, general discord and the geopolitical fallout from the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. With all this swirling around us, it’s helpful for all of us remain mentally and morally focused on our mission at Salus – advancing integrated health care through innovative education, research and clinical services. Our students have enough to do between studying and going to class and labs and our faculty and staff are constantly working to ensure our students receive the best education possible in addition to ensuring the patient care provided in our clinics is nothing less than excellent. While it’s extremely important to be aware of the current events, it’s imperative for you to focus on our patients, clients and the education that will enable you to help others well into the future. 

The one thing that you all can do is to vote – no matter what your political affiliation is, that’s the one way we have, as Americans, to clearly express our opinion and desires as to how our government works. Tuesday, November 6 is election day. Mark it on your calendars and ensure that you either have an absentee ballet if you’re not going to be around or get to a polling place. Every vote counts, so please ensure you plan your time to exercise your constitutional right to choose who represents us.

On that note, I’ll close wishing everyone a safe and restful weekend. It looks like we’re going to have a nor’easter starting tonight, so please be careful if you’re going out and about. 

Mike

Productive Week at Salus: Week of June 8th

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

It’s been another productive week at Salus. 

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Harrisburg, Pa., working with the Pennsylvania Optometric Association to discuss pending scope of practice and other legislation with our local state representatives and most recently met with the Deputy Secretary of Education and Commissioner of Post-Secondary Education, Noe Ortego, to introduce him and his staff to Salus, our programs and all we bring to the local community. I also discussed the importance of obtaining state funds to help offset tuition costs as well as clinical services we bring to our local communities. While we didn’t walk away with any buckets of money, we did succeed in gaining their attention, and hopefully, their support when the budget cycle begins. I also had the opportunity to meet with the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff to help gain support for a multi-million-dollar Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant we have applied for to help with classroom and laboratory technology improvements in addition to several other key projects we’d like to see completed over the next few years. Still no buckets of money were handed over, but it’s one more step in the process of letting everyone know all the great things that we’re doing here.

Closer to home, the Office of Admissions hosted eleven participants from several undergraduate institutions for the second annual Audiology Learning Experience (ALE) on Thursday and Friday. This is a program that offers participants the opportunity to investigate the academic study associated with the Doctor of Audiology program. We do a similar program for optometry as well. 

The University’s Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) is holding its 2018 MuckFest MS 5K run through mud and obstacles in support of a world free of multiple sclerosis on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 185 Glen Mills Rd. in Glen Mills, Pa. This is (obviously) a rain or shine event!

I will be “offline” next week as Tanis and I will be taking some R&R but will be back “online” the following week from Denver, where we’ll be attending Optometry’s Meeting, along with many of our faculty and students. For those of you who will be in Denver for the meeting, Dr. Trego will be hosting an Alumni and Friends Reception on Friday, June 22 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, Centennial Ballroom F. We will be honoring this year’s Albert Fitch Memorial Alumnus of the Year, Dr. David R. McPhillips OD ’85. I hope to see many of you there!

Have a great weekend!
Mike