Keeping Ukrainians in Our Thoughts: Week of March 11th, 2022

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

Good morning from New Orleans where I have been attending both the Armed Forces Optometric Society and Southern Educational Council of Optometry’s annual meeting. It’s been a busy week of fantastic continuing education and meeting other optometric colleagues. For those PCO faculty, students and alumni who might also be here, PCO will be hosting a reception later today from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at The Bower, 1320 Magazine St, New Orleans.

Here are some other topics that you might find interesting: 

SLEEP AWARENESS WEEK: The Center for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD)is highlighting the importance of sleep during Sleep Awareness Week March 13-19. Catch up with Dr. Cristina Laracuente-Trzaska, PsyD, CPPD’s newest counselor, outside the cafe from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 16. Grab a sleep mask and enter CPPD's gift basket raffle. You can pick up some additional tips on healthy sleep habits by following the Instagram (@cppd_salus) and Facebook accounts here. Feel free to reach out to our CPPD counselors, who have expanded their hours and services, for an individual counseling appointment. You can meet the counselors and see their open hours here. 

OTs AND REFUGEES: To help ensure refugee children have a healthy start to their lives in the United States, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently shared information with the University’s Occupational Therapy (OT) students on how to assist with their efforts. Read more about that here. 

ACCELERATED SCHOLARS, PART SIX: Are you interested in fulfilling a residency after completing optometry school? In the sixth part of this series focused on the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University's Accelerated Scholars Doctor of Optometry Program, three on-campus residents – Kiera Jeschke, OD ‘21, Chandni Patel, OD '21, and Natalee Rackus, OD '21, discuss how and why they chose PCO/Salus for their specific interests. Learn more here. 

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: This week’s Where Are They Now features Kaylin Magosin, MSOT ’20, who was in the final two weeks of her first clinical rotation when the pandemic hit. Find out how Kaylin handled that challenge and what she’s been doing since graduation. Read more here.

MASKING ON CAMPUS: A reminder that while we are “mask optional” in non-instructional spaces on the Elkins Park campus, please remember that in all instructional spaces (classrooms and labs) and clinics face masks are required. Please be respectful of those who are not yet comfortable or are unable to take their masks off due to health-related reasons.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As you prepare for this weekend, I ask that you continue to keep the Ukrainian people, both here and in Europe, in your thoughts and prayers as the Russian invasion continues to take innocent lives and displace millions of people. We are still collecting non-perishable food, first aid supplies, OTC medicines, and various hygiene products to help the people of Ukraine. A box has been placed in the cafeteria lobby on the Elkins Park campus for those who would like to contribute.

Please try to get outside, even in the cold blustery weather predicted for the weekend, just to unwind and destress. As you do go about your travels, please remember that while COVID numbers are extremely low, you still need to take the appropriate precautions such as masking when around large groups, social distancing and washing your hands frequently to help prevent any spread of the virus.

Be safe, continue to look out for one another and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike

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

Preventing the Spread of COVID-19: Week of February 28th, 2020

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

Good morning from a very chilly Elkins Park. It’s been another busy week at Salus with many of us getting back into the swing of things following a very successful continuing education event in Aruba last weekend. 

As we hear more about the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus worldwide, I wanted to have a short discussion about that this morning. As the director of the CDC mentioned earlier this week, it’s just a matter of time before we confront the virus more directly in the U.S. While this sounds extremely ominous and clearly is something we need to be paying very close attention to, we also need to remember that there are steps that we can take and share with others, that will help to minimize the risk of spreading or catching the virus. Clearly, not traveling to areas that have known disease, such as China, Japan, Italy and some other places, is paramount at this point. Infectious disease experts remind us that the most important thing we can do personally is to practice good hygiene, such as routine hand washing. Although the CDC believes the immediate risk of the virus to the American public is relatively low, they do have some specific recommendations we all should be following. They include:

• Ensure you get a flu vaccine
• Take everyday preventive actions to help stop the spread of germs, such as routinely washing your hands with soap and water
• If you’re sick, stay home so you don’t spread germs to coworkers or patients
• Take flu antivirals, if prescribed by your doctor

For those of you actively involved in patient care, you need to be on the look-out for people who recently traveled from China, Italy, Japan or other affected areas and have a fever and/or respiratory symptoms. If you encounter a patient with an acute respiratory infection, especially those who have recently traveled to affected areas, you must follow the CDC’s guidelines, found here to ensure we can minimize exposure to yourself, other providers, staff and patients. For more information and to keep up-to-date with this, I recommend you routinely check the CDC’s COVID-19 website. We also have a link on our website that can be accessed here. As healthcare providers we have a responsibility to stay up to date with the latest factual information that will help to keep us informed and also help to dispel any rumors and falsehoods that tend to develop during these events.

Given the previous discussion, this might be a good time to discuss our Mental Health Minute. All this talk about potential pandemics, on top of the usual challenge you have just trying to stay ahead in school, creates stress. Some stress is good, but there comes a time when we all need to ask for some help. The National Institute of Mental Health has a very good website addressing this which I would encourage you to access. If you need to access our Center for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD), their office is located on the 3rd floor of the West building in Suite W-326. Counselors are available Monday-Friday and can be reached for appointments at 215-780-1315 or 215-780-1534. You may also email a counselor individually.

Closer to home, please take the time to check out the story about the Kraskin Family Legacy on our website. Dr. Jeffrey Kraskin, a classmate of mine at both undergraduate school and PCO, comes from a long line of optometrists in the Washington, D.C. area. Read about how his family’s practice has been operating for three generations and the impact it has had on the profession of optometry.

The Sexuality and Gender Alliance at Salus (SAGAS) asked me to pass along that they have a meeting from noon to 1 p.m. today in room W111 where they’ll discuss upcoming events and there will be elections for the new e-board. If you're interested in running for a position (president, vice president, treasurer, secretary) submit a letter of intent to sagas@salus.edu. 

After studying for their boards, our PCO Class of 2021 got to exhale a bit and attend “EyeBall 2020” at the end of January before they head off to their clinical externships in March. Check out some of the class awards that were presented and the great photos from “A Night on the Red Carpet.” 

Salus has partnered with Widener University to offer a certificate in Healthcare Management program for both students and alumni. The online four-course, 12-credit program is expected to accommodate up to 10 students and is scheduled to kick off in the fall. For more information, email careerservices@salus.edu or gel@widener.edu. We’re also preparing to work with The Erivan K. Haub School of Business at St. Joseph’s University will offer several different options for our students and alumni to gain business and finance acumen either during your time at Salus or beyond.  You’ll hear more about this in the very near future.

Grand Rounds at The Eye Institute from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. this morning, will feature Dr. Lucinda Kauffman, who will speak on “Diabetic Retinopathy in Youth and Young Adults” and Dr. Kelly Seidler, who will talk about “Visual Disturbances”.

Finally, many of us will be in Atlanta next week to attend the annual meeting of the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO). We’ll be hosting an Alumni and Friends reception at the Omni Hotel from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. We hope that anyone attending SECO can join us for this fun opportunity to reconnect with classmates and faculty from PCO. I hope to see many of you there!

Remember that this is a Leap Year, so tomorrow will be 29 February, not 1 March! For those of you with a birthday, anniversary or other significant event tomorrow - I hope you enjoy your once in every 4 year celebration :-).  Have a great weekend and please continue to monitor our website and the news to follow what’s happening with the COVID-19 virus.  Stay safe, stay warm and look out for one another. 

Mike

Winter Still: Week of March 1st

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

Greetings from Elkins Park, where winter has visited us, yet again! The groundhog lied to all of us!

It’s great to be back from our trip to China where we had the opportunity to visit several great institutions and meet with many of our international alumni. I’m most excited about the possibilities of expanding our international presence with new partners and innovative programs. Working with some of our partners in China, we may be able to “push the envelope” a bit in developing some distance optometric continuing education as well as explore other educational models. What excites me about this, is that it’s consistent with some of the ideas we developed during our recent scenario planning. I’ll keep everyone posted as we move forward with some of these ideas.

Closer to home, in matters that can directly affect the practice of Audiology, the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) have agreed to join forces to develop legislation that expands access to and coverage of audiology services under Medicare. According to ASHA’s press release, "This legislation will include provisions that all three organizations have supported in the past, as well as a new provision to expand Medicare coverage to include both diagnostic and treatment services provided by an audiologist; align patient access to audiology services under Medicare with patient access to audiology services outside of Medicare; and reclassify audiologists from "suppliers" to "practitioners" under Medicare. This joint effort comes during a time when our nation's health care systems are focused on outcomes and evidence-based treatments. For Medicare beneficiaries who need hearing health care services, it is critical that audiology services be positioned in this new environment and that the full scope of practice for audiologists be appropriately recognized." We’ve had an active advocacy role in all of this and will continue to remain engaged.

Speaking of audiology, the Osborne College of Audiology on-campus students and faculty attended the American Balance Society conference in Arizona. Congratulations to Jenna Fenton, class of 2020 for her poster presentation, " Downward dog dizziness - A rare BPPV case".  It’s always great to see our students presenting at national meetings.

Congratulations to Dr. Aravamudhan for being selected as a candidate for the Vice President for Academic Affairs in Audiology in American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) board of directors for the upcoming elections. Elections will be conducted electronically April 16 to May 29, 2019, and those elected will serve a 3-year term beginning January 1, 2020. 

The Salus Got Talent show is today from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Hafter Student Community Center. The talent show is hosted by the National Optometric Student Association (NOSA) and is open to all students and faculty. 

Congratulations to all of our PCO faculty who actively participated in the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO) meeting, this year held in New Orleans.  We were well represented with Drs. Andy Gurwood and Rachel Brackley, presenting numerous lectures and many of our residents and other faculty members in attendance. SECO always provides a great forum for our folks to shine - which they do!

Also at SECO, Celeste Gomez, class of 2019, was awarded the Review of Optometry Rick Bay Excellence in Eyecare Education Scholarship. Celeste was selected based on qualities that embody Rick Bay, which include a commitment to optometry, integrity, compassion, partnership and dedication to the greater good.  Congratulations Celeste!

 

Preparations for the Centennial Celebration continue.  Tickets are now available online and most of you should already have received an invitation.  Please take the time to read all about our Presidential Medal of Honor Recipients here. These people all have been pivotal in both PCO and Salus’ success over the years.

Don’t forget today’s Salus Time where Mr. Paul Sloate will be speaking on the topic of financial goal setting. This is something everyone can benefit from and I strongly encourage all of you to attend. The session will be held in the Lombardi Classroom from 2 - 3PM.

Finally, as the weekend approaches and the Phillies celebrate the signing of Bryce Harper for a mere $330 million (over 13 years), take some time to relax and enjoy the city. 

Have fun, be safe and take care of one another.

Mike

More than Meets the Eye

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged – so it’s time! 

I just got back from Atlanta where I attended the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry (known to most optometrists as SECO) where I had the honor and privilege of delivering the opening lecture of the conference – and it was A BLAST! I was part of a special session entitled, “More than Meets the Eye” where I was asked to provide my view on the future of optometry as well as optometric education. I was followed by amazing lectures from Drs. Mike Gallaway, Clark Chang, both Salus affiliates, Vicky Vandervort from Omaha, NE, and Christina Master from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I had the opportunity to help set the tone and introduce the topics the other four doctors presented which included convergence insufficiency, visual training, closed head trauma and keratoconus. It was extremely well-received.

Here’s a link to an article that appeared in Primary Care Optometry News.

The best part of all is that I had people coming up to me throughout the meeting thanking me for being such a great spokesman for Salus/PCO and optometry. They were fired up about increasing our scope of practice, especially as we as confront a nationwide shortage of primary care providers through 2025. I think what’s most important about this talk is that it helps to set the stage for Salus/PCO to once again take the lead on moving the optometric profession forward while at the same time putting some pressure on our national organizations to begin marketing our great optometric profession to qualified applicants nationwide. One of the points I made, in addition to why it’s absolutely necessary to expand optometric scope of practice to include the diagnosis and management of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, was that optometric national organizations, such as the American Optometric Association and the American Academy of Optometry need to actively market the profession. Much like the nursing profession has done, they need to actively market in order to reverse the decreasing applicant pool we have been experiencing over the past decade. I see this as one of the most important challenges confronting the profession; ensuring we maintain a cohort of qualified applicants to fill the 1700+ seats we currently have nationally. If we don’t do this we risk having an applicant pool that does not provide enough qualified people to fill the seats of our 23 optometry schools. 

So here we go – I’d like to take this talk nationally as I believe expanding the optometric scope of practice as well as addressing a decreasing applicant pool are burning platforms Salus needs to take the lead in addressing! We’ve got a history of taking the lead on these types of issues; after all, we wouldn’t have diagnostic and therapeutic privileges today if it weren’t for the visionary leadership of those who came before us at PCO. I welcome your comments and support as we move this initiative forward. 

Have a great week!