Graduation Is Right Around the Corner: Week of April 18th

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

Greetings on a beautiful Thursday from Elkins Park. My update is a day early this week due to the holiday schedule. 

Last Friday, students and staff participated in the inaugural Health Fair conducted by the LeVine Backstretch Clinic, which is operated at the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa., as part of the horse racing facility. Salus had the largest group of participants with 21 volunteers and conducted 78 vision screenings and 28 hearing screenings. It was a great turn out. 

Renovations are under way at The Eye Institute at Chestnut Hill – last week new auto-phoropters were installed. Other renovations will include new signage, remodeling of the front desk area and a renovation of the pre-screening area. 

I can’t believe it, but our Centennial Gala is only a week away! Catch up on some more PCO history with this story on Melissa Trego, OD’04, Resident ’09, PhD, PCO dean. 

Finally, with so much swirling around in the news these days, between the horrible fire at Notre Dame Cathedral and the release of the Mueller Report, it’s easy to forget that this weekend should be one of reflection and celebration. On Friday evening our Jewish colleagues and friends will begin to celebrate Passover, commemorating the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. At the same time, our Christian colleagues and friends will be observing Good Friday and then celebrating Easter on Sunday. Both of these holidays represent a time to reflect with family and friends how lucky we all are to be able to observe these holidays together in a country that was founded on the premise of religious freedom and equality. 

I hope everyone takes some time this long weekend to take a break from all the news around us and concentrate on what’s most important – family and friends. 

Be safe, get some exercise and come back next week ready to move into the final stretch as our semesters begin to come to a close. Graduation for many is just around the corner! 

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to all those celebrating these holidays!

Mike

Off to China: Week of February 15th

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

Greetings from our beautiful Elkins Park campus. Lots to cover today, so I’ll just jump right in:

Invitations for the Centennial Gala, celebrating PCO’s 100^th Anniversary, will be going out next week. Please be on the lookout for them. You can purchase your tickets online by clicking here or by responding to the RSVP in the invitation by mail. It’s going to be a great party so get your tickets early!

On Friday, February 8, 2019 the Fifth Annual Salus Awards Gala was held at Normandy Farms. The Gala is held to celebrate all of the exceptional faculty, student leaders, and members of the Salus community. Please join us in congratulating all of our award recipients by visiting our website.

On Monday, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry welcomed Vernon Dela Cruz from VSP and Dr. Jennifer Tsai (known as @drjenandjuice on Instagram, with over 40,000 followers) talked with Optometry students about the importance of embracing social media and personal branding as well as some of the challenges confronting the optometry today. They also discussed practice modalities and choosing work locations, how to build a brand, and the importance of establishing a work-life balance.

Tonight, the Peer Mentor Group will be sponsoring Wings & Sings from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Hafter Student Community Center.  This should be a fun bonding event for mentors and mentees that will include karaoke, games, and prizes. 

On Wednesday evening, Dr. Melissa Vitek, Dr. Barry Eckert, John Gaal and I attended Public Health Grand rounds, an event that’s sponsored by the Philadelphia College of Physicians, of which I am a Fellow. These events are open to the public and address many of the public health issues we see and hear about in all of our clinics daily. The topic addressed access to primary care in Philadelphia. The very talented panel discussed many barriers to access in Philadelphia to include transportation, distance from facilities, insurance coverage (or lack of coverage), the difference in Medicaid and Medicare coverages and some of the social determinant of health, just to name a few.  I couldn’t help to wonder how we could make more of an impact on this issue than we already are through our own outreach programs and the work we currently do at The Eye Institute (TEI), our TEI satellites, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute and Speech-Language Institute in addition to our partnership with Oak Street Health in Oak Lane.  Our clinics in Oak Lane, and Falls Center are located in some of the city’s most medically undeserved areas. Marketing and spreading the word about the work we do is one piece of the puzzle, but also word of mouth and getting out into the community is another important aspect of bringing patients our way. One way to do this is through volunteering within the communities we serve. Once residents get to know who we are, then we will establish a level of trust that will help to facilitate greater access our very comprehensive care networks. We’ve got so much to offer across a broad spectrum of health professions. We’re moving forward with work on a Community Advisory Group for TEI but we need to be doing much more. Food for thought for each of our student organizations as well as the rest of us.  

I’ll be holding a University Town Hall meeting today at 2:00 PM in S301 and S201 to discuss the initial findings of our Scenario Planning and what the next steps will be as we move these ideas forward. I’m looking forward to having a great dialog as we continue to look into what the future might hold for Salus and how we will embrace that. The meeting will be recorded and made available to folks who can’t get to the “live” event.

Your centennial read for the week highlights some of the exciting new equipment that helps our Audiology students stay ahead of the game: salus.edu/sensory-PEI

Finally, I’m off to China, along with Dr. Vitek, this weekend to meet with several of our partner institutions and alumni.  We’ll be visiting Tianjin Vocational Institute in Tianjin, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, The China Optometric and Optical Association in Shanghai and the North Sichuan Medical College in Nanchong followed by a trip to Beijing prior to heading home. Additionally, we will be hosting an Alumni Reception in Shanghai for many of our international alumni who live in that neck of the woods. It’s going to be a fast and furious trip (5 cities in 8 days!) but well worth the effort given the level of interest we have for our unique international programs in optometry and audiology. I’ll try to get a weekly update out from over there if I can gain access to Gmail, which often is not possible.

Have a great weekend. Be safe and look out for one another!