Congratulations to the Class of 2019: Week of May 22nd

All,

Last night we began celebrating the accomplishments of many of you with the recognition of those who completed their Optometry Advanced Studies certificates. Congratulations to all those who met the requirements! Thus begins our few days of celebration! 

Today we have the Awards Luncheon followed by the Occupational Therapy program's Capstone Presentations at 5:00 p.m. in the Hafter Center and then the “big event” tomorrow afternoon.  

Graduation should be a time of celebration and pride – for our students, their families, significant others and our faculty and staff. But it also should be a time of reflection – on what’s next, how fortunate you all are to be able to help others and to finally to thank those who helped get you here.

As we prepare to launch our newest group of Salus graduates I want to extend the University’s congratulations and thanks to all of our students, faculty and staff on attaining this significant accomplishment. As you’ll hear during the commencement ceremony, graduation marks the first step you’ll take as a healthcare professional. You’ve all embarked on extremely exciting and rewarding careers and your ability to help people improve their lives is a real gift; one that needs to be cherished, honed and continually nurtured. It’s our hope and expectation that you take full advantage of all that you’ve learned during your time at Salus and apply those skills with the utmost care and sensitivity to those patients and clients you will care for.  

As I’ll remind you on tomorrow, you’ll be surrounded by all sorts of technology to assist you in doing your jobs. It will be important to remember that these technologies are adjuncts to finding the best ways to care for your patients and clients.  Remember, to treat your patients and not the technology! 

Finally, when you chose healthcare as a profession you’ve also chosen professions requiring a commitment to life-long learning. Salus will always be your academic home and I want you to think of us that way. Never stop asking questions, challenging your assumptions and sharpening your skills. We’ll all be there to help you continue to succeed. Congratulations on a job exceptionally well done – we’re all very proud of you!

MHM

China Edition: Week of February 22nd

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

Greetings from Guangzhou, China where Dr. Melissa Vitek and I are in the middle of what has been an informative, productive and uplifting trip to many of the institutions we have been partnering with over the past few years. I’m going to try and make this a little more abridged than my usual updates since I have to improvise a bit to get this out given the restrictions on the use of Google over here.  

For those of you who don’t know, China does not recognize optometry as the doctoral level profession we do in the States. Here it is practiced on multiple levels from a technical certificate to a PhD. We have been working with several programs in different cities to educate many of their faculty, with many of them earning our Master in Science Degree in Clinical Optometry (MSc) or going on to complete our International Advanced Placement Optometry Degree (APOD) program which awards these students our Doctor of Optometry degree after they complete the MSc degree and three additional years at Salus.  It’s a long haul but it gives these very motivated and talented professionals a great baseline to return to their institutions to implement what they’ve learned and pass it along to others. We’ve seen evidence of this on our trip where our graduates have been promoted to dean and director positions where they can begin to influence how optometry is taught and ultimately practiced here. Clearly, it’s a very long road, but you have to start someplace and we are playing a key role in moving the optometric profession forward here. Our discussions this week have also touched upon some of the ideas we’ve discussed during our Scenario Planning initiative to include the possibility of developing some online continuing education programs using secure connections as well as some hybrid certificate programs. Much work will need to be done, but I’m thinking if we can do this for China, we should be able to do it at home as well!  

Today we leave for Shanghai where we’ll meet with our counterparts at the China Optometry and Optical Association as well as host a Graduate Reception for over forty of our China alumni. Then it’s off to Nanchong for another university visit and meetings and then home in the beginning of next week.

Closer to the home front in Philadelphia, work continues on for the Centennial Celebration. You all should have received invitations so I hope you’re making your plans to attend! If not, you can do it right here.

We’ve launched a new podcast series that’s available on our website if you click here. The first podcast discusses seeing eye dogs and the process that goes into training them and the second one discusses what tinnitus is all about. I recommend you check these out. 

I know the week has been somewhat shortened by the snow storm so many of you will be doing some catch-up this weekend. Stay safe and look out for one another!

Mike

Cold Weather Won't Stop Our Salus Team from Doing Great Things: Week of February 1st

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

Good morning from a frigid Elkins Park. The temperatures the past couple of days reminds me of living in North Chicago when I would go out for Saturday morning group runs when the temperatures were -10 on some days! Makes my teeth chatter just to think about those days! Cold weather, snow, sleet or rain can’t stop our Salus team from doing great things. This week was no exception.



On Sunday and Monday, our Board of Trustees joined the team that has been working on Scenario Planning for the past six months. As you might recall, we thought it was extremely important to begin to take a long view as it relates to health science education and how Salus should position ourselves to optimally meet the health education needs of the 21st century. Scenario Planning allows us to explore alternate futures that might affect the very complex health education landscape we operate in. Our team, which included student, faculty, administration and Board representation, developed four different scenarios to work from. Each scenario provided an alternate future that may come to pass. While none of the scenarios will be completely accurate, they incorporate many real-world occurrences and provide a framework for us to discuss strategic imperatives that will help to inform our University’s strategic plan and direction over the next several years. We are scheduling town hall meetings to share our findings and seek input from you. (Faculty/staff town hall will be on February 15th, with time and place information to follow; the student town hall is TBD). We are also developing a survey that will be sent out to the entire student body to ensure we’re concentrating on the right strategic priorities from the student perspective. This is an exciting opportunity for us to really define how Salus needs to evolve as an institution so we can continue to provide world-class educational opportunities across and maybe even beyond the broad spectrum of the health sciences. I hope you all embrace this process!

Yesterday, Salus and Rosemont College held a signing event for new articulation agreements for nine of our programs. These include:

Master of Education, Blindness and Visual Impairment (TVI)
Master of Science, Low Vision Rehabilitation (LVR)
Occupational Therapy (MSOT)
Master of Science, Orientation and Mobility (O&M)
Master of Science, Vision Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT)
Master of Medical Science Physician Assistant Studies (PA)
Doctor of Audiology (AUD)
Doctor of Optometry (OD) Traditional program (3 + 4)
Doctor of Optometry (OD) Traditional program (4 + 4)

Entering into these types of partnerships and agreements will become even more essential as the health education landscape continues to change around us. Taking a proactive position such as this will help to ensure both Salus and Rosemont students have access to the very best programs possible.

Today is Dr. Barry Eckert’s first day on the job as our new Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Please join me in officially welcoming him to the Salus team! As our provost, Dr. Eckert will be responsible for maintaining the University’s academic vision and providing global leadership for all activities related to the academic enterprise of the University.

Centennial story: Here’s some proof that interprofessional education has been in the PCO and then Salus DNA for a long time.

If you get a chance, I encourage you to head over to the Hafter Student Center to check out the “Community Expressions Invitational Show” at our D’Arrigo Family Gallery. Gallery curator Elynne Rosenfeld invited 10 people, some who have shown previously and others who are first-timers to display their works of art. There’s a really nice variety, to include mixed media, oils, acrylics, drawing, photography and wall sculpture. I understand Elynne even invited herself to the display! Check out her four miniatures – they’re easy to pick out.

Finally, while the weather might moderate a bit this weekend, it’s still going to be cold. If you’re doing outdoor stuff, please keep that in mind. If you’re headed to a Super Bowl party, enjoy yourselves but please, if you drink, don’t drive. I’m not rooting for any one team this time around so I hope whoever your team is, they win! How’s that for being noncommittal? Have a great weekend!

Mike