Feels Like Spring at Salus: Week of March 15th

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

Good morning from Elkins Park, where Spring is flirting with us, just a little.  It’s the Ides of March and today marks the end of another busy week at Salus with many students taking mid-terms while other are busily working on special projects and getting ready to go on clinical rotations.

These last couple of days, we’ve been hosting the accreditation team from the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. They are here to review our SLP program. Their work should be completed later today with results to follow.

In our College of Education and Rehabilitation, Emily R. Vasile, MAT, TVI, MS, CLVT, has been invited to serve as a member of the Advisory Council of the Pennsylvania Deaf-Blind Project. The Advisory Council and its members serve a critical role to the Project by assisting in the identification of needs and areas for improvement as well as by providing feedback on materials, resources, and professional development. The members of the Council work in partnership with the Project to improve the lives of students with deaf-blindness and their families by building the capacity of intermediate units, school districts, and approved private schools through evidence-based practices and staff-driven collaboration. Congratulations!

On Monday evening, Salus Board member Rebecca Delia, Salus Provost, Dr. Barry Eckert and I attended a very interesting program addressing, “The Future of Work and its Implications for Higher Education." The program, which was sponsored by Deloitte and hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, addressed many of the themes we’ve been discussing during our Scenario Planning. Deloitte believes that the future of work is being shaped by the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in the workplace and the expansion of the workforce includes both on and off balance sheet talent. These changes should be influencing higher education to ensure people have the right skills when they leave college or technical training. While most of the conversation focused on undergraduate educational programs and the importance of maintaining studies in the humanities and other liberal arts subjects, there was also an emphasis on stacked and competency based learning and hybrid/online courses. All this affects the way each of our professions will be trained and ultimately practice. Hence, the importance of embracing many of these disruptive technologies and looking at new educational models.

Somewhat related to that discussion, yesterday, I sent out an email to all students with a link to a survey that asks about your opinion concerning the four strategic imperatives our scenario planning developed. We really need your input if we’re going to get this right, so please take the time to fill out the survey.  

The Pennsylvania College of Optometry will be sponsoring an Alumni and Friends reception at Vision Expo East reception on next Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. So, if you’re up in New York for the meeting, please stop by.

Finally, do you want to know more about PCO’s founder? Check out this “tour” of Dr. Albert Fitch’s home.  It’s an interesting read!

Only a few weeks left until our PCO Centennial Celebration. Please click HERE to get your tickets!

As we approach the weekend, please take some time to get out and enjoy the nicer weather we have. Be safe, have fun and look out for one another!

Mike

Save Your Vision Month: Week of March 8th

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

Greetings from a very chilly Chicago where John Gaal and I are attending the annual meeting of the American College of Healthcare Executives. This year’s meeting had what I consider the perfect theme, "Innovation." Almost every seminar I attended addressed some type of innovative process that improved the delivery of healthcare to include leveraging technology, distance learning and telemedicine, improving online presence and how to best gain market share using social media as a tool. Clearly, we are on the right path at Salus. These are all topics we discussed in detail during our Scenario Planning and are currently moving forward in several areas. For instance, we’re about to commence a major renovation of our Chestnut Hill satellite clinic that will include the addition of the latest auto-refraction and optometric telemedicine technology – making us the only optometry program in the country with such a clinic. Preparing our students to practice in both today’s and more importantly, tomorrow’s dynamic healthcare delivery environment is our top priority and these types of investments will help us to realize these goals.Closer to home, Victor Bray, PhD, associate professor in the Osborne College of Audiology (OCA), Jonette Owen, AuD, assistant dean of the OCA, Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, clinical director of the Speech-Language Institute were at Capitol Hill Thursday representing Pennsylvania for the National Academies of Practice (NAP), ahead of the NAP Annual Meeting, to advocate for affordable healthcare and interprofessional practice. During the NAP meeting, Satya Verma, OD, FAAO, FNAP, Diplomate and director of Salus Externship Programs for Optometry will receive the prestigious Cummings Award for his service to NAP as well as interprofessional education. Congratulations!

While I wasn't able to attend, I know today’s Grand Rounds included an exceptional presentations on "Thrombocytopenia: The Lowdown on Platelets" from Dr. Shruti Desai and "How Low Can You Go?: Ocular Manifestations of Blood Dyscrasias", presented by Dr. Ryan Kern.

March is Save Your Vision Month, which traces its founding to 1927 by members of the American Optometric Association. Initially, the celebration was reserved for only a week. President Lyndon B. Johnson raised its profile in 1963 by making it a national observance, thanks, I’m almost certain to the exposure President Johnson had to extraordinary optometric care his family received from Dr. Robert Kraskin, one of our distinguished alumni. Then, in 2005, the AOA House of Delegates voted to extend the campaign to a month. During March, we take time to remind Americans of the importance of eye health and comprehensive eye examinations, performed by doctors of optometry.

Just over a month to go until the Centennial Gala! Read some of these great stories as we continue to celebrate the centennial anniversary of PCO: salus.edu/robert-morrison and salus.edu/healthcare-move. If you haven’t already purchased tickets to the gala, you can do so by clicking here!

As we get ready to spring the clocks forward one hour this Saturday evening, I encourage all of you to try to get a little extra rest as we all lose that one hour of sleep! Have a great weekend. I look forward to returning back to campus Monday morning, as I hope many of you do as well!

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

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

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!

Gala Preparations: Week of February 8th

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

Happy Friday! It’s been another busy week at Salus with many of you getting ready for mid-terms and other fun exams. 

The American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) is selling “eye candy grams” outside the café all week. Sign up to send an “eye candy gram” to your Salus Valentine.   Proceeds support AOSA activities that benefit many students.

The Salus Awards Gala will be held later this evening at Normandy Farms in Blue Bell, Pa. I know that Tanis and I are looking forward to attending the event that honors many of our faculty and staff members. 

Our first-year Physician Assistant students attended a pre-clinical experience at Inglis House – a long-term care home for adults with physical disabilities - in Philadelphia on Wednesday.  Students felt that talking to people with disabilities and understanding how they receive healthcare was a great experience to help understand how these patients deal with their medical challenges.

On Monday, many of us gathered together to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year with our international students. For those who might not yet know, this is the year of the pig.  Thanks to Dr. Melissa Vitek, Natalie Standig and Janet Wilbur for putting this all together. It was great to see family and friends enjoying this fun event.

Thanks to Drs. Alice Lim and Kelly Seidler for their presentations on “The Ptosis Problem; Assessment and Management of the Droopy Lids” and "Keep an eye out for Proptosis: A case-based approach" at this morning’s Grand Rounds at The Eye Institute. The animations embedded in their presentations really added to the quality of the lectures. Great to see participation from our students, residents, faculty and alumni.

On Monday, I’ll be attending the annual “Conversation with the Governor” at the Academy of Natural Sciences.This is a great opportunity to hear what Governor Wolf is thinking about higher education, state funding for special projects and get a general sense for how his administration will address some of the key topics of the day which I hope includes additional funding for higher education and improved access to healthcare for underprivileged people.  I’ll let you know what he has to say.

Just a reminder that we’ll be holding our first Town Hall Meeting on February 15th, in rooms S301 and S201, to share the findings of our recent Scenario Planning process with faculty and staff. We’ll also be seeking your input on the University’s strategic priorities as we look to optimally position ourselves to meet the needs of our students and alumni well into the 21^st century. 

I can’t write a weekly update without talking about our Salus/PCO Centennial Celebration preparations. On Wednesday, a team headed over to the Hilton at Penn’s Landing to check out the different options for the meals. I had the opportunity to participate in some of that and I’m here to tell you that the food is going to be fabulous! I think the venue will really lend itself to the celebration between the views of the Delaware, the Battleship New Jersey and Penn’s Landing and the actual facility itself. While I know you all received a “save the date” notice a while ago, the official invitations will be going out later this month. Please be on the lookout for them. 

Speaking of the Centennial Celebration, within the next couple of weeks we’re going to be announcing the recipients of the PCO/Salus Presidential Medal of Honor.  The Presidential Medal, established first in 1995 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of PCO, has been broadened to include all professions represented at the University and to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Salus. Recipients have made significant contributions to PCO, Salus and their respective professions. I think you’ll agree, when you see the list of recipients, that these folks certainly have done that. So, stay tuned and keep checking our website to learn who these professional icons are.

Finally, no football this weekend.  Take some time to recharge and spend some time with family and friends. 

Have a great weekend and be sure to 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