Monday, December 19, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Ophthalmologists fight optometric scope-of-practice initiatives
ORLANDO, Fla. — Ophthalmologists continue to stand united in efforts to thwart expansion of optometry's scope of practice in the U.S., a speaker said here.
"I am happy to report that in 2011, the [American] Academy [of Ophthalmology] worked closely with state societies to defeat surgical scope expansion in optometry in six states. Subspecialty societies also provided very good support," Gregory L. Skuta, MD, said during Glaucoma Subspecialty Day preceding the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
The AAO's Secretariat for State Affairs and various state societies have spearheaded lobbying efforts to remove surgical provisions from scope-of-practice bills in states including Idaho, Maine, Texas and West Virginia, Dr. Skuta said.
"I am happy to report that in 2011, the [American] Academy [of Ophthalmology] worked closely with state societies to defeat surgical scope expansion in optometry in six states. Subspecialty societies also provided very good support," Gregory L. Skuta, MD, said during Glaucoma Subspecialty Day preceding the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
The AAO's Secretariat for State Affairs and various state societies have spearheaded lobbying efforts to remove surgical provisions from scope-of-practice bills in states including Idaho, Maine, Texas and West Virginia, Dr. Skuta said.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Shortage of Eye Care professionals detrimental to the region
News : International : Caribbean News
By Eye Care Caribbean
Oct 12, 2011 - 8:23:47 PM
St John’s, Antigua - World Sight Day, Thursday, October 13th provides an opportunity to reflect on actions necessary to: Prevent blindness and visual impairment; While restoring sight and creating equal opportunities to persons whose sight cannot be restored.
As I write this brief message, I have no doubt that thousand of persons are becoming blind from one or more of the 5 leading causes of preventable blindness in the Caribbean: Glaucoma, Cataract, Diabetic Retinopathy - the group of conditions which cause blindness in children, and Refractive errors.
That is why we subscribe to and support the principles and targets of Vision 2020 (The Right To Sight).This is a global initiative. The Programme is guided by a series of World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolutions, including: The Resolution of the World Health Assembly on the Prevention of Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment. CCB-Eye Care Caribbean coordinated the launch of the regional initiative in July 2000, under the patronage of the then Minister of Health of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Since then, our Organization has been directly involved, in the development of National Prevention of Blindness Plans, and the implementation of more than thirty (30) eye health programmes across the Caribbean.
Based on internationally accepted calculations, up to 4% of the region’s population is blind or severely visually impaired.
That means that there are, at least 60 thousand persons who are blind, with a further 180 thousand so severely visually impaired that they need magnifiers and other low vision appliances, to use whatever little sight they have left.
Furthermore, we estimate that one in every thousand children of school age is blind, with 3 in every thousand being so severely visually impaired that they need low vision appliances (including large print text) to take advantage of available education opportunities.
One of the main reasons why the Caribbean has such a high prevalence of avoidable blindness, is the extreme shortage of Ophthalmologists, Optometrists, Refractionists and other eye health professionals across the region.
Our predicament is highlighted when we compare the ratio of key eye health professionals to population in the United Kingdom, versus the Caribbean. In the UK, the ratio of Ophthalmologists to citizens-residents approximates one to 24 thousand; While the ratio of Optometrists to the population is closer to one to 10 thousand.
In the English-speaking Caribbean, the ratio is approximately one Ophthalmologist to almost 125 thousand and one Optometrists to around one hundred thousand. Until we can get the ratio closer to what obtains in countries like: Australia, France and the UK, we will continue to experience an epidemic of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. That is why we commend the University of The West Indies (St. Augustine Campus) and the University of Guyana, for introducing the Bachelor of Science in Optometry.
Furthermore, as more and more young medical Doctors come back from Cuba, we have an extra-ordinary opportunity, to rapidly expand access to training in Ophthalmology.
Arvel Grant, CSW, B.Sc.- Sw. (Hons.) DPA, MPH Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: arvel.grant@eyecarecaribbean.com;
Preventing blindness and visual impairment; while restoring sight and creating opportunities for persons whose sight cannot be restored”.
Lower All Saints Road - P.O. Box 1517 - Antigua, West Indies
Tel: 1-(268)-462-4111/462-6369/562-2216
Fax: (268)-462-6371
By Eye Care Caribbean
Oct 12, 2011 - 8:23:47 PM
St John’s, Antigua - World Sight Day, Thursday, October 13th provides an opportunity to reflect on actions necessary to: Prevent blindness and visual impairment; While restoring sight and creating equal opportunities to persons whose sight cannot be restored.
As I write this brief message, I have no doubt that thousand of persons are becoming blind from one or more of the 5 leading causes of preventable blindness in the Caribbean: Glaucoma, Cataract, Diabetic Retinopathy - the group of conditions which cause blindness in children, and Refractive errors.
That is why we subscribe to and support the principles and targets of Vision 2020 (The Right To Sight).This is a global initiative. The Programme is guided by a series of World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolutions, including: The Resolution of the World Health Assembly on the Prevention of Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment. CCB-Eye Care Caribbean coordinated the launch of the regional initiative in July 2000, under the patronage of the then Minister of Health of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Since then, our Organization has been directly involved, in the development of National Prevention of Blindness Plans, and the implementation of more than thirty (30) eye health programmes across the Caribbean.
Based on internationally accepted calculations, up to 4% of the region’s population is blind or severely visually impaired.
That means that there are, at least 60 thousand persons who are blind, with a further 180 thousand so severely visually impaired that they need magnifiers and other low vision appliances, to use whatever little sight they have left.
Furthermore, we estimate that one in every thousand children of school age is blind, with 3 in every thousand being so severely visually impaired that they need low vision appliances (including large print text) to take advantage of available education opportunities.
One of the main reasons why the Caribbean has such a high prevalence of avoidable blindness, is the extreme shortage of Ophthalmologists, Optometrists, Refractionists and other eye health professionals across the region.
Our predicament is highlighted when we compare the ratio of key eye health professionals to population in the United Kingdom, versus the Caribbean. In the UK, the ratio of Ophthalmologists to citizens-residents approximates one to 24 thousand; While the ratio of Optometrists to the population is closer to one to 10 thousand.
In the English-speaking Caribbean, the ratio is approximately one Ophthalmologist to almost 125 thousand and one Optometrists to around one hundred thousand. Until we can get the ratio closer to what obtains in countries like: Australia, France and the UK, we will continue to experience an epidemic of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. That is why we commend the University of The West Indies (St. Augustine Campus) and the University of Guyana, for introducing the Bachelor of Science in Optometry.
Furthermore, as more and more young medical Doctors come back from Cuba, we have an extra-ordinary opportunity, to rapidly expand access to training in Ophthalmology.
Arvel Grant, CSW, B.Sc.- Sw. (Hons.) DPA, MPH Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: arvel.grant@eyecarecaribbean.com;
Preventing blindness and visual impairment; while restoring sight and creating opportunities for persons whose sight cannot be restored”.
Lower All Saints Road - P.O. Box 1517 - Antigua, West Indies
Tel: 1-(268)-462-4111/462-6369/562-2216
Fax: (268)-462-6371
Students seeing brighter future at mobile eye care clinic
Sandusky
Five-year-old Michael Straub loves to watch Diego’s adventures on “Dora the Explorer” and tune into “Power Rangers.”
With his new “Power Rangers” glasses, he can actually see his favorite TV characters in action and read the letters on the SMART board in his kindergarten class.
Straub and nearly 40 other students walked in for eye exams at Mills and Osborne elementary schools this week and left with a new perspective on the world.
They could easily read the small font on the side of the Eyenstein mobile eye care clinic, the 40-foot bus that rolls across the country cutting lenses for kids who need them most.
School officials referred students at the elementary schools based on their financial need and vision problems.
“About 80 percent of the learning we do is through the visual system, and for as many as one in four kids in classrooms who are struggling, vision is likely playing a role,” Hicks said. “But only one in seven first-graders in Ohio have ever had an eye exam, and as many as half of all kids who graduate from high school have never had an eye exam.”
Read more about the mobile eye care clinic and how it helped Sandusky students in Wednesday's Register.
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Edison High students scramble for rides
Monroeville girl has it write
Remembering 'Time at Lyme'
St. Mary students learn a few basic moves
Huron graduates hear the wisdom of everyone from Tressel to Batman
Five-year-old Michael Straub loves to watch Diego’s adventures on “Dora the Explorer” and tune into “Power Rangers.”
With his new “Power Rangers” glasses, he can actually see his favorite TV characters in action and read the letters on the SMART board in his kindergarten class.
Straub and nearly 40 other students walked in for eye exams at Mills and Osborne elementary schools this week and left with a new perspective on the world.
They could easily read the small font on the side of the Eyenstein mobile eye care clinic, the 40-foot bus that rolls across the country cutting lenses for kids who need them most.
School officials referred students at the elementary schools based on their financial need and vision problems.
“About 80 percent of the learning we do is through the visual system, and for as many as one in four kids in classrooms who are struggling, vision is likely playing a role,” Hicks said. “But only one in seven first-graders in Ohio have ever had an eye exam, and as many as half of all kids who graduate from high school have never had an eye exam.”
Read more about the mobile eye care clinic and how it helped Sandusky students in Wednesday's Register.
Login or register to post comments
PrintPrint
Facebook Facebook
Twitter Twitter
EmailEmail
Tags
Sandusky
News
Similar stories
Edison High students scramble for rides
Monroeville girl has it write
Remembering 'Time at Lyme'
St. Mary students learn a few basic moves
Huron graduates hear the wisdom of everyone from Tressel to Batman
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Longtime faculty member to head IU Optometry's patient services, clinics in Bloomington, Indianapolis
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Dr. Neil Pence has been named associate dean of clinical and patient care services at the Indiana University School of Optometry (IUSO), a position responsible for overseeing the operation and management of IUSO optometry clinics in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Neil Pence
Print-Quality Photo
An IUSO faculty member since 1979, Pence's long history with clinical teaching made him especially suited to take over responsibility of the school's care centers, according to School of Optometry Dean Joseph Bonanno.
"Dr. Pence's many years of didactic and clinical teaching experience, his national involvements with optometric organizations and industry, along with his several decades of private practice experience in Columbus (Ind.) make him the ideal person to tackle the complex problems at teaching clinics," Bonanno said. "Dr. Pence is making a huge sacrifice by taking on this job. IUSO is extremely lucky to have someone so capable, loyal and dedicated to excellence in patient care, student training and clinical management."
Pence most recently served as director of the school's contact lens clinic and his teaching duties have included responsibility for Clinical Assessment I and II courses and for supervising weekly morning seminars for fourth-year interns during their Bloomington clinical rotations. During his tenure at IU he has also taught courses dealing with the areas of contact lenses, ocular disease, and clinical assessment or analysis and decision making.
A fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, the American Optometric Association and its Indiana state affiliate, the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators, and the Continuing Education Directors SIG of ASCO, Pence has authored numerous publications and lectured at the local, state, national and international levels in continuing education courses and eye care symposiums. He served as chairman of the national Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators from 2002-2004, has served as a referee for several ophthalmic journals, and has sat on advisory panels for the Rigid Gas Permeable Institute and for several contact lens companies.
Pence said he looked forward to continuing IUSO's long history of providing integrated eye care services that meet the needs and priorities of the local communities.
"Patients visiting IUSO clinics will continue to see great benefits from the direct access we have to the latest innovations and technologies in the eye care sciences through the School of Optometry," he said. "From primary care services where routine comprehensive vision exams occur to specialists in advanced ocular care, low vision rehabilitation, and cornea and contact lens services, our doctors and students remain committed to being leaders in the areas of clinical care, patient services and clinical education."
IUSO operates clinics open to IU faculty and staff and the general public at 744 E. Third St. (Atwater Eye Care Center) and 803 N. Monroe (Community Eye Care Center) in Bloomington and in downtown Indianapolis at 501 Indiana Ave. (Indianapolis Eye Care Center). Each of the clinics offers comprehensive patient care, including urgent care and emergency services, pediatric optometry, contact lens care, along with eyewear centers that offer no-line bifocals and lens customization services.
For more information or to speak with Bonanno or Pence, please contact Steve Chaplin, University Communications, at 812-856-1896 or stjchap@iu. edu.
Neil Pence
Print-Quality Photo
An IUSO faculty member since 1979, Pence's long history with clinical teaching made him especially suited to take over responsibility of the school's care centers, according to School of Optometry Dean Joseph Bonanno.
"Dr. Pence's many years of didactic and clinical teaching experience, his national involvements with optometric organizations and industry, along with his several decades of private practice experience in Columbus (Ind.) make him the ideal person to tackle the complex problems at teaching clinics," Bonanno said. "Dr. Pence is making a huge sacrifice by taking on this job. IUSO is extremely lucky to have someone so capable, loyal and dedicated to excellence in patient care, student training and clinical management."
Pence most recently served as director of the school's contact lens clinic and his teaching duties have included responsibility for Clinical Assessment I and II courses and for supervising weekly morning seminars for fourth-year interns during their Bloomington clinical rotations. During his tenure at IU he has also taught courses dealing with the areas of contact lenses, ocular disease, and clinical assessment or analysis and decision making.
A fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, the American Optometric Association and its Indiana state affiliate, the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators, and the Continuing Education Directors SIG of ASCO, Pence has authored numerous publications and lectured at the local, state, national and international levels in continuing education courses and eye care symposiums. He served as chairman of the national Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators from 2002-2004, has served as a referee for several ophthalmic journals, and has sat on advisory panels for the Rigid Gas Permeable Institute and for several contact lens companies.
Pence said he looked forward to continuing IUSO's long history of providing integrated eye care services that meet the needs and priorities of the local communities.
"Patients visiting IUSO clinics will continue to see great benefits from the direct access we have to the latest innovations and technologies in the eye care sciences through the School of Optometry," he said. "From primary care services where routine comprehensive vision exams occur to specialists in advanced ocular care, low vision rehabilitation, and cornea and contact lens services, our doctors and students remain committed to being leaders in the areas of clinical care, patient services and clinical education."
IUSO operates clinics open to IU faculty and staff and the general public at 744 E. Third St. (Atwater Eye Care Center) and 803 N. Monroe (Community Eye Care Center) in Bloomington and in downtown Indianapolis at 501 Indiana Ave. (Indianapolis Eye Care Center). Each of the clinics offers comprehensive patient care, including urgent care and emergency services, pediatric optometry, contact lens care, along with eyewear centers that offer no-line bifocals and lens customization services.
For more information or to speak with Bonanno or Pence, please contact Steve Chaplin, University Communications, at 812-856-1896 or stjchap@iu. edu.
Locals give the gift of sight for World Sight Day
LOCAL optometrists and the community have been called to help give the gift of vision to people in developing countries for World Sight Day.
On Thursday, October 13, during the World Sight Day Challenge, Eyre Eye Centre will donate every patient's examination fee to the charity, Optometry Giving Sight.
The charity funds programs that provide eye exams and glasses, trains local eye care professionals and develops vision centres that deliver long-term vision care to people in desperate need in poor countries.
According to Optometry Giving Sight, there are 670 million people who are blind or vision impaired because they don't have access to an eye examination and glasses.
Eyre Eye Centre owners Phil Clem and Elise Pocknee have supported the charity for years and believe it is a worthwhile cause.
"It's easy for us to take good vision for granted so taking the World Sight Day Challenge is a great way to raise funds to help people who don't have access to even basic vision care," Mr Clem said.
Throughout October there will also be a donation tin at Eyre Eye Centre, where people can lend money to the cause, as just $5 can provide an eye examination and a pair of glasses for someone in a developing country.
The funds go to people in 16 countries including Latin America, Africa, Asia and Indigenous Aust?ralians.
For more information visit www.givingsight.org or call 1300 88 10 73.
On Thursday, October 13, during the World Sight Day Challenge, Eyre Eye Centre will donate every patient's examination fee to the charity, Optometry Giving Sight.
The charity funds programs that provide eye exams and glasses, trains local eye care professionals and develops vision centres that deliver long-term vision care to people in desperate need in poor countries.
According to Optometry Giving Sight, there are 670 million people who are blind or vision impaired because they don't have access to an eye examination and glasses.
Eyre Eye Centre owners Phil Clem and Elise Pocknee have supported the charity for years and believe it is a worthwhile cause.
"It's easy for us to take good vision for granted so taking the World Sight Day Challenge is a great way to raise funds to help people who don't have access to even basic vision care," Mr Clem said.
Throughout October there will also be a donation tin at Eyre Eye Centre, where people can lend money to the cause, as just $5 can provide an eye examination and a pair of glasses for someone in a developing country.
The funds go to people in 16 countries including Latin America, Africa, Asia and Indigenous Aust?ralians.
For more information visit www.givingsight.org or call 1300 88 10 73.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Stanley Pearle, 92, Pearle Vision founder
Stanley Pearle, founder of Pearle Vision, a chain of eye-care stores that now has 675 branches in North America, died July 21 at 92 at his home in Dallas, Texas.
Pearle founded the company in 1961 with a single store in Savannah, Ga., began franchising the concept in 1981 and eventually sold it to Luxottica of Italy, a designer and manufacturer of frames and sunglasses.
In a memoir he published in 2006, Pearle said that even though “Jewish mothers always wanted their sons to be either doctors or lawyers,” he went into optometry because he did not have the money, grades or interest for medical school. His interest in eyeglasses was sparked by a Depression-era job at a jewelry store in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Pearle graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry and moved to Dallas in 1940 to take his board examinations. He was managing a Dallas optical firm when he founded the first Pearle Optical store.
Pearle established OneSight, which provides eye care and glasses to the poor worldwide, and invests in eye research and students pursuing optometry. Pearle also supported the United Way and the Jewish Welfare Foundation.
Pearle founded the company in 1961 with a single store in Savannah, Ga., began franchising the concept in 1981 and eventually sold it to Luxottica of Italy, a designer and manufacturer of frames and sunglasses.
In a memoir he published in 2006, Pearle said that even though “Jewish mothers always wanted their sons to be either doctors or lawyers,” he went into optometry because he did not have the money, grades or interest for medical school. His interest in eyeglasses was sparked by a Depression-era job at a jewelry store in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Pearle graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry and moved to Dallas in 1940 to take his board examinations. He was managing a Dallas optical firm when he founded the first Pearle Optical store.
Pearle established OneSight, which provides eye care and glasses to the poor worldwide, and invests in eye research and students pursuing optometry. Pearle also supported the United Way and the Jewish Welfare Foundation.
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