September 27, 2012 (CHICAGO) — Illinois College of Optometry faculty member Geoffrey Goodfellow, OD, will be installed as the president of the Illinois Optometric Association at its annual convention in Springfield. Dr. Goodfellow will take the reins of the state association from Oak Lawn native Sandra Bury, OD, on Saturday. He follows the path of many ICO alumni but is the first full-time faculty member chosen to lead the association.

“Illinois is a strong optometric state, and I’m looking forward to playing a continued role in its successes,” says Dr. Goodfellow, who previously held the positions of vice president and president of the IOA’s local society at ICO, and served as the IOA’s education trustee for six years. “ICO has had lots of alumni throughout the state serve as IOA president, but we’ve never had a faculty member that has been in this position, so it’s exciting for the college.”

During his tenure as IOA president, one of Dr. Goodfellow’s primary goals is to breathe new life into the organization’s committees, thereby getting more members involved.

“There are still some committees that are pretty active, but others, for one reason or another, fell into disuse,” he says. “I’ve worked hard with the other trustees and with the IOA office to try to resurrect the committee structure again. We particularly want to involve the local society presidents from around the state and have them each serve on a committee and move action items forward. With any organization, the more you can get people involved, the better the organization is.”

For more information about Dr. Goodfellow, view his biography.

Dear Dr. Tulenko,

I am writing as President of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO), the academic leadership organization representing the twenty-one accredited schools and colleges of optometry in the 50 states and Puerto Rico.  Our member institutions educate and train the nation’s Doctors of Optometry.  This letter is to take issue with several comments pertaining to optometry and health professions education made in your September 13, 2012, New York Times Op-Ed, “America’s Health Worker Mismatch.” 

You refer to Doctors of Optometry as “therapists” and the profession as guilty of “credential creep.”  The educational requirements for the Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) degree involve the completion of an accredited four-year post-baccalaureate professional doctoral program and have for more than 50 years.  Indeed, doctors of optometry provide roughly two thirds of all eye care delivered in the United States.  The construct of “credential creep” was inappropriately applied.  

Erroneous facts notwithstanding, the effort to stimulate discussion of the challenge of meeting the country’s health care needs and developing a strong and properly deployed workforce is laudable.  The Op-Ed’s emphasis upon caring for underserved populations both here and abroad is equally so.   However, I believe that you confuse symptoms (credential creep) with solutions and mistakenly focus blame upon schools of the health professions.

While the central theme of the Op-Ed is the negative impact of migration by health professionals out of developing countries, you appear to sweep many non-MD providers in the United States along with your logic.  You seem to infer that it is undesirable for non-MD providers (credential creep) to acquire the skills to render higher level care and that the solution is simply to expand enrollment in US Medical Schools.   Doctors of Optometry, as well as other doctoral health care professionals including dentists, podiatrists, pharmacists, and others, have been rendering care for many years and yes, in many cases help to compensate for a shortage of primary care physicians.  The quality of patient care outcomes by these providers has historically been high and I would suggest that rather than being a symptom of the problem, they are a part of the solution for meeting an increasing demand for health care in this country.  The same may be said for the enhanced use and expanded privileging of ancillary personnel.

The effort to place the blame on health professions education programs for not simply expanding enrollment disregards a decades-long trend of decreasing public support for higher education in general and health care provider education in particular.  Indeed, the reduction in public support has shifted escalating costs in health care and education onto the backs of students in the form of tuition.  The high cost and high debt frequently dissuades well-qualified candidates from applying.  It is often not a question of whether programs want to expand, but rather whether they can afford to.  Notably, in spite of reduced public support, there has in fact been an expansion in the number of health professions programs in the United States over the past decade.

Finally, I would also share that Doctors of Optometry must be licensed by the state board of the state in which they wish to practice.  All states either accept or require passage of the National Board of Examiners in Optometry examination or a combination of the national exam and a state-administered examination for licensure.  Only graduates of the 21 schools and colleges of optometry in the U.S. and the two in Canada meet the accreditation criteria to be licensed in the United States. By lumping together health professions schools from a multitude of disciplines together and stating that “The same licensing system actually favors foreign-trained workers, who for various reasons, do not meet these degree requirements”, is untrue and misleading to your readers. 

ASCO appreciates the opportunity to set the record straight regarding the applicability of the conclusions reached in your Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.

Sincerely,

David. A. Heath, O.D., ED.M.

President

 cc:  Thomas Feyer, Letters Editor

        New York Times

Focus on Your Future 
July 15-19, 2013

Focus on Your Future is a weeklong program aimed at introducing ICO and the profession of optometry to underrepresented minority undergraduates. Participants will be meet ICO staff, faculty, students and alumni, and get to know the wonderful city of Chicago. The program includes:

• Sample lectures of optometry courses
• Overview of the admissions process
• Career and leadership development
• Clinical exposure
• Student and OD panels

Participants are housed at no charge in ICO's Residential Complex, located across the street from the college. At the end of the program, participants will receive a certificate of completion.

To review last year's program, click here.

Eligibility

Open to underrepresented minorities who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate program either in their first, second or third year. We will also accept applications for students who are enrolled in a community college, post-baccalaureate or graduate program. There is no cost to participate in this program. Participants are only responsible for their travel expenses and/or transportation to and from ICO.

Application Period

We've extendend our application deadline. If you're submitting online, all materials must be in by Monday, April 8. If you're submitting by mail, your application must by postmarked by this date.

Students interested in the program must submit the following:

• Online Application 
• Completed application & Pre-Optometry Coursework Sheet
• One page personal statement describing your interest in participating in the program and your motivation to pursue optometry
• Official transcripts from all colleges/universities attended
• One academic letter from a faculty member or advisor
• Optional: 2x2 photo

Applicants will be notified of acceptance no later than Friday, May 3.

For questions about the Focus on Your Future, please contact:

Teisha Johnson, MS
Director of Admissions/Marketing

Illinois College of Optometry
3241 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60616

Phone: 312-949-7400
Fax: 312-949-7680
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it