CHICAGO, Feb. 12, 2013 –The Illinois College of Optometry and Chicago Public Schools have received a $249,000 grant in support of their school-based eye clinic, the Illinois Eye Institute at Princeton, which has served more than 11,000 students since it opened two years ago. The grant was awarded by the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, an organization committed to improving the health of all children across the state. “The mission of the foundation is to create opportunities for and lead in the development of initiatives that improve the health of all children,” said ILCHF Senior Program Officer Bob Egan. “By partnering with ICO and CPS, children will have the opportunity to succeed in school and be ready to learn by receiving the proper eye care they need to grow up healthy.” “We are very pleased the ILCHF has awarded us this significant grant and recognizes the essential services our school-based eye clinic provides,” said ICO President Dr. Arol Augsburger. “This grant will go a long way in supporting our efforts to address the unmet need of vision care for children within the city of Chicago.” In partnership with CPS, ICO established the nation’s largest school-based clinic—the Illinois Eye Institute at Princeton—to provide primary and advanced eye care services year-round to underserved youth. For some, this clinic has provided access to needed corrective eyewear for the first time. The award from the ILCHF will be used to increase clinic capacity and invest in equipment that will provide advanced diagnostic testing onsite. The grant will also provide critical support for an additional staff person to champion the program within the CPS system. “Since the clinic has been opened, more than 11,000 students have received eye exams and 75 percent have received eyeglasses,” said CPS Chief Health Officer Dr. Stephanie A. Whyte. “Without a doubt, we know those children have an increased opportunity to perform better in school. We value our partnership with ICO and are grateful to the ILCHF for supporting our efforts to expand vision services for CPS students.” The clinic is outfitted with 13 eye exam lanes and is open Monday to Friday, with mornings reserved to accommodate CPS schools and afternoons structured to see walk-ins and provide necessary follow-up care. ICO students provide much of the clinical care under the supervision of optometrists who are also ICO faculty members. Youth in need of advanced or immediate care are referred to the Illinois Eye Institute for further testing. #CPS #grant #ICO #IEI

The National Board of Examiners in Optometry recently released statistics on Part III Clinical Skills Exam for the graduating class of 2012. The pass rate for first-time takers from the Illinois College of Optometry was 96.95 percent, exceeding by 8.7 points the national average of 88.25 percent. This was the first year the CSE was solely administered at the new NBEO test center in Charlotte, N.C. Previously, the students took the exam at their own school. #ICO #NationalAverage #NBEOPartIII #PassRate

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. #ICO #IllinoisOptometricAssociation

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 #president #OpEd #ASCO #credentialcreep #NewYorkTimes

September 7, 2012 (CHICAGO) — The Illinois College of Optometry has announced the winners of the 2012 Alumni Awards. Six optometrists and one corporation will be honored for excellence and leadership in education, philanthropy, research and patient care, as well as for their outstanding contributions to ICO and the optometric profession. The award recipients will be recognized during a banquet this evening at the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. A Lifetime Service Award will be presented to Robert L. Fait, OD, ‘68.  He has founded a private practice and several companies, including Genix Pharmaceuticals, Pentech Pharmaceuticals and Eye Care Wisconsin, which contracts vision care to HMO’s and IPA’s.  Since 1982, Dr. Fait has been supporting independent practitioners through Wisconsin Vision Associates, a fully authorized contact lens distributor and buying group that he founded to provide tools to help lower the cost of optical supplies. Dr. Fait is a member of ICO’s Board of Trustees and has served in many other leadership positions throughout his career, including nine years on ICO’s Alumni Council. Mark K. Colip, OD, ’92, vice president for student, alumni and college development at ICO, will receive the Alumnus of the Year Award. Dr. Colip’s leadership and 20 year commitment to the college has resulted in significant improvements including a highly selective admissions process, superior retention rates, expanded student life amenities and scholarships, and the establishment of ICO’s Communications and Media Center. Most recently he has been instrumental in the achievement of increasingly successful fundraising outcomes which will benefit the program for years to come. The Young Alumnus of the Year Award will be presented to Nathan Bonilla-Warford, OD, ‘04. He is the president and owner of Bright Eyes Family Vision Care, in Tampa, Florida, as well as a leading voice in optometry on topics including social media and practice management. Dr. Bonilla-Warford is also a member of the social media committee of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development and is chair of the Florida Optometric Association’s Children’s Vision Committee. The Excellence in Education Award will be presented to Leonard V. Messner, OD, FAAO, a 1984 graduate of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. Dr. Messner is the vice president for patient care services at ICO and executive director of the Illinois Eye Institute. As a professor at ICO, Dr. Messner has been awarded Teacher of the Year by students each year for the last 18 years.  He is considered an expert in the areas of retina-vitreous and neuro-ophthalmic disorders and, as such, has authored numerous professional pieces and lectured across the world. Millicent L. Knight, OD ’87 will receive the Professional Achievement Award.  She is the owner of North Shore Eye Center and Integrative Eye & Wellness Centers, both located in Evanston, Illinois.  Dr. Knight was selected as the Key Legislative Person of the Year award in 2006 and the Optometrist of the Year award in 2011 by the Illinois Optometric Association.  She has served on the National Advisory Eye Council of the National Eye Institutes, on the Illinois Licensing and Disciplinary Committee of the Illinois State Board, and served 12 years on ICO’s Board of Trustees.  Dr. Knight was recently recognized as one of Vision Monday’s “2012 Most Influential Women in Optical” for her mentoring work with students and practitioners. Casey L. Hogan, OD, FAAO, ‘97 will receive the Humanitarian Award for her service and leadership to enrich the lives of those in her community. Dr. Hogan has served on the board of Special Olympics Chicago for the past six years. She is actively involved in the development and organization of fundraising activities for both Special Olympics and the Chicago Police Memorial Fund. Dr. Hogan also founded the South Michigan Avenue Merchant’s Association and served as its president from 2005-2009. Alcon will receive the Distinguished Friend Award in recognition of its partnership with ICO, which has helped to support and enhance educational programming and patient care services at the college. As a strategic partner of the college, Alcon has demonstrated outstanding support of continuing education programs and ICO’s Practice Opportunities Symposium, which provides professional resources and networking opportunities for students, faculty and alumni. #AlumniAssociationAwards2012

#ICOBoardofTrustees #JeffersonFordhamAward #LifetimeAchievementAward #StephenHPugh

“Dr. Baas is well trained in the facets of eye disease as it relates to geriatric populations,” said Dr. Leonard Messner, executive director and vice president for patient care services at the Illinois Eye Institute. “Additionally, he has significant experience within the low vision arena. So he is somewhat of a unique provider in that he bridges the spectrum of primary eye care to the geriatric population with cognizance of the low vision options that are available to partially sighted individuals.” As service chief for the Rosenbloom Center, Dr. Baas will be responsible for all clinical practice activities at the Center, as well as for all of the College’s service-related educational activities. Other responsibilities of the position include developing the Center’s marketing plan, managing quality assurance and compliance issues, and creating a continuing education geriatric program. “As a fourth year student, I knew that I ultimately wanted to return to ICO in a role that allowed me to have the greatest and most influential impact on students, fellow faculty, and patients alike,” says Dr. Baas. “This exciting new position represents an ideal combination of clinical practice management and education, all the while paying tribute to, and continuing the legacy of, a true pioneer and role model in our profession.” The Rosenbloom Center will ultimately have four essential functions: to promote optometry students’ and practitioners’ increased knowledge and understanding of the inter-relatedness of aging and vision care; to provide vision care, counseling and support services for older adults and underserved communities in and around Chicago; to develop ongoing relationships with selected geriatric care facilities in the Chicago area for education and patient care services; and to sponsor vision-related geriatric research. About the Illinois College of Optometry and the Illinois Eye Institute The Illinois College of Optometry (ICO), founded in 1872 by Dr. Henry Olin, provides excellence in optometric clinical education and is one of the world’s leading optometric institutions. Located in Chicago, ICO has a long and distinguished legacy as the oldest continually operating educational facility in the world dedicated solely to the teaching of optometrists. The Illinois Eye Institute (IEI) is the clinical division of ICO. With over 95,000 annual visits, the IEI is the largest eye care provider in Chicago. For more information about the Illinois College of Optometry, visit www.ico.edu. #EricABaas #RosenbloomCenter #ServiceChief

CHICAGO ­— The Illinois College of Optometry is proud to announce the founding of the Alfred and Sarah Rosenbloom Center on Vision and Aging, a new facility devoted to the vision care needs of the aging population. The Center, located within the Illinois Eye Institute on the ICO campus, will ultimately have four essential functions: to promote optometry students’ and practitioners’ increased knowledge and understanding of the inter-relatedness of aging and vision care; to provide vision care, counseling and support services for older adults and underserved communities in and around Chicago; to develop ongoing relationships with selected geriatric care facilities in the Chicago area for education and patient care services; and to sponsor vision-related geriatric research. “The over-8o population is growing four times faster than any other segment of the population,” Dr. Rosenbloom says. “ICO’s reputation in terms of current and future education offers the opportunity to elevate standards and raise awareness for providing professional vision care to this age group. This may lead in time to the development of a Geriatric Care Patient Service Model, including care for many underserved individuals in assisted living facilities and in nursing homes.” The Center honors Dr. Alfred Rosenbloom and his wife, Sarah. Dr. Rosenbloom served as dean of ICO from 1955 to 1972, president from 1972 to 1982, and remains a distinguished professor emeritus. He was inducted into the National Optometry Hall of Fame in 2010, and continues to be a leader in the optometric profession. ICO President Arol Augsburger, OD, says the Rosenbloom Center is an exciting addition to the school. “To have a prominent ICO alumnus and his wife–and a former president of ICO–make such a significant leadership gift to ICO is transforming for the institution,” he says. “ICO will soon be the only optometric institution with a Center on Vision and Aging. This will emphasize and highlight our leadership position in optometry!” An estimated 6.5 million Americans age 65 and older have a severe visual impairment. The rate of severe vision loss will double by 2030, mirroring the increase in the number of people 65 and older. Adverse effects of vision loss include an increased risk of falls and fractures; depression; and difficulty with such daily tasks as identifying medications, bathing and dressing. About the Illinois College of Optometry The Illinois College of Optometry (ICO), founded in 1872 by Dr. Henry Olin, provides excellence in optometric clinical education and is one of the world’s leading optometric institutions. ICO offers aspiring optometrists the education and experience needed to meet the challenges of a changing health care environment and become leaders who will champion for patients and the profession alike. Located in Chicago, ICO has a long and distinguished legacy as the oldest continually operating educational facility in the world dedicated solely to the teaching of optometrists. #AlfredandSarahRosenbloomCenter

CHICAGO— The Illinois College of Optometry is proud to announce the appointment of college president Arol Augsburger, OD, to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG). The Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel, MD, made the appointment. Dr. Augsburger was nominated for the committee last fall by the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, in consultation with the American Optometric Association. “Dr. Augsburger is joining very elite company,” says former ICO president and past director of the VA’s Optometry Service Charles Mullen, OD.  “It’s a very prestigious and prominent position. Arol is the perfect individual for this position because of his global understanding of healthcare and because he’s so credible within the academic community.” SMAG advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Under Secretary for Health on matters relating to the care and treatment of veterans and other matters pertinent to the operations of the Veterans Health Administration, including research, education and training of health manpower, and contingency planning for the VA and Department of Defense. Group committee members meet twice a year. The next meeting will be this fall at the VA Central Office in Washington, DC. Dr. Augsburger was appointed president of ICO in 2002 and has spearheaded innovative educational, patient care and community programs. He has been honored with numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Award by the American Optometric Association and state Optometrist of the Year in Illinois, Ohio and Alabama. About the Illinois College of Optometry The Illinois College of Optometry (ICO), founded in 1872 by Dr. Henry Olin, provides excellence in optometric clinical education and is one of the world’s leading optometric institutions. ICO offers aspiring optometrists the education and experience needed to meet the challenges of a changing health care environment and become leaders who will champion for patients and the profession alike. Located in Chicago, ICO has a long and distinguished legacy as the oldest continually operating educational facility in the world dedicated solely to the teaching of optometrists. #ArolAugsburger #ICO #president #SMAG

The Illinois Eye Institute has been selected as the only optometric clinic in the U.S. to investigate non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) and potential links to PDE5 inhibitors (e.g. Cialis, Viagra). The IEI is one of 20 clinical trial centers designated to participate in the national study supported by Eli Lilly and Co. Eligible patients for the prospective case-crossover study are adult men with acute or sub-acute vision loss owing to NAION (within 45 days of onset of symptoms). The examination and related testing are free. If you have qualified patients for this study or wish to get more information, please contact Leonard Messner, OD, executive director of IEI, at lmessner@ico.edu. #IEI #NAION #nationalstudy

The ICO Residential Complex will be home to some beautiful pieces of art for the next year. Artwork from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will hang in the RC as part of the SAIC’s Creativity in the Workplace program. The Creativity in the Workplace program – part of the department of Exhibitions & Events – affords students the opportunity to exhibit their work throughout Chicago in unconventional settings. The SAIC accepts work of all mediums from its students to exhibit as part of the program and chosen artists will receive an artists’ honorarium. There will be a reception April 10 for the student artists to showcase their work. There are only 10 companies/organizations in Chicago participating in the program. ICO is very proud to support student artists from our hometown! #CreativityintheWorkplace #ICOResidentialComplex #SAIC

Dr. Borish graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry – a predecessor to ICO – in 1934. He served on the school’s faculty for eight years, including as assistant dean. He then established a private practice in Kokomo, Ind., and was instrumental in starting the Indiana University School of Optometry and the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry. Dr. Borish’s influence has been felt at ICO and every other optometry school in the nation for decades. He authored numerous textbooks, including the much-used Clinical Refraction, and was granted five patents for contact lenses, including bifocal contacts. He was a founding member of the Indiana Chapter of the American Academy of Optometry, was a president of the Indiana Optometric Association and the editor of the Indiana Journal of Optometry. He served as adjunct faculty at several schools. When Dr. Borish retired from IU in 1982, he assumed the Benedict Professorship of Optometric Practice at the University of Houston. The school later established the Irvin M. Borish Chair in Optometric Practice, an endowed chair with more than $1 million of support. In 1995, Indiana University honored him by establishing the Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research. Dr. Borish received numerous awards during his career, including the the prestigious AOA Apollo Award for the visual betterment of mankind in 1968 and the AOA Distinguished Service Award in 1989. He was inducted into the National Optometry Hall of Fame in 1998. Dr. Borish is survived by his daughter, Fran Goldman, of Dallas, Penn. #FatherofModernOptometry #IrvinBorish #obituary