annual_report_2014

Unique Clinical Care Unit to be Developed at the University Eye Center

Last summer SUNY Optometry signed an agreement with Marco Ophthalmic, a leading manufacturer of diagnostic equipment, designed to assist the College in its ongoing efforts to develop and integrate new technologies into both the educational and patient care components of its mission. Marco, along with its affiliated philanthropic arm, the Seymour R. Marco Family Foundation, has agreed to provide SUNY Optometry, through its own foundation the Optometric Center of New York, with cash and in-kind gifts worth a total of $100,000 over a five-year period. This support, in part, will enable the College to move ahead with the development of a unique clinical care unit that will be known as the “Practice of Today.” Composed of four examination rooms as well as a pre-testing facility to be housed within the UEC’s primary care service, the unit will be managed by Dr. Thomas Wong. The staffing will include four, fourth-year OD student externs and, potentially, additional first- and second-year OD students in ancillary roles. The unit, by its own design, will be subjected to a variety of experimental structures in both the use of new technology as well as the staffing patterns it deploys. One of the primary goals of the unit is to prepare current students for the inevitable technological changes and workflow shifts within clinical care settings that they will face as they enter practice settings. “We see this as the University Eye Center’s beta testing site for both technology and for alternative approaches to our clinical care and educational programs,” President Heath said. The goal will be to determine the best practices that could likely modify how the College conducts its pre-clinical training as well as how its clinical services are managed in the UEC. “Two very critical elements of our current strategic plan are to develop the highest quality practitioners by providing the most progressive and adaptive education possible and to deliver effective, innovative care to our patients,” President Heath said. “This new unit will help us take important steps toward achieving those goals.”

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