March 2015

In This Issue

Dr. Monaco Award

Smoke Free Campus

Alumni Weekend

NOSA Community Outreach

Bicarbonate Study Garners Press

Multisensory Screening Initiative

Twitter

Linked In

Salus University Alumni Association

Salus University

Dr. Mittelman's blog

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WE SALUTE

The Salus University community warmly welcomes its newest members:

Kerri Dougherty, Security Officer

Justin Juner, Data Systems Specialist

Candida Mulligan,

Administrative Assistant, College of Education and Rehabilitation

The Salus community extends warm

congratulations to the following members:

Jamie Lindsay, MBA,External Education program coordinator, and her husband on

the birth of their twins, Charlotte Ella and Blake Lyndan Richardson, last week.

Kimberly Miller, PA-C, Physician Assistant program clinical coordinator, who has joined the University's Interprofessional Education committee.

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COMMENCEMENT SPRING 2015

The University's Spring 2015 commencement will be held at 2:00 p.m.

on Friday, May 22

at the

Kimmel Center for

the Performing Arts

in Philadelphia.

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REMINDER!

There are still a few "I Care" Raffle tickets available.

Buy a ticket (one of only 450 = great odds)
for a chance to support Salus scholarship programs and win $10,000!

For more information call 215.780.1395.

SALUS TIME

April 17

Room S300

1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Cheltenham Township Police Department presents

"What To Do When ..."

This Salus Time presentation will cover a wide range of topics from campus emergency situations to recovery from an event.

________________

NJAO

ANNUAL

CE PROGRAM

Join the New Jersey Academy of Optometry (NJAO) for its 2015 CE program from April 22 to April 26 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The NJ Academy of Optometry supports

endowed scholarships that benefit optometry students from

New Jersey.

For 2015 program information.

_____________________

Dr. Monaco Receives Orion Award

William A. Monaco, OD, MSEd, PhD, FAAO, associate dean of Salus University's Graduate Program in Biomedicine and associate director of Public Health programs, received the Orion Award from the Armed Forces Optometric Society (AFOS). The Orion Award is AFOS' highest honor, and it is given to members who have made the most significant contributions to the Society and the study of optometry. Dr. Monaco was presented with his award at the Southeastern Congress of Optometry (SECO) conference which took place recently in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Monaco, a founding member of AFOS, has 45 years of active membership. His clinical specialties are in environmental health and optometric care in skilled nursing facilities. Dr. Monaco was instrumental in establishing an AFOS-Salus scholarship, which goes to an AFOS member in good standing or a qualified family member.

Smoke-Free Campuses

In an email to the Salus community earlier this month, President Michael H. Mittelman announced that all Salus campuses and facilities will be smoke free effective June 1. "The health and well-being of our students, faculty and staff is the highest priority for Salus University," he noted, explaining further, "Smoking inside and within certain distances of our buildings has been prohibited for quite some time now. The University is taking the next step to extend the smoke-free policy to include all facilities, grounds and parking areas on all campuses - whether leased or owned."

The University policy will rely on self-enforcement and voluntary compliance, much like the current no smoking area policy, and there are no plans to have "smoke police." Rather, the university will "maintain its friendly, respectful environment," Dr. Mittelman said, adding, "whether smokers or non-smokers, the campus community will demonstrate thoughtfulness, consideration and cooperation as we work together to successfully implement this campus-wide policy."

Alumni Weekend To Be Informative, Fun

This year's Alumni Weekend will take place May 2-3 and it promises to be informative as well as fun, with three distinct continuing education (CE) sessions planned.

There will be plenty to occupy alumni who do not attend the CE presentations. On Saturday, tours of the Elkins Park campus clinical sites and The Eye Institute will be offered, along with brunch in the University Caf�. For the first time, a retired professionals reception will take place, with Harry Kaplan, OD '49 as host. A celebration and awards dinner will take place Saturday evening at the Chart House restaurant in Philadelphia. This year there are three awardees:

Gregory Caldwell, OD '95, FAAO; Tomi Thibodeaux Browne, AuD '04 and Judith Creuz, AuD '06.

For the CE portion of the weekend, the first session, "Child Abuse: What You Need to Know," satisfies Act 31 of the Child Protective Services Law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which requires all health-related licensees who are mandatory reporters to complete training in child abuse recognition and reporting as a condition of licensure.

Offering a glimpse into the University's commitment to interdisciplinary training, the education agenda also includes a session on interdisciplinary healthcare by the University's Interprofessional Education Committee on Saturday afternoon. It will feature a patient-centered, team-based approach to the continuum of care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Panelists who represent each discipline currently offered at the University will develop a framework for interprofessional practice while discussing an actual clinical case.

On Sunday morning, there will be an Alumni Association breakfast at the Sheraton Society Hill hotel. The annual Joseph E. Toland Excellence in Education continuing education program for optometrists rounds out the weekend, with an all-day session held on the main campus. Details of Alumni Weekend and CE info for all disciplines.

NOSA Community Outreach

Earlier this month, students from the Salus chapter of the National Optometric Student Association (NOSA) participated in a Girls Exploring Today's Technology (GETT) event at a local school. Pictured here with students from Temple University's SNPHA (Student National Pharmacy Association) - the pharmacy school equivalent of NOSA - are NOSA president, Evelyn Dearing '17OD (second from right) and Shakera Guess '17OD (right). NOSA has a national partnership initiative with SNPHA to recruit minority students into their professions.

Bicarbonate Study Garners Press

Dr. Teresa Duda, professor, and Dr. Ramashwar K. Sharma, distinguished professor, have collaborated on a paper with Dr. Clint Makino from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI). Published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the study has garnered much general press attention due to its link to baking soda. Dr. Duda is the lead author of the paper, which describes how bicarbonate (baking soda) alters how we see by modifying the visual signal generated by rod and cone photoreceptors that detect light. In the body, bicarbonate plays essential roles in buffering pH levels, aiding in digestion and neutralizing lactic acid produced during physical exertion. In some types of retinal diseases, a genetic defect causes cGMP in the rods and/or cones to rise to abnormally high levels.

Within rod and cone photoreceptors, a small soluble molecule called cGMP links photon absorption to the electrical activity of the photoreceptor. In the light, cGMP is destroyed and ion channels are closed. Bicarbonate opposes the effect of light, limits the size of the photon response and quickens its recovery. What results is a slightly lower sensitivity to light and an increased improvement in the ability to track moving objects. The results of the research of Dr. Duda, Dr. Sharma and colleagues indicate that controlling bicarbonate levels in the eye will slow the progress of-or may even prevent-eye diseases.

Salus/VA Veterans Screening Initiative

Salus University and before that, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, have had a long and proud history of educating and hiring veterans, many of whom are and were faculty, students, alumni and staff. With the diversification of Salus programs, the University can provide more screening power to serve this important group of individuals.

Karen Hanson, PhD, special consultant for program development at Salus, has collaborated with the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center (PVAMC), Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), Montgomery County Community College (MCCC), Vision Center for Excellence and Hearing Center for Excellence on a pilot program to offer multisensory (vision, hearing, balance) health screening, with follow-up treatment/rehabilitation as indicated. Approximately 50-75 student veterans who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), or Operation New Dawn (OND) and are currently enrolled at CCP or MCCC will participate. The first screenings will take place in April and it is hoped that this initiative could prove to be a national model.