News from the AOA's Blog

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) has long enjoyed reputation as one of the nation’s top chamber orchestras. With 55 of the world’s most respected musicians, the N.Y.-based OSL has premiered more than 100 orchestral and chamber works by major composers, released over 70 recordings, and won four Grammy Awards.  The orchestra regularly collaborates with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Elton John. Read the rest of this entry ?

EMRlogic Systems announced the addition of Charles L. Haine, O.D., to its team of subject matter experts. Haine retired recently from an eminent academic career, the last chapter of which was his role as associate dean of Clinical Affairs and Professor of Optometry at the College of Optometry, Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. Read the rest of this entry ?

Gary Meier, O.D., director of primary care services for Illinois Eye Surgeons, a 14-office St. Louis-area group ophthalmology and optometry practice, inspects a pair of the PixelOptics eyeglasses the practice began carrying in its dispensaries last month.

“We are bringing vision correction into the 21st century,” said Ron Blum, O.D., president and CEO of Roanoke, Va.-based PixelOptics, Inc. Dr. Blum believes a new breed of composite lens technology used in his new PixelOptics line of emPower! eyewear – the world’s first electronic focusing eyeglasses – will “revolutionize” presbyopic vision correction over the coming months and similarly advance other fields of vision care over the coming years.

“As the developer of the world’s first and only electronic focusing eyewear, emPower!, PixelOptics is committed to redefining the way people see by improving the current standard of vision correction,” Dr. Blum said. Read the rest of this entry ?

Dr. Washington

Georgia practitioner Andrea Washington, O.D., has one very thankful patient.

While performing a dilated eye exam on Craig Marshall, Dr. Washington discovered the patient was at risk of having a stroke.

Marshall had diabetes and was not fully compliant. Dr. Washington found a Hollenhorst plaque in his left eye and also took his blood pressure, which was elevated. Read the rest of this entry ?

From left, Polly Mullins Bentley, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Governor's Office of Electronic Health Information; Kathy Frye, deputy executive director and chief information officer of the Kentucky Office of Administrative and Technology Services; Jason M. McNamara, Health Information Technology (HIT) Coordinator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); Jessica Kahn, CMS technical director for HIT; David Jaco, O.D., e-health Pioneer Award; Anton Gunn, regional director for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS); and Farzad Motahari, M.D., HHS National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

David Jaco, O.D., was honored last month, along with some of his region’s largest hospitals and health care institutions, for helping the Commonwealth of Kentucky to develop one of the nation’s leading health information technology (HIT) systems.

Dr. Jaco was the sole private practice health care practitioner to receive a Pioneer Award, Sept. 7, during the annual e-Health Summit, convened by the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Electronic Health Information (GOEHI).

A member of Eye Care Associates of Kentucky, a five-location group practice in the western part of the commonwealth, Dr. Jaco, in 2003, led implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system in the practice, establishing Eye Care Associates as one of the first health care practices in Kentucky (and one of the first optometric practices in the nation) to utilize the emerging technology.

This year, Dr. Jaco became the first optometrist with live access to the Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE), the commonwealth’s new HIT network.

Perhaps most important, Eye Care Associates last year spurred development of a virtual private network (VPN), designed to make participation in the health information exchange (HIE) easier and more practical for health care practitioners. Read the rest of this entry ?

Dr. MacDonald, at right, explains the AOA diabetes education materials available at the American Association of Diabetes Educators conference.

California practitioner Tina MacDonald, O.D., is a leader in educating patients and others on diabetes-related complications in eye care.

Dr. MacDonald practices at the Center for the Partially Sighted in Culver City, Calif., a multidisciplinary low vision clinic incorporating such fields as optometry, psychology, independent living skills, orientation and mobility services, etc.

“I had helped develop and run the only program in Los Angeles that worked with folks affected by AIDS and subsequently CMV retinitis in the early 1990s,” said Dr. MacDonald. “As better drug therapy evolved and we weren’t really seeing the terrible ocular side effects (mostly the CMV retinitis), I then started being the doctor who all the patients with diabetic retinopathy got referred to—since I was used to looking at retinopathy. These patients with a chronic condition that needed to be managed were so varied and interesting that I enjoyed having them as patients.” Read the rest of this entry ?

Dr. Smithson

Outfielder Bryce Harper is being widely heralded as baseball’s next great star. With perhaps unprecedented natural ability (as well a brash and colorful personality), many believe he could become a major sports phenomenon, on a par with Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, or Michael Jordan.

If he does, he will almost certainly focus new attention on the importance of good eyesight for athletes, according to Keith Smithson, O.D., team optometrist for the Washington Nationals.

An eye examination, contact lenses, and sports vision training provided by Dr. Smithson this past spring are being credited with re-charging the young power hitter’s career just as it appeared to stalling. Read the rest of this entry ?

Dorothy Hitchmoth, O.D., became hooked on advocacy after her first AOA Congressional Conference in Washington, D.C., almost 19 years ago. Dr. Hitchmoth was a first-year optometry student at that time and admits she never could have imagined what has turned out to be a career-long tenure as an advocate, educator, successful optometric executive and mother. She attributes much of her success to the relationships she was able to build through her volunteer work for the AOA and New Hampshire Optometric Association (NHOA). Read the rest of this entry ?

Shawn Doty, O.D., examines a child in the Kostroma region of Russia.

In addition to caring for their own children and New Bern, N.C., optometric practice, husband and wife team Shawn Doty, O.D., and Cathy Doty, O.D., are taking on the cause of hundreds of Russian children.

For seven years, the couple has served with other medical personnel and missionaries who provide vision care, hearing testing, and dental care for orphans and their caregivers through Children’s Hopechest (CHC).

“A friend of ours from church adopted two little boys from Russia, and while there she felt a calling to do more,” said Cathy. “She researched and found an organization called Children’s Hopechest, based in Colorado, whose purpose was to link American churches with Russian orphanages. Hearing her passionately speak about CHC and the severe need for medical care in the state orphanages made us want to get involved.” Read the rest of this entry ?

From left, Dr. Bohman with staff members Becky Gaitten, Barb Jahn, and Michele Kimes.

Central Ohio practitioner Charles E. Bohman, O.D., has developed an innovative way to provide eye care for the economically disadvantaged while still seeing as many paying patients as possible in his busy practice: use canceled appointments for charity care.

The simple-but-effective method of scheduling charitable eye care has become central to a “free clinic” that Dr. Bohman offers in his practice. Free eye care has become increasingly important to a community hit hard by the recent recession, Dr. Bohman notes.

“One day I was cleaning out my clothes closet in preparation for a trip to the local Goodwill store when an idea came to me,” Dr. Bohman recalls. “I realized that I was ‘throwing away’ two or three optometric appointments every week due to last-minute cancellations. I decided to offer those unused appointments to anyone who needed but could not afford eye care.” Read the rest of this entry ?