MOU with Vision Center of Excellence

After a continued partnership between the University’s Veterans Readiness Initiative (VRI) and the Department of Defense or Veterans Affairs’ Vision Center of Excellence (VCE) to assist veterans with service-related vision, hearing and balance issues, both groups recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalize their commitment in assisting former service members.

According to Dr. Karen Hanson, the University’s special consultant for program development, the MOU will help Salus and VCE further joint commitments to research, community outreach and screening opportunities for veterans who suffer from multiple sensory dysfunctions.

“Our mission is to identify and address the sensory barriers that can interfere with veterans’ reintegration and employability,” Dr. Hanson said. “Given VCE’s similar mission, it was clear we could both work together and do more together than separately. It made sense to formalize it through an MOU. It puts down on paper both sides’ willingness to work together.”

Salus and VCE originally partnered during a pilot program in 2015. The University’s Optometry and Audiology students led by faculty provided complimentary vision, hearing and balance screenings to veterans at the Community College of Philadelphia and Montgomery County Community College. Dr. Felix Barker, associate director for research at the VCE and Salus professor emeritus, was an integral part of initiating the development of the pilot with Dr. Hanson.

The screenings have become an annual event and led to the creation of the Salus University Hearing Vision Balance Clinic (HVBC). As the clinical treatment center for veterans who are screened through the initiative, HVBC acts as a one-stop-shop for healthcare services rather than having veterans make multiple, separate trips for appointments.

Dr. Hanson said the combined efforts of Salus and VCE have led to important advances in understanding multisensory impairments in veterans.

“In addition to screenings, we’ve been able to report our findings at conferences and we’ve increased the number of veterans we could assist,” she said. “It’s a rare veteran who doesn’t have more than one sensory dysfunction. Salus is uniquely qualified to explore, advocate for and act as a thought leader on these multisensory dysfunctions.”

Veterans interested in participating in the VRI or receiving care from the HVBC can contact Dr. Hanson at khanson@salus.edu or 215.780.1532.