DICE: Finnish Students Excel in Specialized Training Course

Salus University’s specialized training course in primary eye care is so interesting and informative that Timo Juurinen has gone through it three times. “I’m a slow learner,” joked Juurinen.

Juurinen — for the record he’s not a slow learner — but was part of a contingent of students of the University of Oulu, in Finland, that recently spent two weeks on the University’s Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, campus training in primary eye care. The Finnish optometrists are pursuing their master’s degrees at Oulu University and participating in this coursework helps them work toward that goal.

Salus faculty member Robert Andersson, MSc ‘10, PhD ‘18, served as lead instructor. Faculty members Alissa Coyne, OD ‘10, Resident ‘11, FAAO, Dr. Lynn Greenspan, OD, PhD ‘17, and Nick Gidosh, OD ‘15, also provided specialized lectures and workshops in the topic areas of lasers, traumatic brain injury and myopia control respectively. 

The training program is the result of a long-standing collaboration established by Melissa Vitek, OD ‘95, FAAO, dean of International and Continuing Education at Salus, and Dr. Andersson, assistant professor. The cohort participated in controlled sessions that included a variety of patients with eye conditions not typically seen in their native country.

“It’s a very good learning experience,” said Juurinen, who ran his own eye care company for 20 years in Finland before selling it a year ago. He now works in a private clinic. “I’m in a clinic now that has a bit more ‘sick eyes.’ This is a different experience than a basic private optical store where many of my colleagues work (in Finland) where they are seeing mostly healthy eyes,” said Juurinen.

One of the conditions he observed on a patient was Adie’s tonic pupil — also known as Adie’s Syndrome or Holmes-Adie Syndrome. This is a disorder in which there is parasympathetic denervation of the afflicted pupil resulting in poor pupilary constriction to light coupled with better near constriction.

“I’ve read about it, I watched videos about it, but to come face-to-face with it here like we did, it was good for us,” said Juurinen.

Unlike Juurinen, Riikka Torvela was participating in the program for the first time. In fact, it was her first time visiting the United States as well. Torvela is currently studying for her master’s degree at Oulu University and had heard so many good things about the program that she registered for it as soon as the opportunity presented. 

“I’ve gotten a lot of professional experience and progressed a lot so far,” she said. “With this degree I will have more experience with conditions of the anterior and posterior segment of the eye as well as a lot more theoretical background for systemic diseases and how they manifest in the eyes.”

It was the second time in the specialized training course for two of the Finnish participants. Salus alumnus, Päivi Nokipi, BA 12, is a teacher at the University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. She hopes to share the information she’s learned in the course with her students when she gets back.

“The level of education here is very high, so that’s the main reason why I am here. Salus has chosen patients with conditions that we really need to see and experience so each case is interesting,” she said. “We don’t know what the patients’ problems are until we examine them.”

The other two-time participant, Anniina Kärkkäinen, was studying for her bachelor’s degree the first time she participated in the program.

“I know how the format works and that makes it a little bit easier to focus on the learning aspect of the program. I also have other work experience as well, which I didn’t have the last time I was here,” she said. "You can always learn more because there are different patients and different diseases. It’s fun and exciting.”

It wasn’t all work and no play for the students during their two weeks in the United States. Some in the group visited popular Philadelphia sites and shopping, some ran up the “Rocky stairs” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and some even attended a Philadelphia 76ers playoff basketball game, where they brought the Sixers some good luck as the home team defeated the Miami Heat 116-108. At the time, that evened the Eastern Conference Playoff Series at 2-2, but the Sixers would go on to drop the next two games and the series without the Finnish fans in attendance.