Conference Updates

The pandemic forced the cancellation of many conferences in 2020, but there were some that were held virtually and Salus University was well-represented. 

American Academy of Optometry (AOA)

Several Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) faculty and residents participated in the 2020 American Academy of Optometry (AAO) virtual conference in October.

Faculty included:

Linda Casser, OD, FAAO, FNAP — Lecture: Fundamentals of Leadership – Part II: Establishing Leadership; poster: ASCO’s Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Toolkit.

Alissa Coyne, OD ‘10, FAAO, Resident ‘11 and Chad Killen, OD ‘19, Resident ‘20 — Poster: Genetic Testing Retinitis Pigmentosa: Discovering Biallelic RPE65 Mutations Responsive to Luxturna Gene Therapy.

Erin Draper, OD ‘09, Resident ‘10, FAAO — Lecture: Neuro-Ophthalmic Cases: When to Refer Optic Disc Dilemmas; poster: Ocular and Non-ocular Symptoms of a Growing Rathke’s Cleft Cyst.

Lynn Greenspan, OD, PhD ‘17 — Poster: Cerebral Visual Impairment: Effective Rehabilitation for the Vision Consequences of Gerstmann Syndrome.

Erin Jenewein, OD, MS — Paper co-investigator: Does Accommodative Function Affect Symptom Level and Response to Therapy in Children with Symptomatic Convergence Insufficiency?

Erin Kenny, OD ‘15, Resident ‘16, FAAO — Lecture: Common Ocular Diseases and Primary Care Low Vision Management; poster: Artificial Iris Implants with Authentic Functional Problems: Low Vision Management of a Patient with Oculocutaneous Albinism and Artificial Iris Implants.

Kelly Malloy, OD ‘96, Resident ‘97, FAAO, Dipl. — Lecture: Neuro-Ophthalmic Cases: When to Refer? Larry Gray Memorial Symposium on Neuro-Ophthalmic Disorders: Optic Neuritis, Neuro-Immunity, and Demyelinating Disease Pathways to a Proper Diagnosis; poster: Afferent and Efferent Effects of Orbital B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Tracy Offerdahl, PharmD — Lecture: Ocular Biologics, Biosimilars, and Drugs for the Eye: What’s New — Update 20/20; Symposia: Joint Vision in Aging and NDPW SIG Symposium.

Carlo Pelino, OD ‘94, FAAO — Lecture: When Thing Go Awry Not Only in the Eye: Identifying True Ocular Emergencies of the Posterior Pole; Common Ocular Diseases and Primary Care Low Vision Management.

Residents included:

Dominic Brown, OD ‘20, ‘21Resident — Poster: Using the Light at the End of the Tunnel: Navigating Patient Goals with a Diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Laura Davis, OD ‘20, ‘21Resident — Poster: Zoster the Imposter: A case of Herpes Zoster with Initial Presentation as Diffuse Punctate Keratitis.

Preet Dhami, OD, ‘21Resident — Poster: The Downside of Looking at the Bright Side: A Case of Solar Retinopathy during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

James Forde, OD ‘20, ‘21Resident — Poster: CRAO…Oh No: Using OCT-A to Monitor Retinal Changes Over Time from a Central Retinal Artery Occlusion.

Elizabeth Marinade, OD, ‘21Resident — Poster: Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls: Epiphora and Punctal Stenosis as an Adverse Effect of Chemotherapeutic Treatment with Pemetrexed.

Shaghayegh Mohebbi Hesari, OD, ‘21Resident — Poster: The Disguised Blessings of Pain: The Discovery of a Retinal Embolus in a Patient Presenting with Ocular Pain.

Korey Patrizi, OD, ‘21Resident — Poster: Dystrophy Mystery? Employ Electrodiagnostics.

Julia Runco, OD, ‘21Resident — Poster: When Two Worlds Collide: A Case of Vertical Strabismus Managed by Prism and Anisometropia Corrected with Contact Lenses in an Adult Patient with TBI.

Fiza Tariq, OD ‘20, ‘21Resident — Poster: Training Your Eyes to Align: Vision Therapy on an Adult with a Large Angle Exotropia.

Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA)

Donna Agnew, MSPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, director of the Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program at Salus, was a panelist for a virtual presentation at the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) Forum in October. She spoke on the topic of “Keeping the Ship Afloat: Managing Transition in PA Programs.” 

Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association (PSHA)

Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, chair and assistant professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at Salus, was a presenter at the 2020 Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association (PSHA) virtual fall conference in September. 

Note: These photos are from past events pre-pandemic.