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EVENT TO PROVIDE RESIDENTS WITH TRAINING
HEF seeks volunteers for Myanmar meeting
The non-profit Hawaiian Eye Foundation (HEF), which is dedicated to the vision needs of the people of the Pacific Basin, seeks ophthalmic technicians and ophthalmologists to volunteer to participate in a training meeting in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma). This year’s meeting, the second at Yangon Eye Hospital, will run from Aug. 24-27.
The four-day meeting will provide residents with training in a wide range of sub-specialty areas, including cornea, pediatric, neuro-ophthalmology, glaucoma, refractive, retinal, and oculoplastics. In addition, the meeting will include lectures, patient consultations, and live surgery demonstrations for practicing ophthalmologists, says HEF President and Founder John Corboy, MD.
At last year’s meeting — the first of its kind in decades in the country — eye residents demonstrated adequate “book learning,” but had very little training in basic eye exam techniques, says Dr. Corboy. They have requested instruction in such areas as refraction, retinoscopy, applanation tonometry, gonioscopy, indirect ophthalmoscopy, lensometry, and keratometry.
Penny Asbell, MD, FACS, professor of Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY (center), meets with local doctors and residents during last year’s HEF meeting in Yangon, Myanmar.
“We are recruiting volunteer ophthalmic technicians or ophthalmologists interested in teaching basics to help us provide one-on-one training of these eager young residents,” Dr. Corboy says.
HEF acknowledges payments for travel and lodging as charitable donations to the foundation, and will issue press releases publicizing the volunteers’ humanitarian efforts.
HEF has sponsored ophthalmic training programs in Southeast Asia since 2006, and has conducted humanitarian eye surgery expeditions for 30 years. For more information, see www.hawaiianeyefoundation.org, or email contact@hawaiianeyefoundation.org.
In Brief
Law repeals SRG.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, signed into law in April, repeals the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula from determining annual conversion factors in the formula for payment of Medicare physician reimbursemet.
The law replaces the SRG with five years of 0.5% increases in Medicare reimbursement through June, 2019. If the law were not passed, reimbursement would be cut 21% based on the SRG.
The law creates the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), effective 2019, to consolidate reporting for PQRS, meaningful use and the value-based payment modifier. Payments under current quality programs will end after 2018.
The law also delays changes to global surgical payments that threatened to take away postsurgical bundles under the old law, and provides a 5% bonus to practices that can demonstrate they are moving toward alternative delivery models, such as patient-centered medical homes.
Ophthalmic Professional will include updates on the law and reimbursement topics in future issues.
FDA approves KAMRA inlay.
The United States Food & Drug Association recently approved the KAMRA inlay (AcuFocus, Inc.), which is indicated to improve near vision by extending depth of focus in presbyopic patients who have emmetropic refractions (+0.50 D to -0.75 D).
The inlay is an opaque ring implanted monocularly into the patient’s non-dominant eye. It utilizes the principle of small aperture optics, or pinhole effect, to extend depth-of-focus for patients suffering from presbyopia. According to AcuFocus, the design allows central focused light to reach the retina uninterrupted. Patients in the clinical study experienced an average improvement in uncorrected near visual acuity of 3.0 lines between their pre-op exam and the 12-month follow-up visit.
OSC CERTIFICATION HELPS MEET CMS REQUIREMENT
JCAHPO offers scribe certification
The Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (JCAHPO) developed a new Ophthalmic Scribe Certification (OSC). The OSC exam tests ophthalmic scribes’ and ophthalmic medical personnel’s knowledge in several areas, including history taking, ophthalmic patient services and education, ophthalmic terminology, medical ethics and legal issues, and medical notes/records.
“Many practices use scribes to document the findings of an encounter, and, since many of these scribes are not certified, practices were scrambling to find a way to continue entering orders into their EHR,” says Jeff Grant, founder of HCMA, Inc., which specializes in management, operations and IT consulting for medical practices.
Beyond testing the scribes’ abilities, the certification helps practices meet CMS compliance, which requires “licensed healthcare professionals or credentialed medical assistants” to use the computerized provider order entry (CPOE) in the patient’s electronic health record.
“This new credential allows more flexibility for practices struggling to meet the requirements of the MU CPOE measure,” Mr. Grant says.
In addition to OSC, The American College of Medical & Surgical Scribes (www.theACMSS.org) offers Certified Medical & Surgical Scribe Scribes (CMSS), which meets national initiatives for meaningful use and CPOE requirements.
Cathi Lyons, administrator, Gordon-Weiss-Schanzlin Vision Institute in San Diego, CA, says her practice utilizes scribes to assist their physicians, which has become increasingly important since the practice moved to electronic health records in 2012. She says the scribes allow more interaction time between physicians and patients. Although physicians review and sign off on all chart notes, they need to have faith that the scribe accurately documents patient needs and other information, such as prescriptions.
Ms. Lyons is confident that JCAHPO’s test provides scribes with the necessary tools to achieve proper documentation while reaching an appropriate level of certification.
“The level of knowledge and preparation for this test shows the doctors that our technicians have achieved the knowledge and abilities needed for their scope of work with a COA, COT, or COMT,” she says.
Scribes who pass the OSC examination are certified for three years. The exam can be accessed at www.eyecarece.org.
ORGANIZATION CELEBRATES DIVERSE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN OPHTHALMOLOGY
OWL awards program recognizes leadership
Ophthalmic Women Leaders (OWL) announced its annual awards during a reception at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Symposium held recently in San Diego, CA.
Visionary Woman Award
OWL presented its Visionary Woman Award to Audrey Talley-Rostov, MD, for paving the way for other women in her field through significant achievement. Dr. Talley-Rostov, a partner at Northwest Eye Surgeons, Seattle, WA, is a cornea, cataract, and refractive surgeon who was the first surgeon to perform and teach femtosecond laser keratoplasty in New Delhi, India. Since 2009, she has served on the medical advisory board of SightLife, a global health organization whose mission is to eliminate corneal blindness worldwide, and travels to India regularly to teach cornea transplantation techniques.
Dr. Talley-Rostov helped create an international corneal fellowship for Ethiopian surgeons with Himalayan Cataract Project. She is an OWL board member and an international advisory board member for the Indian Women Ophthalmology Society.
Other Visionary Award finalists included Joan-Marie Stiglich, ELS, chief content officer at Slack Inc., and Ellen Troyer, chief research officer at Biosyntrx.
Catalyst Award
Laurie K. Brown, MBA, COMT, COE, OSA, OCS won the organization’s Catalyst Award for demonstrating leadership in supporting the advancement of women. Ms. Brown, a practice administrator for Drs. Fine, Hoffman & Sims, Eugene, OR, has worked in ophthalmology in various capacities for more than 30 years.
Ms. Brown has served on the boards of various ophthalmic organizations, including Certified Ophthalmic Executives, the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators, and the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology. A member of the Ophthalmic Professional Editorial Advisory Board, she serves on OWL’s Governing Board and is Membership Committee Chair.
A frequent educator at national ophthalmic meetings, Ms. Brown has professional experience in administration as well as a strong clinical/surgical background that includes surgical assisting and oversight of FDA-monitored core studies of new ophthalmic technologies.
The Catalyst Award finalists also included Lauri Jorgensen, managing director and co-founder of MedEdicus LLC, and Rosemary Martinez, senior vice president sales, OcuSoft.
Catalyst award winner Laurie K. Brown (left) with Heather Ready, senior marketing manager, Americas, Abbott Medical Optics.
Rising Star Award
OWL presented Erin Schallhorn, executive vice president of the Fundingsland Group, the Rising Star Award as an emerging leader in the ophthalmic space. At the Fundingsland Group, Ms. Schallhorn assesses global clinical and surgical opinions and practice patterns within ophthalmic societies and industry programs.
Ms. Schallhorn worked in product and medical marketing with AMO prior to attending the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth for her MBA. There, she interned at Genentech.
After graduation, Ms. Schallhorn joined Alcon, where she gained a range of experiences in the company’s Global Performance Development team, Pharmaceutical Sales, and the Surgical Marketing team, holding the role of senior product manager.
Other Rising Star finalists included Gretchen Coker, executive vice president of human resources of SightLife, and Dinamarie Stefanie, director clinical operations at Abbott Medical Optics.
OWL is a nonprofit society founded more than 10 years ago. Based in the belief that diverse leadership results in better outcomes — for practices, organizations, and the industry as a whole — OWL works across ophthalmology to provide professional and personal development and opportunities for collaboration. For more information, visit www.owlsite.org. OP
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