ontario association of optometrists 2009 annual

2 0 0 9 A C E R E p o Rt

Table of Contents

FoCus on tomoRRow 02

whERE wE ARE todAy 03

AdvoCACy 09

Community 15

EduCAtion 21

AChiEving tomoRRow’s goAls 25

Our century of excellence has not been created by

individuals acting alone; it has been created by working

together to share and build a common vision. By

participating in this change you ensure that your voice

will be heard and that along with your colleagues you

will speak in a united voice through OAO.

This year, while we celebraTe and reflecT on The pasT, we musT also acT To reinforce our fuTure.

There is no better time than today to stand up and

speak out for our profession. Our profession has

evolved and continues to change. Now is the time for

each of us to become vocal and diligent participants

in shaping the future of OAO and in turn shaping the

future of eyecare for our patients and our communities.

Much has changed over the past 100 years for optometry.

Our profession will continue to grow and change over

the next 100 years. The future for us as practitioners

and for the patients that we care for starts today.

Dr. William Ulakovic, OD, FAAO

President,

Ontario Association of Optometrists

Focus on Tomorrow

02

Ontario Association of Optometrists 2009 ACE Report

as we celebraTe 100 years of The onTario associaTion of opTomeTrisTs, our associaTion celebraTes milesTones of success and of securiTy;

we are indeed forTunaTe To

have possessed The foresighT To

so clearly grasp our fuTure.

This year, while we celebrate and reflect on the past, we

must also act to reinforce our future. Difficult times in

our communities call for strong leadership. Collectively,

as optometrists in various communities across the prov-

ince we must take this opportunity to work for change.

We must protect the health of our patients against those

who seek to take advantage of financial need by promot-

ing a non-medical standard of care. We must protect our

patients against government cutbacks to healthcare. We

must support our patients with the understanding that

healthcare is the most important factor in their lives.

efforts should focus tomorrow to support the membership,

and indeed what the future of our membership may

look like.

motivAtion FoR Joining oAo

The most recent data we have available from internal

membership surveys was generated as part of the

website needs assessment. Although this survey was

oriented to better understanding how the membership

used the website and how they thought it could provide

benefit to their patients, the surveys also touched

on overall perspectives and outlooks among the

membership (Figure 1) – which helps profile the

likelihood of member involvement in OAO initiatives –

and covered the opinions of members on what their

patients were asking for and what resources and

opportunities would be of interest to that target market.

Knowing where we came from is beneficial. Knowing where we can go is crucial. Knowing where we are Today is pivoTal.

Throughout 2008 and into 2009, in conjunction with a

number of initiatives, OAO has been engaged in data

gathering across our membership base. The objective

of this process has been to determine what members

feel is important to them and important to their

communities.

This data has been collected through a variety of active

survey and passive analysis means to ensure a minimum

of subjectivity. Although no data set can ever be called

definitive, this information does point to where our

Where We Are Today


03

FigURE 1 – WhAT MOTivATED yOU TO BECOME A MEMBER?

To take advantage of member benefits 19.7%

To Participate in peer-to-peer knowledge sharing 15.3 %

Other 3.3%

To advocate for the Profession 35.4%

To gain access to educational resources 17.1%

To help grow your practice 8.8%

OAO’s successful approach of pursuing an informative

and educational approach in its advertising and awareness

initiatives has also found support from the majority of

respondents in a survey to members (Figures 2 and

3), suggesting that there are many opportunities for

members to participate and to lend their knowledge in

a public forum.

Even though the response volume to questions pertaining

to overall motivation was lower than the response rate

for other questions, the indication from the majority of

respondents that they joined OAO with a goal of

advocating for the profession suggests that there is

a willingness to participate in OAO initiatives on a

voluntary basis among many members. Moreover, by

having a base to work from, it is more feasible to create

and support grassroots efforts and initiatives that skirt

around traditional media and therefore achieve cost

savings.

Answer 0% 100% Number of Response(s)

Response Ratio

Explanation of what Optometrists do and the benefits you offer

153 14.1%

Explanation of Optometric standards and parameters for care

54 4.9%

Links to other healthcare resources (for follow-up, next steps)

51 4.7%

Information about eye and vision health (documents, interactivities)

144 13.2%

Information about diseases that Optometrists can help diagnose

137 12.6%

Information for students and educators 56 5.1%

Search for an optometrist / find your practice location

140 12.9%

Information about your practice and what services you offer

83 7.6%

Quick polls on healthcare and Optometric topics

35 3.2%

Information about billing and OHIP coverage

87 8.0%

Information about charitable work by Optometrists in their communities

47 4.3%

Profiles of best practices in Optometric research (knowledge leaders)

23 2.1%

Information for students looking to study or pursue a career in Optometry

67 6.1%

Other 6 <1%

Totals 1083 100%

FigURE 2 – WhAT iNFORMATiON DO MEMBERs BEliEvE PATiENTs CAN BENEFiT FROM?

04


Answer 0% 100% Number of Response(s)

Response Ratio

Difference between optometrists, ophthalmologists and opticians

188 9.8%

The components of a comprehensive eye exam

229 11.9%

When should children have their first eye exam and why

251 13.1%

Opticians performing sight testing 185 9.6%

TPA regulation awareness 142 7.4%

Eye health conditions and treatment 212 11.0%

Eye health by age group 111 5.8%

Diabetes and the eye 199 10.4%

Eye care and nutrition 112 5.8%

Eye care at work 73 3.8%

Teaching children with vision problems 57 2.9%

Coverage provided by OHIP 136 7.1%

Other 18 <1%

Totals 1913 100%

FigURE 3 – high lEvEl AWARENEss TOPiCs MEMBERs BEliEvE Will BE BENEFiCiAl FOR PATiENTs

05


be difficult to translate into a representation that the

public can readily understand.

Critically, the ACE agenda must be diligently managed

when presented to the public and tailored to fit with

benefits that what the average citizen can appreciate as

tangible, whereby the fundamentals of ACE are tailored

to fit the needs of the public when they are presented

to the public, as indicated by Figure 4.

BRAnd stAtus

As the representative voice of Ontario’s optometrists by

design, OAO’s brand identity has an overall influence

on how optometry is perceived in the province. yet the

OAO brand is somewhat unusual in that many of the

messages and key motivators of the brand are aimed

internally – at the membership – rather than externally

at the public.

And while OAO has responsibility for forwarding the

ACE agenda in the public sphere (Advocacy, Community,

Education), some of the brand pillars and tenets can

FigURE 4 – TRANslATiNg OAO’s ACE BRAND

OAO Brand=

Ace

speak up for the professionPractice Management

RegulationsResearch and funding

Protect practices and livelihood

Membership Perception

Adv

ocac

yCo

mm

unit

yEd

ucat

ion

grow the membership communityBetter communication with OAO

Benefits of membershipinteraction with fellows

Professional participation

Educate the publicEducate stakeholders

Professional developmentimprove patient management

Advocacy

Comm

unityEducation

Public Perception

Advocate for patient healthAdvocate for families

Represent patients to governmentProvide accessible healthcareEnsure members understand

patient needs

give back to the communityBe at home in the community

support the communityProvide leadership and knowledge

Foster beneficial initiatives

support students with an interestincrease awareness

Maintain professional standardsPromote healthy decisions

Promote wellbeing

06


particularly more of the Board, to participate in posting

discussions and information to the Facebook Page

(the legitimacy of content on a Facebook page requires

a genuine social footprint of fans and users; having

administrative postings does not encourage interest

or participation). it is also worth considering having

any assembled cadre of social networking volunteers

post comments and information to third party social

Pages and groups within Facebook so that the voice of

optometry is more pervasive. 2009’s upcoming initiatives

to merge multimedia materials into Facebook, and

push more social media content of all types, will further

leverage these opportunities.

EmERgEnt mEmBERship dEmogRAphiCs

One of the goals of deploying a Facebook Page for OAO

was to set up a platform that would allow the association

to better access the younger demographic groups in

OAO, such as students and new ODs. The data pulled

from the Facebook Page is also useful in showing the

future trends in Optometry, mirroring the high volume

of female enrolment in Optometric studies, and showing

that there are two primary demographics that can

contribute to the future of the association, the 18-24

and 25-34 age groups.

These demographics have high potential to float forward

and may be highly influential in future messaging

opportunities; giving us the potential of leveraging that

market share if we can encourage more members, and

Female Male Age groups Female% Male% Total%

71% 29%

13-17 0% 0% 0%

18-24 30% 5% 35%

25-34 31% 17% 48%

35-44 5% 3% 8%

45+ 4% 3% 8%

DATA lAsT UPDATED: MAR. 24, 2009

230 TOTAl FANs FigURE 5 – OAO’s FACEBOOk DEMOgRAPhiCs

07


The year in advocacy has been marked by challenges, but has also seen significant strides made in securing a place for optometry as a key player in comprehensive healthcare.

The lead-up to the campaign included the launch of

OAO’s MPP e-newsletter, “looking Beyond 20/20”. The

inaugural issue covered the importance of complete

eye examinations supported by a compelling patient

story. A number of key bureaucrats within the Ministry

of health and long-Term Care and hPRAC viewed the

send, including Dr. Joshua Tepper, stephen Cheng,

susan Fitzpatrick, Barbara sullivan, Brian O’Riordan

and Tanya Beeler, to name but a few. A follow-up

e-newsletter in september immediately prefaced the

launch of the campaign.

in a successful move to reinforce our work with one of

our key political allies, Dr. John Astles hosted a table of

Optometrists at london Fanshawe MPP khalil Ramal’s

annual fundraising dinner on June 26th.

After a handful of strategic delays owing to the actions

of external stakeholders, the grasstops campaign

launched officially in late October after the College of

Optometrists confirmed their position on optician sight

testing with the Minister’s office (coincident with OAO’s

notification).

in addition to Minister of health David Caplan, many

other MPPs were targeted and met as part of the PACT

campaign in 2008, including sophia Aggelonitis

(hamilton Mountain), Ted Arnott (Wellington-halton

hills), Rick Bartolucci (sudbury), France gelinas (Nickel

Belt), and Monte kwinter (york Centre).

With the Ontario government making diabetes and

diabetes care a major component of its healthcare

platform, OAO has been able to leverage this to

highlight the role Optometrists play in keeping

Ontarians healthy. We have made it clear that

Optometrists have a major part to play in assisting

with the care of patients with diabetes and we have

actively targeted government, regulators, the press

and the general public with this message.

Playing from this position of strength has allowed

OAO to bring more weight to the negotiating table, to

leverage more contact with MPPs and healthcare

regulators (such as hPRAC), and to counteract the

nascent claims of healthcare capabilities made by

certain opticianry groups.

The last year has not seen OAO rest on its laurels. From

engaging a number of members in grasstops advocacy

and hosting another successful Queen’s Park Event, to

diligently working with authorities to protect community

interests against fraudulent efforts by great glasses,

to tackling Conflict of interest and TPA proposals, there

has been no shortage of effort, and a number

of notable achievements.

politiCAl ACtion tAsk FoRCE (pACt) gRAsstops AdvoCACy

A total of 54 OAO members volunteered to meet with a

priority list of 63 MPPs, with the primary objective of

speaking face-to-face on the issue of opticians

performing sight testing.

Advocacy

09

2009 ACE Report

As in past years, the Reception combined discussion

with education, and a selection of Optometric equipment

was generously provided by Topcon Canada to help the

practitioners demonstrate their skills and make the

event truly participatory.

This event has always proven to be a winner, and this

year it was evident that this high profile event continues

to pay dividends; in this case it compelled a meeting

the following week between OAO President Dr. William

Ulakovic and Minister of health and long-Term Care

David Caplan.

ConFliCt oF intEREst

Dr. William Ulakovic and Barbara Wattie Fuller met with

the Chair of hPRAC, their Chief staff Officer and 5 other

members by invitation on July 3, 2008 to discuss our

submission on the “Collaboration” referral. Previous

discussions had highlighted hPRAC’s interest in the

College of Opticians interpretation of their advice to

the Minister on the matter of Opticians performing

refraction, and the conflict of interest regulation of the

College of Optometrists. As such, we were not surprised

to see our 90-minute meeting focus on these topics.

Representatives from the College (Ms. Francesca grossi

and Dr. Murray Turnour) were also invited to attend.

We also endeavored to provide detailed critique of the

College of Opticians May 2008 guidelines, and comment

on the recommended frequency of eye examinations as

suggested by the Canadian Ophthalmological society –

recommendations that advocate routine examinations

every ten years for healthy adults.

With the launch of the PACT campaign coinciding with

OAO’s annual MPP Reception at Queen’s Park on

November 3, Board Members and senior OAO staff

worked closely with OAO’s government relations

consultant Tim holman in meeting many MPPs through

the day. This proved to be a successful tactic and

provided an excellent tactical counter to those MPPs

who – owing to prior commitments – were unable to

attend the formal Queen’s Park Reception.

QuEEn’s pARk

On November 3, OAO held its annual MPP Reception,

“looking Beyond 20/20”, in the Dining Room of the

legislative Building at Queen’s Park. OAO’s Board of

Directors and staff attended this event, helping ensure

that we put our best foot forward.

The Reception was prefaced by person-to-person contact

by telephone to encourage MPPs to attend, and by a

series of rich media e-invitations.

November 3 saw a vibrant and well attended Reception,

bringing Ontario public policy-makers and Optometrists

together to discuss many exciting primary eye care

initiatives taking place in communities throughout the

province.

As previously noted, members of the Board had

person-to-person meetings with a number of key MPPs

throughout the day, providing the opportunity to ex-

plain the profession of optometry in detail and

highlight many of the goals we have as a profession,

and as an Association.

10


Minister had not been lifted and that opticians should

not perform refractometry under any circumstances.

Notwithstanding the direction by Dr. Tepper, COO

continued to approve opticians for refraction.

in an effort to ensure that quality eye care in Ontario

continues to be provided by legally authorized and

qualified practitioners, the sTTF has pursued the

following actions over the past year:

•AGrasstopspoliticalactioncampaigntoinform

MPPs of the risk to the public from incomplete

care provided by opticians.

•Therecommendationtolaunchapublicinformation

task force to develop a plan to educate the public

on the risks of incomplete eye examinations and

illegal prescribing.

•ContinuedmeetingswiththeMinister’sofficeand

Ministry staff to encourage the Minister to not only

enforce the ban on optician refraction but also to

remove the standard.

•MeetingswithHPRACtoreinforcetheir

recommendations that opticians should not be

authorized to dispense eye wear solely from a

refraction test and that optician-performed

refraction should only occur to inform a compre-

hensive eye examination performed by an

optometrist or a physician.

•Continuinglegalprosecutioninprovincialoffences

court against 4 employees of a great glasses store

for contraventions of the RhPA.

Drs. William Ulakovic, John Mastronardi, Christopher

Nicol and OAO government relations consultant Tim

holman met with representatives of hPRAC to review

Conflict of interest regulation and interprofessional

collaboration on January 9, 2009.

A follow-up meeting between the Minister’s Director

of Policy, Abid Malik, and OAO’s Drs. John Mastronardi

and Christopher Nicol, Executive Director Barbara

Wattie Fuller and government relations consultant Tim

holman took place on February 11, 2009 to further

discuss TPAs, glaucoma, sight testing, and Conflict of

interest guidelines.

sight tEsting

Optician sight testing, perhaps more than any other

issue, has defined the activities of OAO during the

past year. The sight Testing Task Force (sTTF) met on

a number of occasions throughout 2008 to consider

matters related to optician refraction and contraventions

of the Regulated health Professions Act (RhPA) by

“great glasses”.

in May 2008, the College of Opticians of Ontario

(COO) unilaterally published a standard of practice for

refraction (standard) that authorized certified opticians

to perform refractions. On June 20, 2008, COO reported

to OAO that 13 opticians “hold refracting status”. OAO

immediately notified the Minister of health and

long-Term Care (Minister) of this information. This

prompted a response from the Assistant Deputy

Minister, Dr. Joshua Tepper, who subsequently advised

COO that the ban on refractometry imposed by a former

on november 3, oao held iTs annual

mpp recepTion, “looKing beyond 20/20”,

in The dining room of The legislaTive

building aT Queen’s parK. oao’s board

of direcTors and sTaff aTTended This

evenT, helping ensure ThaT we puT

our besT fooT forward.

11


finding with the york Region Board of Education,

re-connecting with past contacts to determine the

causal factors behind the story and to work on remedia-

tion and education efforts behind the scenes. OAO has

made it clear that we do not support vision screening

and the Board has decided to prioritize a more

aggressive Children’s vision initiative through 2009-

2010; one based on the “Eye see, Eye learn” program

of Alberta, being championed by CAO nation-wide. This

will help raise understanding that a comprehensive

eye exam is still the best choice while concurrently

combating vision screening.

ChAngEs to ohip AgREEmEnt

Effective April 1 2009 the new rate for a periodic

oculo-visual assessment for patients 19 years of age or

younger (v404) will be $42.50 and that for patients 65

years of age or older (v406) will be $47.00.

Following OAO and MOhlTC signing their three-year

Agreement in spring 2008, the Optometry services

Committee (OsC) continued negotiations to establish

the specific codes insuring the optometric care of

patients with acute anterior segment pathology

through the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents

(TPA).

These codes (the Acute intermediate and Follow-up

Assessment) were slated to come into effect in year 2 of

the Agreement (beginning April 1 2009), but were con-

tingent upon the finalization of the regulation govern-

ing the optometric use of TPA.

should OAO have filed the Acute intermediate/Follow-up

Assessment codes, and more than four months elapsed

before the TPA regulation was enacted, the Acute

intermediate/Follow-up Assessment codes would

“expire”, potentially taking us back to the drawing

board, with a strong possibility of losing the codes in

their entirety.

There was also concern about the Ministry’s current

“anti-regulation” stance, and the questionable optics

of resubmitting an identical regulation upon TPA

regulatory enactment. After seeking direction from

the President, vice-President and Board lead, OAO

proposed implementing the Acute intermediate/

Follow-up Assessment codes in fiscal 2010.

•Alegalopiniononthesuccessofachallengeof

the authority of COO to publish a standard that

expands their authorized scope of practice.

•EffectivelyencouragedtheCollegeofOptometrists

of Ontario to clarify any misunderstanding of both

COO and the Ministry that our College had

approved the standard.

•Thepreparationofa“RedFile”;areporting

mechanism for OAO members to document and

report undiagnosed eye disease in patients who

have been subject to a “sight test”.

•EngagedtheOAOgovernmentrelationsconsultant

to assist with advice and strategy to further the

goal of the sTTF.

•EffectivelyencouragedtheMinister’sofficeto

require the Ontario Opticians Association (OOA)

to remove inappropriate comments on the Tepper

letter that were posted on the OOA web site.

•MeetingwiththePresidentofOOAtoexplain

our Association’s position on optician refraction

and to explore a collaborative approach to the

participation of opticians in comprehensive eye

examinations.

OAO is pleased to report that our continuing efforts

have had some success. Baring any unforeseen delays,

our case against great glasses, while proceeding

slowly, should be completed by september 2009.

Further, OAO understands that COO has been directed

by the Minister’s office to stop approving refraction

status for any additional opticians and that optician

training in refraction should not be recognized by COO.

Opposition to optician sight testing and illegal

prescribing are a priority for OAO. The sTTF will con-

tinue to extend the same effort through 2009 to ensure

that the public is protected from substandard eye care.

vision sCREEning in yoRk REgion

Corollary to the issue of sight testing by opticians,

there have been a number of articles in the press on

vision screenings, including an October 1st article in

the Toronto star on vision screening in Markham. in

addition to discussion and execution of compensatory

communications strategies, OAO staff engaged in fact

12


as per the 2006 hPRAC recommendations. At their

February meeting a representative of the Family

Practice section of the OMA joined the group.

Dr. Ulakovic believes that the 2 groups meeting

on their own are best suited to advance their

individual and mutual interests, most notably the

sharing of “best practices” for the delivery of eye

care in Ontario.

•HPRAChasundertakenareviewofdrugprescriptive

authority for non-physician (a referral from former

Minister smitherman), including a review of

specifying drug categories as opposed to specific

agents in regulation. The results of this review

have been published in the document, “Critical

links: Transforming and supporting Patient Care”,

which is available for review on the hPRAC website.

•Inadvanceofthereleaseof“CriticalLinks”,

hPRAC informed OAO that they would consider

any new evidence as it relates to the optometric

treatment of glaucoma (October 2, 2008).

•OAOsubsequentlyurgedtheCollegeof

Optometrists to put forward their new wait-time

evidence in support of independent management

of glaucoma by optometrists, as the College was

not present at the October meeting.

•BothAssociationandCollegewerepleasedto

see “Critical links” recognize and recommend an

expanded role for optometry in the management

of patients with glaucoma – while simply a

recommendation, it is a positive one, nonetheless.

•Inthemeantime,thecurrentCollegeof

Optometrists draft regulation is progressing

through the approval process within the MOhlTC –

OAO maintains that securing approval of the

current regulation as soon as possible is essential.

The Association subsequently signed an amending

Agreement, bringing the Acute intermediate and

Follow-up Assessment into effect in year 3, beginning

April 1 2010. Please note that this funding regulation

has no impact upon the TPA regulation itself, currently

awaiting Ministry approval (see below).

OAO will use the OAO members’ website to more

fully describe the Acute intermediate and Follow-up

Assessment codes once they are finalized by the

Cabinet, after the TPA regulation is in place.

diABEtEs inCEntivE pRogRAm

in 2008, MOhlTC launched a comprehensive diabetes

strategy to help prevent, manage and treat Ontarians

living with the disease. OAO felt that Ontario optometrists

should be involved as the primary eye health care

provider in the provincial diabetes strategy, a sentiment

that was shared by MOhlTC.

in the latest OhiP funding Agreement for optometric

services, the Diabetes incentive Program was created to

recognize the value of, and improve access to, optometric

care for patients with diabetes recalled annually for a

comprehensive eye examination.

The language describing the Diabetes incentive Program

and its implementation was finalized through collaboration

between OAO and MOhlTC. in simplified terms,

the annual budget allocated to the program will be

distributed to all optometrists practicing in Ontario as

a “per patient” incentive for effective recall in fiscal

2009/10 of patients with diabetes examined in fiscal

2008/09.

tpA

The College of Optometrists (COO) has submitted a

draft TPA regulation to the Ministry of health, and has

had a number of meetings with the Ministry on this

front. Concurrently, OAO met with Abid Malik, Minister

Caplan’s Director of Policy, to discuss this regulation

and its passage to approval. The path to TPA regulatory

approval has contained a number of interesting

detours, including (but not limited to):

•TheOAOcontinuedtomeetwiththeSectionof

Ophthalmology of the OMA to work toward the

collaborative treatment of patients with glaucoma

13


by its very nature, an association is founded on community. The stronger that community becomes; the stronger and more effective an association will be.

societies and, of course, the Annual symposium and –

this year – the 100th Anniversary gala Party.

mEmBERship RECRuitmEnt And REnEwAl

Our efforts are oriented to toward maximizing our

member intake at all times and to move forward with

our goals of increasing overall representation among

Optometrists to more than 85%. To that end, OAO

enrolled 57 newly registered optometrists in July/

August of 2008 and finished the year with 11 new

“captured members” – essentially Optometrists in

extant practice who were not prior members – 4 less

than our goal of 15, and we have begun the 2009

membership year with 8 new captured members.

New members continue to positively comment on the

new “getting started in Ontario” step by step guide

produced by the Member Recruitment and Retention

Working group in spring 2008 and distributed at the

Jurisprudence lunches hosted by the OAO.

An OAO marketing brochure was designed in August

and mailed on september to more than 1,200 members

with their invoice for the next membership year

beginning November 1 2008. As of October 29th we

had 842 returns. We finished 2008 Fiscal year with

1,229 members.

OAO held its first ever golf tournament in conjunction

with the OAO’s Annual symposium. sixty optometrists

and various company sales representatives took part in

an unseasonably cold and windy 1st of May at Whirlpool

golf Course. But it was a fun kick off to the long days of

lectures ahead.

OAO is not different in this respect and it has become

increasingly clear over the past few years that a

renewed effort was needed in order to ensure that our

efforts to build a stronger membership community, and

in turn enhance the ability of Optometrists to work at

their best in their geographic communities.

in keeping with 2009 being OAO’s 100th Anniversary

a number of initiatives were launched in 2008 that set

the stage for a much more diverse, much more modern

approach to community building; one that takes into

account the emergence of social media, a move toward

online community building and the need to refresh

the OAO brand to make it one that today’s Optometric

students – tomorrow’s members – can aspire to.

2008 saw the launch of an in-depth website project

that will reveal a more prescient and powerful OAO

web presence to the world in 2009. 2008 also marked

the emergence of OAO in social networking, first with

a bench test of both a Facebook Page and a Facebook

group, then with the launch of the OAO Employee

Policy Manual Wiki. OAO is also taking this opportunity

to rebrand visually, to refit its iT technical resources and

gain more community and communications flexibility,

all of which will roll out in 2009 thanks to work put forth

over this past year.

But we have not stood still on that most important

community builder of all – face-to-face contact.

Outreach to students continues apace, with student

nights, the long-standing Jurisprudence luncheon,

support and participation with local Optometric

Community

15

2009 ACE Report

Director Melissa secord attended Regional meetings in

september in Timmins, Renfrew and Thunder Bay,

presenting a PowerPoint discussion on member-

ship and community initiatives. Dr. Mastronardi also

attended the Windsor meeting in October and has

expressed the desire to attend local society meetings

within driving distance in the coming months.

wEBsitE REnEwAl And soCiAl sitEwoRking

OAO’s new public website and membership portal

promise to create a bold new impact for OAO online;

taking the association to a level that is far in advance of

most other associations and is clearly leading edge in

its appearance, functionality and capacity.

Dr. John Mastronardi and Barbara Wattie Fuller attended

the Windsor society dinner meeting on October 22nd

and offered a draw for a symposium 2009 registration.

Drs. sheldon salaba and Phil vrkljan attended the

hamilton society dinner meeting on October 28th

and on behalf of OAO awarded a symposium 2009

registration.

We are also continuing outreach initiatives to our student

members. Every year the Canadian Association of

Optometry students (CAOs) signs up free student members

for the Association in return for $10 per member back

to CAOs to assist them in their student activities. Other

activities have included the annual OAO practice

management night which consisted of an interactive

panel night with third and fourth year students in

March 2009. Drs. karen MacDonald, Winston koo,

stelios Nikolakakis, sarah stevens and stan salsberg

shared their expertise in a discussion moderated by Dr.

Phil vrkljan.

Three student recipients were awarded a bursary from

the Marvin langer Fund, providing emergency funds to

students in need.

OAO continues to underwrite the third year practice

management course at the University of Waterloo and

we once again presented our OAO Excellence in Practice

Management Award at the graduation ceremony. Dr.

Derek MacDonald presented this year’s award to sara

lyriotokis.

Drs. William Ulakovic and John Mastronardi, Executive

Director Barbara Wattie Fuller and Assistant Executive

16


secure access, members only component of the project)

will be launched later this spring with an abundance

of high powered, revenue generating and community

building features.

in conjunction with work on the new OAO website/

portal combination, efforts have also been expended

to establish the association on a number of social

siteworking, community-building online properties

including the following:

•AFacebookPage(nowwithover225Fans)that

is being bench tested as a community hub and

will be rolled out as a go-to public source of OAO

information and outward-facing policy in 2009

•AnaccompanyingFacebookGroupwhichcanbe

brought to prominence should there be a need of

a social campaign call-to-arms

•AnEmployeePolicyManualWikisitetoallow

members to contribute to a secure discussion

and collaborative development of a best practice

Employee Policy Manual

•AYouTubeaccounttofacilitatethemergerof

videos into the OAO Facebook Page, the OAO

website and to give the association a multimedia

touchpoint to use as needed (potentially as a

future replacement of, or augmentation to The

President’s view)

The project began in earnest in the last quarter of 2008.

Out of a catchment of 45 qualified firms, three

organizations were shortlisted and the successful

vendor – velocity studio and Associates based in

london, Ontario – has been working to progressing the

site in keeping with OAO’s architectural requirements

throughout 2009 to-date.

The brief for this project includes a web-based content

management system (CMs) that will allow OAO to

manage the web properties from anywhere in the world

with an internet connection. The chosen approach is

being custom developed for OAO using Adobe

ColdFusion modules, which predicts a high degree of

supportability for future rich media installations, such

as Adobe Flex, and supports a number of custom user

interface tactics, such as the extensive use of AJAX for

display and navigation management.

The CMs, in being custom developed, has required

a higher than average up front cost relative to other

platforms on the market, but the long term licensing

fees are minimal and the velocity studio and Associates

price point still proved the lowest overall bid.

OAO’s Public Website (the publicly accessible

component of the project) has been rolled out to the

public via a soft launch using primarily extant content.

it is currently being refined with new content, new

resources and additional pages are being added as

need be. The online Directory of Optometrists is

nearing completion and the Membership Portal (the

oao’s new public websiTe and

membership porTal promise To

creaTe a bold new impacT for oao

online; TaKing The associaTion a

level ThaT is far in advance of mosT

oTher associaTions.

17


it upgRAdEs And spAm mAil mAnAgEmEnt

As 2008 progressed, OAO experienced increasing

difficulties in its outgoing email being blacklisted and

also experienced a significant increase in incoming

spam-mail. Attempts by the existing is/iT vendor to

remediate these issues proved unsuccessful. With

email traffic being a business necessity, a technical

internetworking specialist was located who was able to

implement a solution on a no-cost basis. Existing mail

and network security resources were reconfigured to

alleviate the problem and the compromised mail secu-

rity issues have been contained.

Further upgrades to the iT/is hardware and software

were proposed as future initiatives and will be reviewed

for cost feasibility and likely benefit in 2009. such a

project may also encompass a review of OAO’s current

membership management software, the iMis system.

mEmBER BEnEFits

OAO continues to offer member benefits to help members

in their practices. OAO rolled out in conjunction with its

TPA refresher course last year a member discount on

the Canadian Pharmacists Association’s E-Therapeutics

+ and hard copy CPs.

All OAO member insurance programs now fall under the

umbrella of Pottruff and smith insurance Brokers inc,

as they now have taken over the management of the life

and disability program. For members, this will allow a

one-stop stop for all insurance services.

Members can continue to take advantage of discounts

with CiT, CAA, staples and more.

honouRing AChiEvEmEnt

The following OAO Members were honoured for their

achievements and dedication to the Association at the

2008 OAO symposium:

•Dr.ElaineHarrison-DistinguishedServiceAward

•Dr.DavidWhite-MillenniumAward

•Drs.TinaandJeffGoodhew-PublicEducationAward

•Dr.DerekMacDonald-President’sAward

•Dr.LillianLinton-CertificateofAppreciation

•Dr.MarvinNash-HonouraryMembership

100th yEAR CElEBRAtions

100th Anniversary celebrations have been a major

community agenda item for the past year. The focus

of the 100th Anniversary events calendar has been

divided into two groups; membership-focused events

and politically-focused events.

The membership focus will occur in conjunction with

the 2009 symposium with of a party in Toronto.

Thematically, the 100th year Task Force determined

that the best way forward was a semi-formal event that

allows for a key speech by the attending Minister of

health, hon David Caplan, a retrospective of OAO’s past

and, most importantly, a focus on the future of optometry,

100th anniversary celebraTions have

been a major communiTy agenda iTem

for The pasT year. The focus of The

100Th anniversary evenTs calendar

has been divided inTo Two groups;

membership-focused evenTs and

poliTically-focused evenTs.

18


the Province of Ontario. he has taken numerous

opportunities to advocate for the profession of Optom-

etry in the media, helping to educate the public about

the important role of Optometrists in the healthcare

system. Dr. vrkljan has already joined as an active

member of more than one committee and is

significantly involved in contributing to our scope

of practice efforts around TPA regulations.

Also this past year, Drs. Derek MacDonald and John

Astles have stepped down from an active role on the

Board.

Dr. MacDonald has joined OAO staff as a senior advisor,

in keeping with his role as Past President and as a lead

on many initiatives and will be continuing his work as

Chair of the OhiP Optometry services Committee.

Dr. Astles continues his work as Chair of the PACT

Committee, leading the grasstops political action

campaign that has proven to be a true home run and

has set the tone for future campaigns and initiatives.

his well managed and diligent approach in relentlessly,

yet deftly canvassing MPPs and other political contacts

has provided a veritable instruction manual for political

action.

working on the theme of “Focus on Tomorrow”. Past

President Dr. Joe Chan, our Master of Ceremonies, will

give a keynote speech. This event will be attended by

Optometric leaders from across Canada, representatives

from the school of Optometry, the vision institute, and

the College of Optometrists of Ontario in addition to

many OAO Past Presidents.

A significant budget has been allocated to the 100th

Anniversary event in order to ensure that Optometry is

well represented.

Although the April events surrounding the 100th

Anniversary have political overtones, the major target

for political contact is the December 2009 Reception at

sutton Place in Toronto, which is designed to augment

the annual MPP Reception by having a higher public

profile and thus compel interest and participation for

years to come.

BoARd oF diRECtoRs

Elections for OAO Board of Directors were held in

October 2008. Drs. Barrie Conron, Farooq khan, Bruce

lidkea, Marta Witer and William Ulakovic will each

serve a renewed 2 year term as members of the OAO

Board of Directors starting on November 01, 2008. Dr.

Phil vrkljan is the newest member of the Board. Dr.

vrkljan practices in hamilton and graduated from the

Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 2003 and holds

active licenses in the state of North Carolina and

19


as an association of healthcare professionals, we are first and foremost an association of knowledge owners and knowledge practitioners; by constantly improving our knowledge through education we can achieve any objective.

This year’s 2009 symposium in Toronto has a more

traditional mix of clinical and practice management

education with top lecturers from across Ontario. it will

feature a Cross Canada practice management panel and

well known practice management speaker, Dr. Dave

Ziegler. OAO has also included a practice management

panel and reception for Women in Optometry called

sharing life & Career Choices.

Proposals have been received by potential event

locations for 2010, with the Delta Meadowvale hotel

and Conference Centre in Mississauga being ratified as

the location of choice. The Delta’s proximity to major

travel hubs makes it ideal for ensuring a strong and

involved turnout. We hope to see you all May 5 – 8 in

Mississauga.

puBliC EduCAtion

OAO’s Public Education Task Force (PETF) has re-formed

for 2009, with a kick-off meeting held in early January.

Task Force Chair Dr. Marta Witer is joined by vice

President Dr. John Mastronardi and Drs. Todd Wilbee

and ken Mandadakis, all of whom have significant

experience in community outreach, commentary and

public education. The discussion consisted of a number

of elements, as detailed below.

•Evaluatethefeasibilityanddatacollection

objectives related to electronic and person-to-

person canvassing and polling of the membership;

the desired outcome being greater understanding

of local, regional and provincial challenges that

can be targeted or leveraged as part of PETF

initiatives

Education, much like community, has somewhat of a

dichotomous role in OAO’s endeavours.

On one hand we seek to educate ourselves through

courses, workshops, seminars and formal instruction

so that we know more, can do more, and can accomplish

greater goals in our role as healthcare providers.

On the other hand, education also has a broader role in

that we have an objective to educate the public on the

role of Optometry in comprehensive healthcare and, in

doing do, make it more feasible and more likely for us

to deploy our knowledge through a greater and more

successful scope of practice.

These seemingly divergent goals are brought together

under the Education pillar of our brand and we are

therefore as much educators as educated. We have

once again focused primarily on providing supporting

education to the membership through CE and through

the symposium and other events, but this has not

diminished our focus on outreach to other healthcare

stakeholders and the general public. indeed, it has

been another successful year of healthcare stakeholder

outreach and it has also marked the formal return of the

Public Education Task Force.

symposiA

OAO held a sold out 20-hour TPA Refresher program,

‘get Refreshed’, in Niagara Falls in May 2008. Drs. Mark

Dunbar, and John Mcsoley, from Bascom Palmer Eye

institute and Dr. leo semes from University of Alabama

led delegates through an intensive 3-day 20-hour

program.

Education

21

2009 ACE Report

•Over31,000”SeeingisBelieving”pamphletson

children’s eye examinations have been distributed

across Ontario to various school boards and

early years programs. A request for 18,000 of the

pamphlets was received from the Windsor Essex

Catholic school Board, enough for each grade

school. Another 600 were shipped to the Ontario

Physical Educators Association conference in

October 2008.

•AnOp-Ed,GoodVisionIsn’tAlwaysEasytoSee,

was posted on the Members’ Only website for

members to use for back to school awareness.

Members were encouraged to submit the Op-Ed to

their local newspapers.

•Dr.KarenMacDonaldappearedonachildren’s

vision segment on global Tv for a back to school

segment. The clip is posted on the OAO website.

Another global clip ran on “dime store readers”

and featured Dr. victor spear on Tuesday October

7th

•Dr.WilliamUlakovicappearedintheOctoberissue

of Canadian living in a lengthy article spearheaded

by CAO

•Drs.ToddWilbeeandPatriciaCampbellwillbe

participating in a series of health and wellness

seminars for seniors (coordinated by Pfizer)

hEAlthCARE stAkEholdER outREACh

OAO has provided a diligent upkeep of Optometry’s

presence at healthcare stakeholder tradeshows over

the past year.

2008 was a year firsts for the OAO on several fronts.

We attended the Ontario Public health Association’s

annual conference for the first time in October. Dr.

Ulakovic provided a first ever lecture at the Ontario

Occupational Nurses Association (OOhNA) Conference

on primary eye care and the workplace, while Dr.

Dennis Ruskin presented at the live smart Canadian

Diabetes Association Expo in Mississauga.

At the largest scientific conference for family physicians,

the Family Medicine Forum, OAO arranged to have Dr.

Christopher hudson, from the University of Waterloo,

present a workshop on the role of optometrists in the

•Evaluatethegatheredinformationtoformulatea

contact and awareness plan that will encompass

grassroots PR via members talking to media

(promoting within community) and strategic media

buys by OAO (promoting provincially)

•Evaluatewaysofleveragingthemembershipmore

effectively through casual and social media to

create a grassroots/groundswell voice and

participation that is unofficial yet monitored

•Determinekeymessagingopportunitiestolink

eye and vision health to other healthcare media

items (such as diabetes)

•Determinehowthesekeymessagescanbe

deployed within a message specific to the disease

or condition but still retain referentiality to

optometry

•Determinetargetaudiencestratification(parents,

seniors, first nations, etc) and how diseases/

conditions, access points, economic needs,

interests, risks play to each audience group

•Determinemethodsofcontinuingtodifferentiate

Optometry from other “O’s”

in addition to this proposed agenda, a brief review of

media use patterns was conducted, in addition to a

review of projected and actual costs of media buys that

had been collected from publishers, media outlets and

subsidiary consultants.

A membership survey has been deployed as part of

the knowledge gain process and additional data on

distribution channels to healthcare stakeholders has

been conducted. Once the data has been gathered and

reviewed from the membership survey the task force

will reconvene to discuss next steps and bench tests.

in addition to this process, a number of initiatives have

been ongoing, including:

•TenfreeOAO1/2pageadsappearedinvarious

issues of the ‘Family Physician’, the monthly jour-

nal of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

it is ranked the number one journal for family

doctors.

22


•RNAO(RegisteredNursesAssociationofOntario)

•CanadianDiabetesAssociationSymposia

EmployEE poliCy mAnuAl (Epm) tAsk FoRCE

The Employee Policy Manual Task Force lead by Dr.

Bruce lidkea launched the first phase of the Employee

Policy and Procedure Manual in early september in

time for renewals. The project was initially intended

to be based around email and website posting

communications but it was identified that a free, secure

Wiki site could be leveraged to provide a multi-faceted

forum for development and discussion.

This resource was duly launched, with the majority of

Board Members joining as contributors. After a period

of steady growth and participation, Dr. lidkea initiated

a mass invitation to all members and the Employee

Policy Manual Wiki has become a highly sought after

resource with a significant number of contributors.

The Employee Policy Manual is designed to guide

members in building their own manual for their offices

and is multi-contributory. Future efforts in this respect

may see the Wiki manual being absorbed into the OAO

Members’ Portal component of the website and the

finalized document will become a key resource for new

graduates and established professionals alike.

care of patients with diabetes. in addition to the

lecture, OAO took part in their trade show and shared

first prize as “Best in innovation” with CAO as selected

by their physician delegates.

Our speaking engagements continued at the Registered

Nurse Practitioners of Ontario conference – which

included a pair of guest lectures by Dr. William Ulakovic

on hypertension.

The healthcare stakeholder Task Force continues to

create new and relevant materials to continue to edu-

cate physicians and nurses on behalf of OAO members.

Work is being completed for the newest edition (2009-

2010) of the Directory and Desk Reference of Ontario

Optometrists for physicians and nurses. The product

introduces many new OAO brand design elements, new

resources and will be showcased at upcoming trade

shows and mailed out to over 2,500 physicians and

nurses. Plans are also afoot to render the entire

Directory in an electronic format so that it can be

accessed easily online through the OAO website with-

out the need to download the file.

tRAdEshows AttEndEd

•FamilyMedicineForum(CollegeofFamily

Physicians of Canada)

•OOHNA(OntarioOccupationalHealthNurses

Association)

•OPHA(OntarioPublicHealthAssociation)

•PrimaryCareToday

The healThcare sTaKeholder TasK

force conTinues To creaTe new and

relevanT maTerials To conTinue To

educaTe physicians and nurses on

behalf of oao members.

23


where do we go from here? our outlook is clear; we need to take advantage of the opportunities we have today to strengthen our membership community, build participation and focus on the big picture, rather than on short term tactics.

Achieving Tomorrow’s Goals

25

2009 must then be about speaking out, about speak-

ing up, about all of us taking the time to participate in

lending our voices through all of our media channels

– both new media and the traditional tried and true – to

ensure that we support our profession and stand up as

leaders in communities if indeed there are more chal-

lenging times to come.

By continuing to deftly manage aspects such as TPA

Regulations, Conflict of interest Regulations, to fight

unregulated sight testing by opticians, to aim to build

a unified voice for Optometry that spans across the

association, the college, to students and practicing

Optometrists alike we can continue building on our

success.

Today is the time to make our move. Today is our oppor-

tunity to work together in forging a vision of tomorrow.

let us use our strength wisely but energetically in build-

ing the future for Optometry in Ontario.

if preceding years have brought about major change in

the way the profession of Optometry is regulated, how

we prescribe and practice, then the years to come must

build on the advantageous position we find ourselves

in. The year that has just passed has focused on reme-

diating interim challenges and on building a platform

for future voices, future ideas and future initiatives.

Today is The Time To maKe our move. Today is our opporTuniTy To worK TogeTher in forging a vision of Tomorrow.

We are fortunate to now have the tools available to let

us speak to our membership more effectively, to help

our membership speak to the public more effectively

and to advocate more vociferously for Optometry. These

new tools and new opportunities are, however, only as

beneficial as we are willing to make them.

2009 ACE Report

2000 Argentia Road, Plaza 3, suite 300

Mississauga, ON l5N 1v9

Tel: 905-826-3522

Fax: 905-826-0625

Toll Free: 800-540-3837

Web: www.optom.on.ca

ontario association of optometrists 2009 annual

Documents