Ophthalmology Department Student Employees Graduating
In the first of a series of Graduation articles, we congratulate the four student employees who graduate this month.
Chart Control has three students graduating and all three plan to relocate to Des Moines. Morgan Gehringer will be taking her Boards soon and plans to find a job in Nursing, preferably in Pediatric Nursing. Ashlee Inman will be working for Lutheran Service. David Tursi is seeking a job in Finance. The Library's student employee, Dani Pitlick, will be starting graduate school in the Master's Program in Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa.
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| Morgan Gehringer, Ashlee Inman, and David Tursi (l to r) | Dani Pitlick |
Annual Spring Dedication Ceremony, May 20
You are invited to attend the Annual Spring Dedication Ceremony on Thursday, May 20th at 3pm. Held at the Iowa Lions Donor Memorial and Healing Garden located outside the Main Entrance to the UI Hospitals and Clinics, the ceremony honors eye, organ and tissue donors and recipients and all those who support the work of donation. Attached is a copy of the program. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held in the East Room, 8th Floor, Elevator F.
Refreshments will be served and all faculty and staff are welcome to attend. Contact Deb Schuett at 356-2871 or debra-omeara@uiowa.edu if you have questions. (program, pdf)
Artwork by Laura J. Larabee, Sabula, Iowa
3rd Annual MERS Conference Scheduled
The 3rd Midwest Eye Research Symposium will be held on Friday, June 25, 2010 in the Seebohm conference room, Eckstein Medical Research Building
(EMRB).
For the past few years the research groups in this Department have hosted the "Midwest Eye Research Symposium" (MERS), Sponsored by the UI Carver Family Center for Macular Degeneration.
The symposium covers all aspects of vision science. The one-day meeting has always been an enjoyable and interesting exchange of knowledge and ideas. Last year's meeting included about 60 participants from Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin, The Medical College of Wisconsin, the North Texas Health Science Center, and the University of Iowa. The quality of the presented science was high and the atmosphere was collegial and fun.
This year sessions in the meeting will be moderated by
- Dr. Neena Haider from the University of Nebraska, whose work centers on retinal development
- Dr. Steve DeVries, a spectacular electrophysiologist from Northwestern University
- Dr. Rob Mullins, a very talented guy who recently became the "Best Professor"
- Dr. Deborah Ferrington, from the University of Minnesota whose research involves AMD and the immunophagosome.
You are invited to come spend the day if you can or sttand select presentations. You might even consider presenting some of your own work (if so, please register). Registration is not necessary for attendance. However, if you would like to present or partake in the catered lunch, registration is necessary. Last year's abstracts, additional information, registration forms, and more can be found on the MERS website at www.EyeInterestGroup.org/MERS.html
Please contact Markus Kuehn if you have any questions.
Library Construction Mess, May 12-20
The Library is being given a facelift; we will be experiencing some noise and confusion until May 20th. It will be a mess for awhile, including very limited access to the library computers, some dust, paint fumes, and noise. However, it will all be worth it in the end, so Rita and I beg your patience.
UI Optical FYI
Not all lens powers and lens designs are available in higher index lens materials. To avoid disappointing your patient, it is best to check with one of the UI Optical opticians before promising a thinner lens to your patients with high refractive errors. You can reach UI Optical by calling 4-9922.
This is a regular column by the UI Optical opticians designed to provide you with answer to questions routinely asked by our patients. If you have specific questions you would like to see answered in this column, please forward your questions to trish-duffel@uiowa.edu and then look for the answer in the weeks to come.
Vote for Sight for Soldiers
Pepsi Refresh is hosting a contest to win a $50,000 grant to help defray LASIK costs for Iowa National Guard troops deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq this fall. The grant that would go straight to the troops undergoing LASIK and that the top 10 projects in online voting will each win $50,000. We need all the votes we can muster!
Please take a minute every day the month of May to support our soldiers! It's free, it's easy, and you will help defray the cost of laser surgery to Iowa National Guard troops.
The Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology is sponsoring Sight for Soldiers, a project to provide discounted laser surgery for Iowa National Guard soldiers going to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. This is important because the combat conditions make it impossible to wear contacts and glasses can be dangerous and difficult to wear in the field with the other protective eye gear. Even with the discounts, troops have to pay significant money out of pocket. This $50,000 grant would go back to these soldiers to help with that cost. Grant recipients are determined by VOTES!
It's easy, it's free, it will take you a few seconds each day! Just go to www.refresheverything.com every day in May and VOTE for this project! To get started:
Go to: www.refresheverything.com and in the Search box in upper right corner, type: Laser
Our grant: "Laser Eye Surgery for National Guard soldiers going to Afghanistan" will appear on top
On right, click: Vote for this idea
The first time you will need to sign in, answer a few questions, and create a password. You can now vote every day for the month of May. You have 10 votes each day, but can only vote once for each idea, so please only vote for ours!
Help the Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology support our Iowa National Guard soldiers going to Afghanistan and Iraq! Just VOTE every day in the month of May.
Graduation Is Sooner Than You Think
Ophthalmology Resident and Fellow Graduates
Residents and Fellows graduating this June: please send Trish a note (trish-duffel@uiowa.edu) about your plans after graduating. Please do not assume someone else will give me this information, they won't.
The information is used in a special supplement to the Ophthalmology Update (see last year's issue) and will also appear in abbreviated form in a future Iowa Vision.
Where you are planning to go from here? The information need not be anything long and involved… "Entering private practice with (name of practice or who you will be practicing with) in (City, state, country)" or "Will be an assistant professor of (specialty) at (Institution) in (location)" or "continuing my studies with an additional fellowship in (specialty) at (institution) in (location)"
DEADLINE: June 1.
Family Members of Local Graduates
Each year the Ophthalmology Update includes a supplement with information about our sons, daughters, spouses, grandchildren, who are graduating from high school, college, graduate school, professional school (and kindergarten and preschool…) This has been a very popular supplement over the years. We’ve followed a few graduates from high school graduation through college and graduate/professional school. Please don't assume I know about your graduate unless you tell me. (I am blissfully oblivious occasionally.)
If you would like a family member included in this year’s supplement please send the information to Trish Duffel (trish-duffel@uiowa.edu). Please include your graduate’s name, your relationship to the graduate, where they are graduating from, what their plans are for the future (Going on to college? Where and what major if known. Taking a job somewhere? Where? etc.) ALSO, please send Trish a jpeg image or loan her a photo of your graduate to scan (She promises to return it). See last year’s supplement.
DEADLINE: June 1.
Parting Shot
Patti Heitshusen's son and daughter-in-law (William and Abby) have appeared twice in the periodical, "Military Spouse" in March and May 2010. The May issue had a full-page photo of their wedding. (click on photo at right for enlargement).