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What role does ARBO play with the regulatory boards?

To start, ARBO is a member organization made up of optometric regulatory boards in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. ARBO’s only interests are those of its member boards and of the regulations that the optometry boards are charged with enforcing. Simply put, ARBO’s mission is to serve its member boards.

ARBO provides services and programs for its members to lessen the burden on state/provincial governments for:

Initial licensure:

• NBERC – National Board Examination Review Committee
  • NBERC is responsible for ensuring that the National Board Exams meet all requirements for testing the entry-level competency of optometrists.
  • ARBO’s member boards rely on the National Board Exams when issuing a license in their jurisdiction. The members, through NBERC, are able to review the exam development process and provide feedback and recommendations.

Maintenance of licensure:

• COPE– The Council on Optometric Practitioner Education, created by ARBO’s member boards, accredits continuing education activities and providers based on the requirements set by the optometric licensing boards.
• OE TRACKER– Captures and stores continuing education attendance data electronically for optometrists and licensing boards. The data can be accessed online by both the optometrist and the licensing board, saving time and paperwork by allowing for up to 100% electronic audit.

Regulatory Training and Research:

• ARBO’s Annual Meeting each year contains sessions for training of regulatory board members and a legal update of regulatory issues.
• ARBO will research regulatory issues for its members and find out how other regulators are dealing with the same issues.

Regulatory Capture

ARBO is aware of attempts at regulatory capture.  This is when a group tries to influence a regulatory board to think more about protection of the profession than protection of the health and welfare of the public. In order for regulatory bodies to be effective and defensible, they must be free of influences that may try to corrupt their mission. In many cases, this influence comes from the professional advocacy groups or any special interest group that may be affected by regulation. That is not to say that advocacy or special interest groups are bad. Quite the contrary; most serve their profession or special interest well. As a regulator, however, it is critical that the differences between advocacy and regulatory are understood.

Advocacy serves to protect the profession of optometry; regulatory serves to protect the public when receiving services from the optometric profession.  That does not mean that we work against professional advocacy organizations. Optometry is a proud profession and our professional organizations understand the importance of excellence in patient care and protection. In many ways, we fight the same battles for providing quality care for patients, but our roles are distinctly different.

Risks of Allowing Advocacy to Influence Regulatory

Most regulatory boards contain both optometrists and non-optometrist members. Optometrists have a significant role in regulation in that they are experts in the profession and are uniquely qualified to judge whether the services provided are competent, ethical, and meet the standards outlined in in law. However, if an advocacy group were to influence the judgment of an optometric board member that would constitute a significant conflict of interest and could jeopardize optometric representation on the board. Loss of optometric representation on regulatory boards would leave the boards without competent optometric expertise which could put the public at even greater risk.

One could rightly say that having any optometrist on a state or provincial licensing board creates a conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest often cannot be avoided, but they can be identified and managed to a satisfactory degree. Part of that management is to understand that all actions and judgments must be as government agents representing the best interest of the public we serve. We manage the conflict of interest by understanding our role as regulators and professional experts and not allowing our board position to be influenced (or seen as being influenced).

 

 

COPE began as a service for ARBO’s member boards to ensure the consistency and quality of optometric continuing education. The COPE accreditation program reduced the cost, redundancy, and confusion of trying to sort out the requirements of each individual state board.  Over time, the COPE accreditation program has evolved to meet the highest standards for independent, defensible continuing education. In 2017, in response to a resolution passed by ARBO’s member boards, the COPE program achieved the milestone of becoming substantially equivalent to ACCME, the gold standard in healthcare continuing education. Now, in 2018 another milestone has been reached.  COPE has joined into the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing EducationTM collaborative.  This accomplishment was also directed by a resolution passed by ARBO’s member boards.

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education offers organizations the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide medical, nursing, pharmacy, optometry, and PA continuing education through a single, unified application process, and set of accreditation standards. Joint Accreditation is the first and only program in the world offering this benefit.  A leading model for interprofessional collaborative practice, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education establishes the standards for education providers to deliver quality, independent, accredited interprofessional continuing education (IPCE).

Launched in 2009, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education began as a collaboration of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).  The American Academy of PAs (AAPA), and the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry’s Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE) joined the collaborative in January 2018.

Interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) is when members from two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, 2015).  Since its introduction, interprofessional continuing education has been shown to improve practice and patient outcomes. Jointly accredited CE providers can identify opportunities for team-based education through practice gap analysis and determine how team-based education can support healthcare priorities at much higher levels than the individual level including institutional, community, national, and/or international level.

Why Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional CE Is Important

• National and international health leadership organizations have identified interprofessional education and team-based care as a critical component of healthcare improvement.
• The Institute of Medicine’s seminal 2003 report Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality stated that health professionals need to “cooperate, communicate, and integrate care in teams to ensure that care is continuous and reliable.”
• According to the World Health Organization, interprofessional education is an action that “occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.” (Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice, WHO, 2010)
• Joint Accreditation promotes interprofessional education that leads to improved healthcare delivery and better patient outcomes.

High Standards

• To be eligible for Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, an organization needs to demonstrate that for the previous 18 months its structure and processes to plan and present education by and for the healthcare team have been fully functional; and that at least 25% of its educational activities have been designed by and for healthcare teams. Also, the organization must demonstrate compliance with the Joint Accreditation criteria.
• Jointly accredited continuing education providers must meet rigorous standards for educational quality and independence–including the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support: Standards to Ensure Independence in CME ActivitiesSM.
• With Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, AAPA, and ARBO/COPE seek to assure the public that healthcare teams receive education designed to be independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality and safety of care delivered by the team.

Benefits and Opportunities

• Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education increases operational efficiency, saving time, money, and resources for continuing education providers, as they can take advantage of one unified, streamlined process rather than obtaining different accreditations.
• Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education enables continuing education providers to position their programs as strategic partners in local, national, and international efforts to advance team-based care and healthcare improvement.

Given the breadth, depth, quality, and diversity the COPE program has achieved, ARBO has provided its member boards with a tool that should be considered the required standard for all optometric continuing education.

 

*Much of the informational content was taken from the Joint Accreditation website: http://www.jointaccreditation.org

The COPE program was established by ARBO in 1993 to accredit continuing education on behalf of optometric licensing boards in order to define the educational standards for license renewal. These standards reduce the duplication and burden on state and provincial boards and their governments by providing a system of ensuring the quality and defensibility of continuing education. The COPE system helps to ensure the competency of optometrists applying for renewed licensure.

ARBO has evolved the COPE accreditation system to align with medicine and other healthcare professions. In August of 2017, the COPE program was deemed substantially equivalent to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) CME accreditation system. To achieve ACCME equivalency, COPE submitted to an extensive, voluntary, review process and was deemed substantially equivalent to the ACCME’s accreditation requirements, criteria, policies, and decision-making process.

So, what is substantial ACCME equivalency?

CE/CME Accreditors are considered substantially equivalent by the ACCME if they support CE/CME that:

• Enhances physician performance
• Is based on data describing physicians’ educational needs (i.e., by identifying professional practice gaps).
• Has effectiveness assessed as it relates to physician performance or health status improvements, (measuring outcomes and determining if the educational objectives were met, i.e., will the CE help make you a better doctor and will your patients be healthier).
• Is developed with the control of the content, quality, and scientific integrity being the responsibility of the CE/CME provider (the program is independent of commercial influence and follows the Standards for Commercial Support).

CE has changed . . .

CE/CME is no longer simply about getting hours because you need them for license renewal. Research shows that CE/CME is most effective when it’s based on practice-based needs assessment and focused on outcomes. The COPE Accreditation system requires CE to be based on the educational needs of optometrists to improve competence, performance and patient outcomes. COPE also requires an assessment of CE activities to determine if the educational objective were met for continuous quality improvement.

Why is ACCME equivalency important to COPE and Optometry?

• With healthcare moving towards a more team-based approach, CE/CME now often requires collaborative education efforts.
• COPE accredited CE will now use the same standards as medicine and other healthcare professions and will be seen as equivalent education.
• COPE accredited CE is defensible to legislatures and review commissions.
• COPE’s Standards for Commercial Support, adopted from the ACCME, provide a safe harbor for industry support of optometric CE.
• COPE accredited CE is now an even stronger tool for licensing boards to confidently determine that licensees are meeting the highest standards of continued competence.

What does this mean for licensing boards?

There is a big difference between ‘accepted’ CE and ‘accredited’ CE. In the beginning, each board decided what type of education was ‘acceptable’ for re-licensure. This was based on very well-meaning and dedicated board members who were doing the best they could at the time to determine if the education met minimal standards. To be sure, we stand on the shoulders of many of those early board members. However, health care has changed, and the stakes are higher in the public protection game. Gone are the days when we can simply ‘accept’ CE based on local tradition.

Healthcare providers in all professions are held to a higher standard and so are the boards that license them. To ensure their licensees are competent, licensing boards must require CE that meets the highest standards in the industry and can stand up to the scrutiny of public demand and government oversight. COPE is a comprehensive system of accrediting CE which includes continuously improving quality measures to promote an innovative learning experience with diverse content. COPE was created by you for you and it is the only CE accreditation program in optometry able to deliver those high standards. Your board will be well served to accept only CE that meets COPE’s and ACCME’s accreditation standards.   With anything less are you really doing your job of protecting the public?

Continuing education (CE) has traditionally been the benchmark for measuring continued competence for optometrists. Because currently, CE is the only method, licensing boards have to assure the competence of their licensees and registrants; it is critical that the CE accepted for license renewal meets the highest standards and that the accreditation program is defensible. COPE (Council on Optometric Practitioner Education) Accreditation assures licensing boards that the CE is independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in improving the quality of care delivered to patients.

COPE was created by ARBO to accredit continuing education on behalf of optometric licensing boards. COPE’s Objectives are to:
• Accredit optometric continuing education providers and activities for the public welfare;
• Monitor programs to help assure the quality and independence of continuing education in appropriate settings with adequate administration;
• Reduce duplication of effort by member boards;
• Create a uniform method of recording continuing education activities;
• Be the reference source for member boards for information about continuing education providers and activities utilized by licensed optometrists to fulfill their continuing education requirements.

Why COPE?

COPE administrators and providers must meet rigorous standards for educational quality and independence. CE has evolved from merely sharing medical knowledge to developing professional competencies to improve healthcare outcomes. COPE has also changed by adding Standards for Commercial Support (SCS)to assure CE is free from the control of commercial interests. Additionally, the new COPE Accreditation Criteria require CE providers to incorporate the educational needs of their learners in their CE planning process and to analyze changes in the learners based on goals of improving skills, strategies, and patient outcomes. COPE is now the gold standard in optometric CE – there is no higher standard.

Can Licensing Boards Accredit Their Own CE?

If a licensing board has accreditation standards, policies, and procedures in place for accrediting CE, then they can certainly do it themselves. However, are those standards as stringent as COPE’s?
Do they require independence from commercial interests?
Are the course materials reviewed to make sure they comply with the standards?
Are there requirements for educational planning and outcomes assessment?
Do they require the CE to change the skill, strategy, or patient outcomes of the optometrist?
How is the education reviewed to make sure it complies with the requirements?
How does the board handle complaints about CE that isn’t in compliance?
Are there better things that your board could be doing instead of approving CE applications?

You may not have answers to these questions. The good news is that COPE is a tool available for you to assure that the CE you accept for license renewal is of the highest quality and meets the same standards as other healthcare professions.

Why Is COPE Under ARBO?

ARBO is not a CE provider. Therefore, ARBO does not have any conflicts of interest related commercial entities. The COPE SCS provide clear guidelines to identify and manage the conflicts that are present with CE providers when they accept commercial support. The COPE program is an independent system of accreditation based on established standards and aligned with other healthcare professions. State and provincial licensing boards created COPE and those boards, being members of ARBO, can continually review the program to make sure it meets their needs.

Would you want an external body to make accreditation decisions without allowing for your input? Do you consider continuing education requirements for license renewal simply fulfilling a number of hours? With COPE, you have a voice in the accreditation process. CE accreditation under any other organization would not give you the same input into the accreditation requirements ARBO provides. State and provincial regulatory boards need a CE accreditation program that is defensible in meeting their public protection mandate. COPE, the CE accreditation program established by you for you, will stand up to any legislative or medical review and provides the most defensible program for optometric CE.

Continuing Education Accreditors for Physician Assistants and Optometrists Collaborate with Accreditors in Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy to Advance Healthcare Education for the Team, by the Team

Chicago, IL; Silver Spring, MD; Charlotte, NC; Alexandria, VA

January 19, 2018

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ is pleased to announce a new collaboration with the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) and the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry’s Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE).

Since 2009, Joint Accreditation has offered organizations the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide continuing education for physicians, pharmacists, and nurses through a unified accreditation process and set of accreditation standards. The new collaboration expands Joint Accreditation, giving jointly accredited interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) organizations the option to include PAs (physician assistants) and optometrists in their education programs, without needing to attain separate accreditations with AAPA and COPE.

The accreditors collaborated to expand Joint Accreditation in response to requests from jointly accredited organizations and because of their commitment to team-based education. The goal of the expansion is to increase the benefits that jointly accredited organizations already receive from the unified accreditation process and to support their efforts to deliver high-quality, effective IPCE that improves team collaboration and patient care.

Leadership Comments

“We celebrate our collaboration with our colleague accreditors, AAPA and COPE, because it empowers educators to expand the diversity of their IPCE programs. With IPCE, all voices are heard—and this collaboration promotes the involvement of more professions in improving team care for the patients we all serve.”—Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®)

“Our role as accreditors is to listen to our community of IPCE educators and create more opportunities for them to improve the quality of IPCE. As a result of our collaboration with AAPA and COPE, jointly accredited organizations can bring more professions together to learn from, about, and with each other, with the common goal of addressing healthcare challenges and improving patient care.” — Peter H. Vlasses, PharmD, DSc (Hon), FCCP, Executive Director, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)

“Our community of jointly accredited IPCE providers has demonstrably improved collaborative care among healthcare professionals and patient outcomes. This new opportunity enables them to benefit patients by building stronger, more inclusive teams. We welcome our colleague accreditors at AAPA and COPE to our Joint Accreditation team and look forward to working together to advance interprofessional collaborative practice in healthcare education delivery.”—Kathy Chappell, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, Senior Vice President, Accreditation, Certification,

Measurement, and the Institute for Credentialing Research, American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)

“AAPA and the PA profession are committed to team practice and collaboration, which are critical to improving patient outcomes. We are excited to work with ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, and COPE on the Joint Accreditation team, and through this effort, add the PA voice to valuable interprofessional conversations about improving team-based care and the patient experience.”—L. Gail Curtis, PA-C, MPAS, DFAAPA, President and Chair of the AAPA Board of Directors

“ARBO is honored and thrilled that COPE has become a member of the Joint Accreditation team. This is the culmination of over 20 years of work to advance and promote high standards and quality in optometric continuing education. It is also a recognition that optometrists are vital members of the healthcare team. The mission of COPE has always been to improve patient outcomes. By entering into this collaboration with ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, and AAPA, all organizations can join together to improve the quality of medical care delivered by the entire healthcare team.”—Richard Orgain, OD, President, Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO)

Joint Accreditation Media Inquiries

Tamar Hosansky 312-245-4066 thosansky@accme.org

Megan Peters Jovic 312-245-4054 mpeters@accme.org

Joint Accreditation Eligibility Inquiries

info@jointaccreditation.org

Joint Accreditation Speaking Engagements

Joint Accreditation executive leaders are available for speaking engagements to discuss the opportunities for continuing education to advance interprofessional education and collaborative practice through the Joint Accreditation program. For more information, please contact: info@jointaccreditation.org.

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About Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ establishes the standards for organizations to deliver continuing education planned by the healthcare team for the healthcare team. This innovation promotes interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) that leads to improved healthcare delivery and better patient outcomes.

Joint Accreditation enables organizations to achieve distinction from the leading healthcare continuing education accreditors in the professions of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and optometry. Joint Accreditation helps organizations increase operational efficiency, saving time, money, and resources; provide continuing education for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, PAs, and optometrists separately or together; and improve collaboration and reduce hierarchies

among healthcare professions. Jointly accredited providers are entitled to award Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits.

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education was founded in 2009 by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). For more information, visit www.jointaccreditation.org.

ARBO exists to serve its member boards and to reduce the burden on both your board and the government you serve. Fundamental to our responsibility as a regulatory board member is understanding the lines and boundaries between knowledge of the profession, professional advocacy and regulatory responsibility.

Optometrists are valuable as board members because of the thorough knowledge of the profession. However, most optometrists love what they do and love the profession, and it’s easy to blur the lines of responsibility between what’s best for the public we serve (regulatory) and what’s best for the profession (advocacy). As difficult as this may sometimes be, it is critical that we know the difference and wear the proper hat at the proper time.

So let’s go over some fundamentals.

Regulatory 101

What’s the point of regulation in our profession?

• To reduce the risk of public harm
• Regulation creates in law, a licensing and enforcement system

So what exactly do we do as an optometric regulatory board member?

• We enforce initial licensure standards by ensuring that new licensees have graduated from an accredited school of optometry, have successfully passed an accredited examination that tests entry level competence and experience and finally, are they of good moral character.
• We investigate complaints and enforce the Practice Act of our state or province.
• We investigate with the power to discipline practitioners who fail to meet the standards of practice and/or are accused of misconduct, incompetence, or incapacity.
• We establish and enforce rules for license renewal and continued competence.
• We are the guardians of public safety for the optometric profession – no small task and with great responsibility.

What are the characteristics of a good regulator?

• Works as a team player. Develops consensus among board members
• Devoted to the public welfare
• Objective and able to look at issues from various perspectives
• A good communicator
• Respectful, fair and honest

The Elevator Speech

(from Dale Atkinson’s talk at the Washington DC ARBO meeting in June 2017)

That roll-off-your-tongue explanation of what we do as regulators. You should know it by heart. It used to be “we protect the public” was the standard line, but that’s just not enough anymore to really capture the essence of what we do as regulators. We need to cover some more basic elements:

• Our regulatory board was created by statute
• The standards we follow are set forth in law, which includes statutes as well as rules and regulations
• We are delegated with the authority to enforce the laws, rules and regulations
• We are subject to appropriate government oversight
• We are authorized to promulgate rules and regulations
• AND….we protect the public.

So, if you put it all together…

“The optometry board is statutorily created and delegated with the authority to regulate the optometry profession in the interest of protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public. With necessary oversight by government, the board enforces standards and criteria set forth in statute and adds specificity through the promulgation of regulations. The effectiveness and efficiencies of the board is enhanced by populating the board with a combination of consumer members as well as those with the expertise necessary to address the complexities of profession specific issues. An administrative regulatory system provides consumers with an assurance of the qualifications of licensees along with a means of enforcement for the benefit of the public.”

– Dale J. Atkinson, Esq.

Charlotte, NC – The Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE®) CE accreditation system has been deemed Substantially Equivalent to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) CME accreditation system. To achieve this status, COPE submitted to an extensive, voluntary, review process and was deemed substantially equivalent to the ACCME’s accreditation requirements, criteria, policies, and decision-making process. The process also included an accreditation interview and verification of the successful implementation of the COPE provider accreditation program.

CE/CME Accreditors are considered substantially equivalent by the ACCME if they support CE/CME that: enhances physician performance; is based on data describing physicians’ educational needs; has effectiveness assessed as it relates to physician performance or health status improvements; and is developed with the control of the content, quality and scientific integrity being the responsibility of the CE/CME provider.

To meet the needs of a continuously changing environment, COPE has adapted over time to be consistent with the CE/CME accreditation community. In 2010, COPE implemented Standards for Commercial Support (SCS) and later adopted the ACCME SCS aligning with other healthcare professions. Uniformity in the principles and outcomes of accredited CE/CME is valuable and physician learners are assured their educational programs meet consistent and high standards regardless of profession.

COPE has historically accredited individual CE activities. In January, an option was introduced for accreditation of CE providers, thus allowing greater freedom and flexibility. “We’ve modernized the COPE accreditation system to align with other health professions. CE/CME is no longer simply about getting hours because you need them for license renewal. Research shows that CE/CME is most effective when it’s based upon practice-based needs assessment and focused on outcomes. With these changes, we’re able to demonstrate that COPE accredited CE has positive effects on optometrists’ knowledge, performance, and patient outcomes,” says Dr. James Campbell, COPE Committee Chair.

Dr. Richard Orgain, ARBO President, commented, “We’re very excited that COPE has achieved substantial equivalency with ACCME. With healthcare moving towards a team-based approach, CE/CME now often requires collaborative education efforts. With COPE’s accreditation process COPE Press Release August 2017 recognized as equivalent to the other healthcare professions, the door is open for optometrists to participate in interprofessional continuing education.”

COPE was established in 1993 to accredit continuing education on behalf of optometric licensing boards for the public welfare. Over 52,000 activities have been accredited since the inception of the program. ARBO is a non-profit organization based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and serves 66 regulatory agencies in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. For more information on ARBO, please contact Lisa Fennell, ARBO Executive Director, 200 South College Street, Suite 2030, Charlotte, NC 28202 ph: (704) 970-2710 or e-mail: lfennell@arbo.org.

At its recent annual meeting in Washington, DC, the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) elected Thomas M. Bobst, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Jeffery B. Yunker to its Board of Directors. New ARBO board members introduced below.

Dr. Bobst is a graduate of Illinois College of Optometry who practices optometry in North Olmsted, Ohio. Dr. Bobst has served on the Ohio State Board of Optometry since 2011 and was President of the Board in 2014. Prior to being elected to the Board of Directors, Dr. Bobst served on ARBO’s COPE and National Board Exam Review Committees and was Chair of the National Board Exam Review Committee in 2016- 2017. Dr. Bobst is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the American Optometric Association and Ohio Optometric Association.

Dr. Yunker is a graduate of Indiana University School of Optometry who practices optometry at Lifetime Vision in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Dr. Yunker has served on the North Dakota Board of Optometry since 2005 and has been Chairman of the Board of Optometry for eight years. Prior to being elected to the Board of Directors, Dr. Yunker served on ARBO’s OE TRACKER and Nominating Committees and has been Chair of the OE TRACKER Committee since 2014. Dr. Yunker is also a member of the American Optometric Association, North Dakota Optometric Association, and Professional Eye Care Associates of America.

At its recent Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) elected new officers for their Board of Directors for the 2017- 2018 term. The new officers are:

President: Richard C. Orgain, O.D., Tennessee

Vice President: James S. Campbell, O.D., West Virginia

Secretary-Treasurer: Patrick W. O’Neill, O.D., F.A.A.O., Minnesota

Immediate Past President: Gregory S. Moore, O.D., West Virginia

The other Directors of the ARBO Board for the 2017-2018 term are:

• Thomas M. Bobst, O.D., F.A.A.O., Ohio
• William B. Rafferty, O.D., F.A.A.O., North Carolina
• Coby S. Ramsey, O.D., Wyoming
• Jerry A. Richt, O.D., Tennessee
• Susy Yu, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O., California
• Jeffery B. Yunker, O.D., North Dakota