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Charlotte, NC – The Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE) held a training workshop on Friday, April 1, 2016 to educate CE providers on its new accreditation criteria and changes to the COPE accreditation processes. Over 100 people attended the workshop which took place at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. Attendees of the workshop included Optometry/Medical Schools, State/Regional Optometric Associations, Insurance/Health Benefits Companies, Media/Journals, Ophthalmology Practices, National CE Providers, Medical Education Companies, International CE Providers, and State Boards of Optometry.

The workshop was designed to assist optometric CE professionals in developing strategies to ensure their organizational compliance with the COPE Accreditation Criteria, Standards for Commercial Support, and COPE policies. In addition to representatives from COPE, there were speakers at the workshop from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medication Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEHP). There was also a presentation on Best Practices in CE/CME from the Veterans Health Administration Employee Education System (VHA EES). COPE announced in 2015 that it was changing its CE accreditation system to be equivalent to other healthcare professions, to support the overall direction towards collaborative, inter-disciplinary care for better patient outcomes and improved community health.

The workshop provided participants with an interactive platform to engage with their CE colleagues as well as members of the COPE Committee and ARBO Staff. Following the meeting attendees reported having a better understanding of why COPE accreditation is evolving and how the new requirements, which align COPE with other healthcare accreditors, will strengthen their CE programs. One attendee, Diana Durham, Associate Director for Accreditation, Veterans Health Administration Employee Education System (VHA EES), remarked, “I’m truly excited about the changes COPE is making to go in an interprofessional direction. We are currently accredited to provide continuing education to 18 different professions and I’m thrilled to add optometry to the list. Becoming a COPE Accredited Provider will allow the VHA EES to educate our optometrists to provide better care for veterans, which is the ultimate goal.”

COPE has historically accredited individual CE activities. Starting in 2017, CE providers will be able to choose to become an Accredited Provider, which allows them greater freedom and flexibility, or to continue to have their activities individually accredited by COPE. Dr. Susy Yu, ARBO President, commented, “The workshop was a huge success! We brought together a community of optometric CE professionals to learn the new process and share ideas with each other. We had such a great response to the workshop that we’re planning to make this an annual event.”

ARBO established COPE in 1993 to accredit continuing education on behalf of optometric licensing boards for the public welfare. There are over 2,000 CE Providers in the COPE system who have presented over 48,000 COPE accredited courses and events. ARBO is a non-profit organization based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and serves 66 Boards of Optometry 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.

COPE issued a call for public comment regarding changes to COPE policies in October 2014. There were 88 responses to the call for comment. COPE would like to thank those who commented. The COPE Committee reviewed the responses at their March 1, 2015 meeting and made recommendations to the ARBO Board of Directors who approved the following changes at their April 11, 2015 Board meeting. The COPE policy changes will be reported to the ARBO’s Member Boards at the ARBO Annual Meeting June 21-23, 2015. The changes will be effective July 1, 2015.

I. Instructor Qualification – The policy for instructor qualification will be amended to include nondoctorate level instructors who have expertise gained through specific training or experience. The expertise will have to be demonstrated in their CV. The CV must provide clear evidence that they are qualified to teach the course.

II. Distance Learning Policy – The distance learning policy regarding sponsoring the post-course test will continue to allow schools of medicine, pharmacy and osteopathy to sponsor the test in addition to schools of optometry. The distance learning policy will be modified to specify that the sponsoring school will be responsible for ensuring that the test and answer key are valid and that the grading process is objective. The school must ensure the administration and grading of the test is unbiased, if they are not grading the test themselves. This will allow COPE Administrators to do computerbased testing if the school has reviewed their grading process and can assure that it is not biased.

III. Credit Hours – The COPE policy on credit hours will be modified to allow credit to be granted for courses less than one hour in length.

• 0.25 hours/units, corresponding to 15 minutes of instructional time
• 0.5 hours/units, corresponding to 25 minutes of instructional time
• 1.0 hours/units, corresponding to 50 minutes of instructional time

NOTE: Some responses questioned the necessity of a 15-minute course. Courses with smaller increment hours are being utilized in other healthcare professions and by moving forward with smaller increments, COPE is allowing for more creativity in courses. Initially, shorter courses will most likely only be used for distance learning.

Michael Ohlson, OD, FAAO, ARBO Immediate Past President, was named Optometrist of the Year by the Iowa Optometric Association. Dr. Ohlson graduated from the University Of Houston College Of Optometry. He has been awarded Diplomate status in the American Academy of Optometry Primary Care Section and the American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry. Dr. Ohlson was also inducted as a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow of the National Academies of Practice in 2013.

Dr. Ohlson practices in West Union, Iowa. He serves as the low vision consultant to Iowa Educational Services for the Blind & Visually Impaired. His volunteer efforts include InfantSEE, Head Start, Lions Clubs International/Special Olympics Opening Eyes, and Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity/International. Dr. Ohlson resides in rural Iowa with his wife, Joleen, and daughter, Samantha.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) is pleased
to announce the development of a new OE TRACKER mobile app, available for Android and
iPhones. The app was created to assist COPE-approved Administrators and optometrists in
recording continuing education (CE) course attendance. Attendance is easily recorded by
scanning a course-specific QR code that submits the data directly into OE TRACKER immediately
after a course is completed.

OE TRACKER is used by optometrists, continuing education providers and licensing
boards to electronically track, report, and audit CE attendance. The attendance information is
usually supplied directly to ARBO by CE administrators and providers, but O.D.s can also fax
their CE certificates to the ARBO office to have the hours entered into their OE TRACKER
account. The addition of the OE TRACKER mobile app now allows attendance from COPE
courses to instantly be sent to OE TRACKER by simply scanning a QR code. Both CE attendees
and COPE Administrators can download the app to their iPhone or Android phone to record
attendance. Not only is it easy to use, but the app is free to optometrists and COPE-approved
Administrators.

Richard Orgain, O.D., Chair of the OE TRACKER Committee comments, “OE TRACKER
has entered into the next phase of tracking attendance electronically with the new mobile app.
Since we have introduced it, we’ve gotten great feedback on how quick and easy it is to use.
Optometrists love the fact that they receive immediate confirmation of credit on their smartphone.
We encourage all the optometrists and COPE Administrators to try the new OE TRACKER
mobile app.”

“I’m very excited that the OE TRACKER mobile app has made a positive change in the
way that CE providers and optometrists record CE attendance. We’re thrilled that ARBO is able
to provide this new tool to the optometric community, and I want to thank the OE TRACKER
OE TRACKER Smartphone App Committee for the time and effort it took to develop the app,”
says ARBO President Michael Ohlson, O.D., F.A.A.O.

For more information on the new OE TRACKER mobile app and a complete list of
directions for use, please visit https://www.arbo.org/smart_app.php or contact Lisa Fennell,
ARBO Executive Director, 200 South College Street, Suite 2030, Charlotte, NC 28202, ph:
(704) 970-2710, e-mail: lfennell@arbo.org.