ST. LOUIS--The Council on Practitioner Education (COPE) is now accepting and reviewing continuing-education course applications online.
COPE's parent, the Association of Regulatory Board of Optometry (ARBO), recently launched a completely redesigned Web site (www.arbo.org) and database that allow COPE course applications to be accepted and reviewed via the Internet. COPE's course reviewers can also use the program to return a completed review.
 |
| ARBO's Bob Smalling, OD, (l) chats with Pat Cummings, OD, of Vistakon at the recent American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting, where the new COPE program was announced. |
COPE has also developed a new online training course for reviewers, who can be certified after completing a four-module, one-hour education course. Over the next six months, it will conduct a series of administrator training sessions for CE providers: Feb. 25 at SECO International in Atlanta, May 20 at the Mountain West Congress in Las Vegas and June 24 at the American Optometric Assoc. meeting in Dallas.
These program enhancements were made possible through support from Johnson & Johnson's Vistakon division, according to ARBO. Noted Pat Cummings, OD, vice president of professional relations for Vistakon, "These changes in the COPE program will greatly enhance the quality of the continuing-education process for the profession."
Last September, ARBO announced a new optometric-education tracking program designed to provide a comprehensive verification of optometric data. Co-sponsored by Essilor of America, Alcon and Mikrotec Developers and its Eyesites.net subsidiary, the program is designed to capture CE attendance at various industry educational meetings. Attendance data is then transferred to an ARBO Web site for access by both ODs and state boards of optometry to verify attendance information.
So far about 1,200 ODs have already updated their information on the site, according to Robert Sorrell, OD, chair of ARBO's information and data committees.
