Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology

The pao fulfills its mission by providing education for doctors and their staff, by advocating for ophthalmologists and their patients in the state legislature, and promoting preventative eye care to the citizens of Pennsylvania. Activities that support this mission include: 1) pao, with the help of their government relations firm, provided input to state legislators promoting school age children in Pennsylvania with low-cost vision screenings as opposed to costly eye exams each year. This is legislation was enacted in 2020 but has been reintroduced and continues to be of concern. The pao also worked to inform state legislators and the administration of the low medicare reimbursements for pediatric ophthalmologists. Currently, it is the lowest amount in all 50 states. 2)pao's young ophthalmologists committees sponsored 3 webinars for early career ophthalmologists that were open to full membership on "choosing your career path in Ophthalmology- and "negotiating your first employment contract- and continues the popular pao state-wide virtual grand rounds competition. The young ophthalmologist committee was honored with a star award at the 2023 national meeting. This year they added 2 in-person networking events for residents and early-career ophthalmologists. 3)the program for early career ophthalmologists called "the business of Ophthalmology" included three live webinars on topics not covered by formal medical education: practice management, billing coding, and the insurance perspective, and personal finance. The series was endorsed by the national organization and there are plans to expand the series in pa. 4)pao sponsored several educational webinars for continuing medical education (cme) credits free to our members: "2023 annual symposium: glaucoma" "tips to distinguish inherited maculopathy from amd," "strategies to slow the progress of childhood myopia- and "omic-endophthalmitis - lessons learned- and patient safety " " live webinars provided 6 hours of cme. Our three in-person medical coding seminars were attended by more than 150 attendees. 5)the pao published two print newsletters in 2023 and published 2 digital newsletters as well as over 37 informational e-blasts to the membership on topics of state advocacy, updates in pa provider changes, medical license renewals, certified ophthalmic assistant programs, and loss of residency rotation.