News & Notes

Big news for our military candidates! With our transition to Scantron for exam delivery, ABO is excited to announce that the board certification exam will now be available to optometrists serving in the US military overseas. Previously, military members could apply and be approved to sit for the exam, but had to return to the US to take the exam. We can now offer the exam during normal testing windows at most US military bases and installations around the world. Please contact our office at 314.983.4226 or [email protected] for more information.

Our next webinar is coming up soon! On Wednesday, February 17^th, Dr. Sowmya Srinivas will present Retinal OCT Interpretation beginning at 8:00 pm ET. Email invitations for the webinar will be sent out by February 10^th so watch your inbox! As always, if you can’t make the live webinar on the 17^th, it will be available as a recorded webinar on www.americanboardofoptometry.org 7-10 days after the live event.

Congratulations to those Diplomates who have successfully passed 7 CAP assessments! We have 25 Diplomates who have already completed the required 7 assessments, along with all other MOC activities. We encourage Diplomates to complete all 9 assessments for the CE credit and educational value. You will continue to have access to your Learning Plan and remaining assessments even after you have successfully submitted your MOC cycle and it has been approved.

Watch your email for a survey regarding subspecialty recognition in optometry. The short survey will be sent to all Diplomates and candidates in mid-February and we ask that you take a few minutes to complete it. ABO has formed an exploratory committee to begin looking at specialty areas of interest in optometry and the survey will serve as a starting point for future discussions.

Don’t miss Review of Optometry’s Letter to the Editor by AOA President and ABO Diplomate William T. Reynolds, OD. In the January 15^th edition, Dr. Reynolds comments on current events surrounding Hubble Contacts and the work AOA, along with other organizations like the National Consumers League, is doing to keep patient safety at the forefront. You can read the article here.

COPE has extended rules modifications for CE through June 30, 2021. Although vaccine distribution has started and there is hope that in-person meetings will begin to slowly return as we make our way through 2021, COPE has extended the modifications for CE through at least June 30^th. Rules have been temporarily modified to allow COPE Administrators and Accredited Providers to give LIVE credit for CE courses if they are presented in an INTERACTIVE DISTANCE LEARNING format. For complete details on the rules modifications please visit ARBO’s website.