Optometric Curriculum:
The Integration of New Technologies
Health care delivery is being transformed in dramatic and challenging ways. PCO's curriculum expands the integration of information, clinical and instructional technologies throughout the curriculum. Students will learn how to access knowledge, including the use of information technology, manage information, and to apply that information in making decisions about patient care and health care delivery. The discipline of medical informatics will prepare our graduates for a career that will increasingly rely on computer-based information systems such as intelligent on-line consultants and electronic medical records.
Students will experience internet-based education and telemedicine projects that capture the emerging trends in health care and education delivery. The expanded community-based clerkships and externships will be enhanced by web-based communication, learning and coordination with faculty during their off-campus activities.
PCO's curriculum incorporates emerging light technologies related to brain and visual processing in the diagnosis and management of vision-related conditions including amblyopia, glaucoma and learning problems. Advances in the biomedical sciences have created new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for the optometrist. Lastly, new ophthalmic materials are bringing renewed emphasis on the important role that spectacles and contact lenses play in the successful primary eye care practice.