Utah Optometric Association
"Serving Utah's Eyecare Needs Since 1951"
The mission of the Utah Optometric Association is to promote the highest professional standards in vision care so that its delivery will be the finest available to patients and citizens of Utah.
Welcome
Welcome to the website of the Utah Optometric Association. Here's a message from our President Court Wilkins:
UOA President's Message 2019-2020
My heartfelt “Thank You” is in order for the support and continued effort of the UOA family to accomplish our mission to promote the highest professional standards in vision care to the communities of Utah. This takes a collective effort and a collective voice. We need to continue to invite our non-member colleagues to join this collective voice no matter the mode of practice. We need everyone's participation to advocate for and protect our profession. We do make a difference! The upcoming year 2020, AOA’syear of the comprehensive eye exam, we invite all to celebrate along with the AOA in making this a year of growth!
I would like to advocate for our veterans. There is a national AOA and local UOA call to care for our veterans. Current policy changes allow annual eye exams for veterans at a local office if they are 60 minutes away from a VA facility or a 28 day wait time to receive care at a VA facility. There are many of you that now can give care to our local veterans and I would ask that we do as much as possible to care for them.
Recently I had dinner with two 3rd year students and ask what we could do to help support them, they asked about practice opportunities, loans, how to start up a practice and so forth. In short they needed a mentor from the geographic location that they are going to practice in to give them advice and mentorship. We can help our new OD’s that are coming out of school get that mentorship they need and advocate for them.
Our profession is ever changing and technological advances are happening almost on a daily basis. By keeping up on these technological advances we can improve our skills and deliver superior eye care to all of our Utah communities. The UOA will continue to provide superior continuing education in June at our annual convention, but also in the spring at St. George and our Mega CE in Salt Lake City in the fall. Please plan to attend; we have outstanding educators to keep us up on the newest developments in eye care. The UOA is here to support you in building your profession and keeping Optometry strong! Please do not hesitate to contact any of our board members if you have any input or questions!
Sincerely,
Court R. Wilkins, OD, MHS, FAAO
UOA President 2019-2020