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New editorial board members help fulfill PCON’s mission
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In February 1996 we debuted Primary Care Optometry News. Backed by a talented team of journalists, with a wealth of experience across a wide array of medical disciplines, Slack Incorporated recognized a great need for optometry’s first clinical newspaper. It was an exciting time in eye care, as optometry was embracing new technologies and rapidly expanding its scope of practice.
In the inaugural issue, we covered topics ranging from refractive surgery comanagement to the emerging role of fluoroquinolone antibiotics to whether argon laser trabeculoplasty would become a first-line therapy in glaucoma. Our mission was simple: Provide busy clinicians with a much-needed resource for accessing contemporary topics in a quick, easy-to-read format.
Executing this initiative, however, was not so easy. One on hand, we wanted to get the message out quickly ... well, as quickly as possible in the pre-social media era. On the other hand, above all, we needed to ensure journalistic integrity. Given that we were not a peer-refereed publication, we needed a reality check. And that came by way of our editorial board.
To a large degree, the editorial board is the heart and soul of any publication. PCON is no exception. Since our inception we’ve had the good fortune of amassing and maintaining an extremely talented group of editorial board members.
Well recognized and well respected throughout eye care, these colleagues have been instrumental in PCON’s growth and success, both then and now. They have provided guidance for editorial content, always with our readers’ best interests in mind. They have generously shared their expertise, often serving as an interview source or rendering an opinion on a controversial topic. They have been our compass, acknowledging a job well done, while also offering constructive criticism when we’ve strayed from our editorial mission. In short, they are our peer review.
If there is one thing we’ve learned through the years, it’s that eye care is as dynamic as ever. The challenges and opportunities might be different, but they are as pressing as ever. To remain viable in today’s quickly changing health care world, one thing is certain. Optometrists need contemporary, reliable clinical information in a timely and accessible format.
To meet these needs, PCON has evolved in two major ways. For starters, we continue to tweak our delivery – augmenting the print edition with various social media channels as well as a very robust Healio.com. Second, we continue engaging our editorial board, perhaps more than ever before.
Recognizing that optometry faces a different set of challenges than it did 20 years ago, we’ve expanded our professional editorial board. Complementing our existing board is a new group of talented colleagues. They represent a new demographic, offer expertise in a wide array of specialties and come from virtually every walk of optometric practice. Perhaps most importantly, each is committed to PCON’s editorial mission of providing valuable content to our colleagues.
Please take a moment and meet our new editorial board members. I hope you’ll join us in congratulating them and in thanking them for their continued commitment to the profession.