Balius installed as new SECO president

ATLANTA – Emilio H. Balius, OD, was named the next president of SECO International at the House of Delegates meeting here during SECO.

Balius was born in Cuba, lived in Madrid, Spain, attended Florida State University, then University of Houston College of Optometry and has practiced in Florida for 25 years with 10 offices and 275 employees, according to a SECO press release. The group said he is its first Hispanic president.

In his acceptance speech, which was provided to Primary Care Optometry News, Balius vowed to continue SECO’s tradition of offering the industry innovative and cutting-edge education.

“SECO believes in building strong relationships with regional schools and state organizations,” he said. “We believe it is a shared responsibility to improve the state of our profession and educate doctors to provide the best care to their patients.”

In addition to treating patients, optometrists must also run efficient businesses to be successful, Balius said. SECO’s MedPro 360 was developed to cater to all health care practitioners with topics to help assess the financial health of a practice and provide tools for bench marking as well as guidance with legal and human resource issues.

“Another project we continue to develop and strengthen is SECO University, our educational web portal,” he said. “SECO posts all recordings of courses, and we video-conference the special sessions and have developed partnership programs with some of our affiliate states to promote to their members.”

Balius said he is excited to work with the SECO team to ensure that the organization, “continues to lead the industry in providing the most impactful, innovative, emerging education our community needs to be successful.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO