Kudos to Gupta & IRIS
Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems (IRIS), the Pensacola-based leader in retinal screening technology, announced a significant milestone with the achievement of one million diabetic retinal exams performed.
- This is a monumental accomplishment for IRIS, as it marks a substantial impact on the company’s mission to end preventable blindness.
- Dr. Sunil Gupta is Founder/Chairman and Chief Medical Officer at IRIS. He was named #10 on the Inweekly Power List.
Why this matters: “From celebrating 100,000 exams in July 2016 to 1,000,000 exams in January 2023, IRIS has proven the value of creating access to the diabetic retinal exam,” said Steve Martin, CEO of IRIS. “One million patients who previously would have gone without a screening now have access to an annual exam at one of our 600+ client locations, including IRIS’ first client location, which remains active today.”
Dig Deeper: For more info on IRIS and Dr. Gupta, read “Iris – Saving Sight.”
Statewide Education Chaos
The Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty and Shannon Rodriguez — the mom who reported a teacher for showing a Disney film with a gay character to a middle school class — all showed up at a fiery Hernando County School Board meeting asking for the termination of Superintendent John Stratton.
Over 100 people spoke pushing the meeting into the early hours of the morning. Book bans and LGBTQ+ student rights took up much of the public discussion.
A majority supported the superintendent, with many wearing green and yellow T-shirts bearing the message “Stratton Stays.” They described him as a dedicated, student-oriented leader, while a smaller group called on the board to remove him.
Stratton wasn’t terminated. He was saved by a 3-2 vote.
Why this matters: Escambia County isn’t unique in its turmoil over books, but Board Chair Paul Fetsko made sure the public never got a chance to voice its opinion on Superintendent Tim Smith when he moved to have him fired.
More than a few people believe that Fetsko didn’t come up with this scheme on his own.
Dig Deeper: Read Tampa Bay Times.
Opening Doors To-Do List
Last Friday, the City and County officials, United Way, Lakeview, Community Health, Pathways for Change and other local agencies met with John Johnson and Opening Doors of Northwest Florida to discuss how to improve the Continuum of Care that Johnson runs.
Opening Doors was given a series of Action Items to complete before the next meeting on July 14.
A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals.
Why this matters: The CoC has been run with very little transparency, and people have begun to question Opening Door’s leadership.
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Provide CoC Organizational Chart from Board members down to current Community Partners utilizing the HMIS system.
2. Make CoC Board Meetings open to the community by providing a meeting schedule and location.
3. Upload Board Meeting Minutes to its website.
4. Open HUD Technical Assistance requested for the CoC to all Community Partners including the City and County.
5. Find out who is using the HMIS system currently to help identify who is not.
6. Hold a Community Partner focus group with United Way to help identify HMIS areas for improvement, training needed, and frustrations
7. Schedule a HMIS training day for anyone that would like to attend including current and non-current HMIS users.
8. Ensure that we have enough HMIS Licenses ready for the increased usage that will be anticipated.
Note: HMIS – A Homeless Management Information System is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness.
Each Continuum of Care (CoC) is responsible for selecting an HMIS software solution that complies with HUD’s data collection, management, and reporting standards.
