Goal 2
Advance clinical training and patient-centered care by leveraging new technologies and expanding experiential learning opportunities to educate clinicians who combine clinical and technical excellence with the highest standards of compassionate care for all communities.
As part of our strategic commitment to excellence in eye care, we aim to advance clinical education, patient care, and health advocacy by training optometrists through a holistic approach. Our goal is to equip students with the skills to leverage advanced technologies for precise diagnostics while staying rooted in patient-centered care, compassion, and professionalism. By doing so, we will foster a new generation of optometrists who are not only clinically skilled but also guided by empathy, healthcare equity, and ethical practice.
OBJECTIVES
Continuous integration of clinical training with academic coursework to ensure NECO’s curriculum evolves in step with the latest advancements in optometry practice and broader healthcare trends.
Continue to develop world-class clinical learning environments that strike the balance between student development, the patient experience and outcomes, and excellence in practice management.
Provide faculty with access to the latest in best clinical practices, effective clinical teaching strategies, and technological tools, while offering students regular, constructive feedback and data-driven insights to help them continuously enhance performance in clinical teaching and learning.
Emphasize patient care, cultural sensitivity and empathy by developing and implementing clinical protocols that prioritize patient safety, human connection, effective communication, and consistency in care.
Advance optometry practice by incorporating the latest technologies into academic student training and clinical care, and by creating opportunities for merging clinical research into patient care.
Leverage NECO’s expansive clinical network to expose students to a wide range of patient populations, helping them develop the cultural competency and clinical flexibility necessary to provide high-quality care across different communities while emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to prepare students to work alongside healthcare professionals from various disciplines.
Continue to position NECO as a leader in advocacy for community health and health equity by training all students in community health, actively promoting initiatives that address social determinants of health and reduce health disparities, emphasizing interprofessional collaborative practice, and teaching culturally safe optometric care.
Specific initiatives and tactics to achieve these objectives are understandably overlapping and intertwined. As such, they are organized into themes below, with tags denoting which objectives each tactic is aligned with:
Enhance NECO's Clinical Training Program & Clinical Learning Environments
TACTIC 1
Clinic Training Center (CTC) Renovation and Relocation to Beacon Street campus.
Expand and enhance NECO’s Clinical Training Center to bridge the gap between theory and practice, providing students with hands-on experience in diagnostics, technical procedures, and simulated patient interactions in a supervised setting. Our approach will be current-focused, future-prepared, and aligned with board exam standards, ensuring that NECO students:
Master the latest equipment and standards of care.
Gain experience with advanced technologies, including AI-driven diagnostics, telemedicine, and emerging clinical innovations that enhance efficiency, diagnosis and patient access.
Develop the confidence and proficiency needed to excel in clinical practice and on board exams.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO1, SO2, SO5
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
July 2024 – September 2025
KPIs
Completion of new Clinic Training Center (CTC) at NECO’s Beacon campus, on-time and on-budget
Student and faculty satisfaction with new CTC
Student preparedness for patient care
NECO Board Pass rates
TACTIC 2
Refocus the cross-representative task force of didactic and clinical faculty to develop action plans that better synchronize classroom learning with clinical training.
Explore how best to integrate and align didactic education in the classroom, clinical training in a controlled environment (CTC) and actual patient care in a clinical practice to hone students’ clinical judgment, diagnostic abilities, and communication skills. Incorporate simulation-based training into the curriculum to prepare students for clinical rotations by ensuring they have developed core competencies and clinical judgment before encountering real patients.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO1, SO2
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
July 2025 forward
KPIs
Percentage of courses incorporating clinical simulation training to ensure alignment with actual patient care
Student performance improvement rates in clinical assessments and board exam sections related to clinical integration
Number of interdepartmental collaborations between clinical and didactic faculty
Number of implemented curriculum or clinical training improvements based on committee recommendations
Incorporation of patient communication and empathy training into clinical coursework
TACTIC 3
Commonwealth Clinic Expansion
Develop a comprehensive 10-year facilities strategy for the NECO Center for Eye Care at Commonwealth to maximize space and lane utilization based on patient demand and student training requirements, enhance patient care and reduce wait times for appointments, optimize lease agreements, and enhance operational efficiency. This plan will support academic growth, foster industry partnerships, and position the center for long-term sustainability, profitability, and innovation.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO2, SO5
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now through September 2026
KPIs
Completion of Commonwealth renovation and expansion, on-budget and on-schedule
Student and faculty satisfaction scores regarding clinical training at Commonwealth
Increase in PC2 and PC3 training sessions at Commonwealth
Percentage increase in patient encounters and revenue at Commonwealth
Increase in patient satisfaction at Commonwealth
Reduction in patient wait times for appointments
TACTIC 4
Roslindale Long-Term Plan
NECO’s long-term sublease agreement with the Greater Roslindale Health Organization (GRHO) ends March 31, 2028. Develop a comprehensive, 10-year strategy with GRHO that establishes a pathway for continuing to serve the Roslindale community and expanding patient care access, while providing clinical training in primary care optometry for second-year and third-year students, and to a lesser degree fourth-year students.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO2, SO5
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now through December 2025
KPIs
- Meeting with Roslindale leadership team to discuss next steps after contract ends
- New long-term agreement with Roslindale
TACTIC 5
A roadmap to OWN NECO’s owned clinic(s)
NECO relies entirely on partnerships and lease agreements for its mission-critical clinical learning spaces. While this has allowed us to develop a comprehensive and expansive clinical network, we recognize purchasing rather than leasing clinic space provides greater control, flexibility, financial stability, and long-term value for NECO. We will continue to explore opportunities for buying commercial real estate that could be converted into an eye clinic, tailoring the learning environment to the needs of our clinical training programs and the communities we serve.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO2
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now until we identify the appropriate space.
KPIs
- Number of potential spaces (real estate) reviewed
- Roadmap to owning and developing a clinic
Advance Optometric Practice Through Technology Integration & Clinical Research
TACTIC 1
Technology Integration in Clinical Education and Care Delivery
Incorporate emerging technologies like tele-optometry, AI, and mobile health applications into both teaching and patient care to enable students to gain firsthand experience in these areas through clinical rotations and research collaborations.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO1, SO3, SO5
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
January 2026
KPIs
Faculty participation rates in workshops and training on new diagnostic equipment
Number of faculty training sessions focused on integration of new clinical methodologies
Percentage of students trained in AI and mobile health applications
Student satisfaction and confidence with use of the latest diagnostic equipment
TACTIC 2
Expand industry-funded, evidence-based clinical research
Increase externally funded specialized clinical research projects in key areas of interest, as informed by the overall research strategy. Identify opportunities for students to actively participate in research initiatives that further their understanding of the relationship between evidence-based research and patient care.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO5
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now and ongoing
KPIs
- Number of research projects funded
- Industry-sponsored research revenue
- Increase in student participation in clinical research projects
Assessment & Standardization of Clinical Training
To ensure a consistent and high-quality clinical training experience, as required by accrediting standards, several key initiatives will be implemented. Given NECO’s distributed clinical network, this tactic aims to standardize the aggregate clinical training experience students receive across all sites (meaning all sites may not be the same, but students will overall receive a consistent and high-quality clinical training experience).
TACTIC 1
Assessment and Standardization of the Clinical Training experience across sites, focusing on number and type of patient encounters and quality of preceptor training and mentorship.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO1, SO2, SO3, SO4, SO5, SO6, SO7
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now and ongoing
KPIs
Student satisfaction with clinical training sites across the network
Student satisfaction with preceptors across the network
Number of external sites visited annually
Leverage Relationships with Community Health Centers
TACTIC 1
Continue to leverage NECO’s relationships with Community Health Centers
NECO’s strong partnerships with Community Health Centers (CHCs) provide unparalleled opportunities for students to gain experience in diverse clinical settings. These relationships offer access to a broad patient population with varied eye care needs, including underserved and at-risk commu- nities. Through this exposure, students develop a deeper understanding of social determinants of health, enhance their clinical adaptability, and strengthen their ability to provide compassionate, patient-centered care. This experience gives NECO graduates a distinct advantage, equipping them to meet the evolving demands of modern optometry with both technical expertise and a commitment to health equity. We will focus on the following areas:
Optimize portfolio CHCs to balance student educational requirements with the needs of the health center, diversity of clinical experience, and access by student to the location of the site.
Maximize financial offset CHCs provide to NECO.
Further develop rotations and coursework for optometry students to collaborate with peers from other health disciplines.
Integrate spectrum of training from cultural competency to cultural safety, focused on social determinants of health, diverse patient groups, implicit bias and technology access in healthcare.
Provide opportunities for students to engage in health policy, advocacy, and to learn how optometrists can influence policy to improve access to care and reduce health disparities.
Align training of Clinical Directors to focus on student clinical training, and best practices in care delivery.
Continue to negotiate best pricing for ophthalmic equipment in health centers.
ALIGNED STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
SO6, SO7
RECOMMENDED TIMELINE
Now and ongoing.
KPIs
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Increase in revenue offset provided to NECO by CHC sites
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CHC satisfaction rates with NECO as a partner for providing eye care
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Student evaluation of preceptors in the CHC network
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Number of NECO-led initiatives sited at the State level addressing social determinants of health and healthcare policy
