ASCO’s Optometry Gives Me Life Adds Two New Doctors to the Campaign in December
ASCO’s Optometry Gives Me Life Adds Two New Doctors to the Campaign in December
ASCO's national public awareness campaign, Optometry Gives Me Life (OGML), which launched in March 2019, has added two new Doctors of Optometry to the campaign in December as part of a creative refresh. The goal of the Optometry Gives Me Life campaign is to increase the number of highly qualified applicants to optometry schools and colleges from a wider variety of demographic backgrounds, specifically Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino students, so Doctors of Optometry are better prepared to serve all communities.
Dr. Linda Pham and Dr. Vishal Patel are the two new doctors selected to be featured along with the original doctors – Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Dr. Muriel Martinez and Dr. Miki Lyn Zilnicki. Dr. Pham is a Doctor of Optometry at NECO Center for Eye Care in Boston. Dr. Pham’s parents are Vietnamese war refugees, which has really influenced Dr. Pham’s values, work ethic and determination. She is a black belt in Taekwondo and also enjoys traveling, kayaking and other sports.
Dr. Patel is a Doctor of Optometry at Milan Eye Center in Atlanta. Dr. Patel become an optometrist because he wanted to help people who can’t help themselves. He enjoys spending time with his loved ones and also playing any sport involving a ball, mostly soccer and basketball.
Learn more about Dr. Pham and Dr. Patel on the refreshed website, FutureEyeDoc.org. Other campaign outreach occurs through specialized/targeted paid and social media outreach, videos, brochures and posters that target college-aged students with an interest in a STEM or health profession. Starting in December, TikTok was added as a social platform and parents will be a secondary target.
As a reminder, ASCO has developed a series of resources that are included in a toolkit to enable all those involved in and outside of the optometry community to participate — administrators, faculty, and professional staff at the institutions (who can play a major role in the recruitment of prospective students); practitioners who see patients of all ages throughout the year and often participate in local health fairs and career days; current students interested in completing community outreach; and health professions advisors at the undergraduate level who are advising pre-health students on a daily basis. These resources are available on the ASCO website.
From March 2019 through June 2021, the campaign’s metrics have looked promising. In addition, the campaign has been in existence for two complete OptomCAS application cycles, which is noted below with data regarding the quantity, diversity and quality of the optometry applicant pool.
Results:
- Campaign metrics:
- 103,768,817 total ads have been displayed.
- 331,576 visits to the FutureEyeDoc.org website.
- 604,040 social engagements have been made with social ads such as likes, reactions, shares, comments or followers.
- 79.19 % video completion rate.
- 3,123 applicant leads (leads are sent to the schools and colleges to continue the outreach and recruitment process).
- 2019-2020 OptomCAS Application Cycle
- 3.7% increase in size of applicant pool.
- 10% in increase in year one of campaign of Black/African-American and Latino/Hispanic applicants (increased from 384 to 424 applicants).
- 83% of applicants had a 3.0 GPA or higher.
- 2020-2021 OptomCAS Application Cycle
- 4.7% increase in size of applicant pool.
- 18% increase in year two of the campaign of Black/African-American and Latino/Hispanic applicants (increased from 424 to 499 applicants).
- 81% of applicants had a 3.0 GPA or higher.
For more information about the OGML campaign, please contact Paige Pence, Director of Student and Residency Affairs at ppence@opted.org.
The campaign would not be at all possible without the contributions from all the schools and colleges of optometry, in addition to our very special OGML sponsors:
