The clinic will also get a name change.
The New England College of Optometry has begun work on a new clinical campus.
The campus will include three parts – a new flagship optometric clinic and optical dispensary, a clinical specialty service that includes rehabilitative vision care and clinical research, and a student clinical training facility.
The initial phase will be the build-out of the New England College of Optometry Center for Eye Care, an optical dispensary and primary care clinic that will open to the public in March.
Although in the same building as the current New England Eye clinic, the new center will be located at street level on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, providing high visibility and easy patient access. The change in name from New England Eye to New England College of Optometry Center for Eye Care will coincide with the opening of the new optical dispensary and clinic.
The second phase of construction will create a specialty clinic area, which will initially offer low vision rehabilitation and occupational therapy for visually impaired patients. Adjacent spaces for clinical research, clinical instrumentation training for NECO students, clinical simulation training, and electro-diagnostic testing, will open later this year.
President Clifford Scott said, “For the first time, our skills training and clinical patient care will occur in the same facility. Our new clinical campus will provide students with more opportunities for patient care, greater flexibility in their schedules, and exposure to new technologies as they are evaluated.”