Barry Barresi, OD, PhD
ST. LOUIS, Mo.—Barry Barresi, OD, PhD, will be leaving his position as executive director of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and CEO of its wholly owned, profit-making subsidiary, AOAExcel, according to a letter released by the AOA. He will join the newly formed company, Clinical Integration Partners, to continue his involvement with the OcuHub health information exchange project launched by AOAExcel. AOA Excel will be an equity partner of the new company.

The board of directors of AOAExcel intends to transfer the OcuHub assets to Clinical Integration Partners, which is now seeking external capital funding to finalize the development and market release of OcuHub products. OcuHub, powered by AT&T as part of its Healthcare Community Online program, is a new health information exchange designed specifically for optometrists by the AOA. It was created to enable ECPs to connect electronically to physicians, hospitals and their ancillaries, pharmacies, payers, benefit managers, optical labs, medical labs, imaging and radiology services, employer human resource departments, home care providers, and with patients themselves.

According to a statement released by the AOA, “The AOA board of trustees has long recognized the importance of electronic connectivity for our members to assure their ongoing success in a changing health care world. AOA founded AOAExcel as a wholly owned subsidiary to develop tools and products that will help our members achieve this goal. To that end, the AOAExcel board believes that the OcuHub project is now prepared to move from the development phase to production. The AOA board of trustees wishes AOAExcel, Dr. Barresi and Clinical Integration Partners success as they continue the development of these connectivity tools and other health IT.”