The Australian College of Optometry will host its fifth annual national conference from 18–19 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Among a strong line-up of preeminent speakers at the conference will be Associate Professor Jamie Craig, Professor Robyn Guymer, Dr. Peter Hadden and Professor Gordon Wallace.
Having established the Australian and New Zealand Registry of Advanced Glaucoma (ANZRAG), Assoc. Prof. Craig will deliver keynote presentations analysing demographic variations of glaucoma and the public health challenge of glaucoma in Australia and abroad. Additionally he will look at genetic screening methods for identifying patients who are at risk of developing glaucoma, surgical procedures and their selection criteria and surgical complications.
As head of the Macular Research Unit at the Centre for Eye Research (CERA) and lead investigator on the Bionic Eye Project, Professor Guymer will present the session “Laser Intervention in Early Age-related Macular Degeneration” covering the use of laser to halt and potentially reverse age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) and identifying patients who may benefit.
New Zealand’s Dr. Peter Hadden will discuss the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in diagnosing anterior segment neoplasia and explain which anterior segment tumours pose the most serious threats to vision and lives of patients and their treatment.
A presentation on 3D printing by Wollongong University’s Professor Gordon Wallace, will discuss the feasibility of designing and manufacturing small-scale frame lines. He will also present the facts surrounding the use of 3D scanning technologies combined with organic inks and thermoplastics which, for the first time, are capable of ‘printing’ human body parts.
Other presenters include Professor Austin Roorda, Professor of Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley, who will speak on adaptive optics. Professor Roorda has pioneered applications of adaptive optics (AO), mapped the trichromatic cone mosaic and been acclaimed for designing and building the first scanning laser ophthalmoscope based on AO. Professor Shyamali Dharmage, a senior principal research fellow at the University of Melbourne, who leads the Research Program in Allergy and Respiratory Diseases in the Centre for MEGA Epidemiology, will speak on how ECPs should react to statistics surrounding the epidemiology of allergy disease.
For information visit www.aco.org.au or phone (AUS) 03 9349 7477.
