As life returns to normal, Optometry Queensland/Northern Territory is going all out to offer members opportunities to acquire CPD in person and catch up with colleagues.
After an eventful few years, things are slowly returning to pre-COVID times with opportunities to bring our members and supporters face-to-face again, without risking the need to cancel, postpone or reschedule. Over the last couple of months, it’s been exciting to get back to organising and hosting a range of events to allow our members to gain CPD and socialise.
The new membership year starts 1 July 2022, so if you have any questions or feedback please let us know
During April, we were thrilled to bring back the Australian Vision Conference (AVC). Held at the Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast and presented simultaneously online, the feedback received from our delegates at the event, along with speakers and exhibitors, was unanimous; everyone was excited to finally be together in person. Professor Joanne Wood began her session by expressing her delight to be able to deliver her lecture face-to-face, instead of on Zoom. Her presentation was followed by a steady stream of equally insightful sessions, with breaks offering opportunities to explore new technologies and services at the sold-out trade expo.
This year, we were delighted to present some very special awards, one being the 2021 H Barry Collin Research Medal, awarded to Professor Wood for her outstanding contributions to vision, aging and driving research over three decades.
We also announced the winner of the AVC photo competition, renamed in honour of the late Professor Peter Swann, a well-respected educator and leader, who made a tremendous impact on the optometry community. The award was presented to Andrew McCormack for his photo of a Marfan’s patient, taken using a Topcon slit-lamp camera.
NORTH QUEENSLAND VISION CONFERENCE
With AVC behind us, and after a two-year hiatus, we are excited to be working on the return of North Queensland Vision Conference this July. To be held at the Hilton Cairns, delegates will be able to enjoy yet another sold-out trade show, an entertaining conference dinner, and a jam-packed, informative program on ocular trauma, glaucoma, anterior eye disease and much more.
Program highlights include Joe Tanner who will present on Managing Childhood Myopia with MiSight 1 day. Mr Tanner will present key findings across the study and make recommendations on how to maximise success when managing young myopes.
Brisbane ophthalmologist Dr David Gunn will present on Foreign body management for optometrists and on Beyond LASIK-PPK/ICL/RLE/SMILE.
MEMBER HUBS
OQNT hosted its first Member Hub for the year in Rockhampton in March. Members attended both virtually and in person to hear guest speaker, Andrew Jarvis, Nursing Director of Surgery and Elective Care at the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Services, speak about referral pathways and how local hospitals deal with eye health.
We are excited to be bringing more Member Hubs, along with other opportunities to provide our members with both social activities and educational workshops throughout the year. We encourage anyone wanting to stay in the loop to sign up to our mailing list by emailing [email protected].
SUPPORTING STUDENTS AND EARLY CAREER OPTOMETRISTS
As always, we are delighted to be supporting our optometry students, graduates and early career optometrists. We recently welcomed our new graduates (virtually and in person) at a dedicated evening, while our optometry students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) enjoyed their ‘Clash of the EyeQs’ trivia night and a careers question and answer session.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
Here at OQNT we are delighted to service over 1,000 members with CPD points management, offering CPD based events as well as social events, professional indemnity insurance, and much more. The new membership year starts 1 July 2022, so if you have any questions or feedback please let us know. For more information on our membership options, please visit www.optometry.org.au/qld.
It’s an exciting year; we are so pleased by what we have been able to achieve so far in this ‘new normal’ and eager to deliver more amazing content for our members in the coming months.
Cathryn Baker is the Chief Executive Officer of Optometry Queensland/Northern Territory.
