Newsletter | March 2019

2019 is already shaping up to be a busy year for the Department. Summer has been spent preparing for the new teaching year, writing research grants, visiting our international collaborators, and having some well-deserved holiday time.

The Graduation Ceremony for the Doctor of Optometry Class of 2018 took place on Tuesday December 11th at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.

Dr Bao Nguyen along with co-investigators Prof Allison McKendrick and Dr Laura Downie, have been awarded a 2019 Victorian Optometrists Training and Education (VOTE) Trust grant to undertake a project titled 'Improving headache screening in optometric practice'.

The Department’s Laura Downie attended the Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation Award dinner in Sydney on the 5th of March 2019.

In December 2018 Jeremiah Lim was awarded the Guelma Alexander Clinical Fellowship in Neuroscience. The fellowship is awarded to clinicians with a PhD, who would like to further their research in the clinical domain.

Students, Staff and Alumni from Optometry, Nursing, Speech Pathology, Audiology, Physiotherapy, Oral Health and Dentistry recently attended a Future Leaders Networking Event in October 2018.

In October the Department had the pleasure of hosting Taylor (Thornbury HS) and Amy (Pascoe Vale Girls College) in our laboratories as a part of the Melbourne Neuroscience Institute work experience program.

On Tuesday January 18th, the Department’s Associate Professor Andrew Anderson gave a talk to a hundred year 9 and 10 students participating in the three day “Science Experience 2019” summer camp.

International trips to Chennai and Manipal in India.

The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences held an evening of reunion tours on Friday March 22nd for the graduating classes of 2009, 1999, 1989, and 1979.

Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, OD students, Ellin, Molly and Andrea have volunteered for an outreach eye care program in Sri Lanka in December 2018.

Student achievements from the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences: 2018 Research Colloquium and recent PhD completions.

Dr Kwang Cham and Anthea Cochrane are continuing work on their digital assessment tool and were successful in receiving $29,871 LTI funding in the 2018 learning and teaching funding round to improve the functionality of this tool along with colleagues from Nursing, Physiotherapy, Speech Pathology and Dentistry.

Dr Kwang Cham and Dr Heather Gaunt were invited to the University of Auckland School of Medicine to present on educational scholarship and conduct an object-based learning workshop. This visit was supported by the University of Melbourne Engagement Grant 2018.

External clinical placements are an integral component of the Doctor of Optometry (OD) course. The final year of this four-year course is an intensive clinical internship year with students being exposed to various external practice settings.

The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne invites you to attend the lecture "Diabetic eye disease and the retinal vasculature", as part of the Seeing Beyond lecture series.

Having farewelled last year’s OD4’s, we are now well in the swing of this year’s group. Over the Christmas period the regular attending Clinical Teaching Instructors seeing the patients. These include our regular 0.6 staff Tim Martin, Maria Bui and Joe Wang. Also, many of our regular casual staff come in to help us provide services during the non-teaching time from November through to mid-January: Justin Maher, Katrina Yap, Catherine Cheah Kent Snibson, Lahiru Kulathunga, Andrew Huhtanen, Russell Lowe and Luke Arundle keep seeing patients. The clinic seems to run more smoothly without the students being around, but we really miss the life and vitality that the students provide with their enthusiasm and engagement. Now that the students are back, do we think back to the quieter times?

We are pleased to announce the dates for the 2019 Myopia Management Masterclass.

DOVS publications appearing in PubMed over the September 2018 - January 2019 period.

In this academic year, we aim to channel our energy into providing the student body with worthwhile social and educational events, ample notice and information regarding them, as well as tips and guide on both educational and wellbeing matters.