To find out more, contact your Business Development Manager or visit coopervision.net.au

Would you rather be thinking about your eyes or enjoying what’s in front of them?

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Cataract benefits ‘threat’ is a furphy

A call for Medicare benefits for cataract surgery to be cut has tuned out to be a furphy.

30th anniversary for Medicare

Medicare is celebrating its 30th anniversary as Australia’s universal health care scheme

BREAKING NEWS!

Essilor is buying Coastal Contacts, one of the largest online vision-care retailers in the world

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975 MARCH 2014

MARCH 20142 www.insightnews.com.au

AWARDS

Australia Day HonoursThe following Order of Australia Honours were announced on

Australia Day, 26 January:

Order of AustraliaMember (AM) in the General DivisionJoseph Chakman, Glen Iris, Vic. For significant service to optometry and public health, particularly through policy reform.

Kiernan Modra OAM, Hallett Cove, SA. For significant service to sport as an athlete representing Australia at Paralympic Games, and to peo-ple who are blind or have low vision.

Medal (OAM) in the General DivisionJohn Cook, Brighton Vic. For service to people with Meniere’s disease, and to people with vision impairments.

Ellen Iris Cuff, Alexandra Hills, Qld. For service to the blind and those with low vision.

Dr Daryl John Gregor, Southport, Qld. For service to ophthalmology and to education.

Lily Anne Skurnik, Rose Bay, NSW. For service to the community, par-ticularly those with low vision.

Allan Barry Stephen, Crows Nest, NSW. For service to the blind, and to people with low vision.

Dr John Charles Vance, North Tamborine, Qld. For service to the blind, and to people with low vision. ■

QUICK CLICK Find links to these websites at: www.insightnews.com.au

CONTACT

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

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PUBLISHED MONTHLY BYModern Optics Pty Ltd68 Blues Point RoadMcMahons Point NSW 2060 AustraliaT: (02) 9955 6924F: (02) 9954 4045 www.insightnews.com.au

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Accounts: Sandra ForbesE: insightnews@bigpond.com

To find out more, contact your Business Development Manager or visit coopervision.net.au

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Cataract benefits ‘threat’ is a furphyA call for Medicare benefits for cataract surgery to be cut has tuned out to be a furphy.

30th anniversary for MedicareMedicare is celebrating its 30th anniversary as Australia’s universal health care scheme

BREAKING NEWS!Essilor is buying Coastal Contacts, one of the largest online vision-care retailers in the world40

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975 MARCH 2014

ofINSIGHT:8,179Circulation

Insight’s circulation for the previous issue (February 2014) has been independently verified by Benbow & Pike Chartered Accountants at 8,179 copies.

copies within Australia

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OPINION

LettersApology to my old mate Jack A news item that the 2013 Sydney Design Awards has recognised “the Virtual Refractor, an online innovation that teaches how to correct vision”, with the best Digital Experience Website award did not carry the fact that the original inventor of the concept and reality was Dr Jack Alexander.

Apologies Jack. To the aficionados The Virtual Refractor which is now a much used

teaching aid around the world, especial-ly in developing countries, will always be RefractoJack. ■

Brien HoldenChief Executive OfficerBrien Holden Vision InstituteKensington NSW

Thanks to suppliersWe had a terri-ble tragedy early this year. We are a community on the fringes of Perth that was struck by the terrible bush-fires in the Shire of Mundaring, affect-ing the suburbs of Parkerville and Stoneville.

There were 56 homes that suf-fered total loss and more than a hundred homes affected by loss of sheds and partial damage. A lot of people work from home and the sheds are like their offices.

As soon as I heard about the fires on the Sunday, I was very emotional as I used to live on Traylen Rd in Stoneville, one of the worst affected areas. Those people are my friends and clients.

Monday morning I rang a few suppli-ers for help and was over whelmed with the support. We were given eye drops from CIBA and Bausch + Lomb; sunglasses and frames from Aviva, Frames Etc and VMD Eyewear; and emergency magnifiers and safety glass-es from Mann Optics.

We set up a table at the evacuation cen-tre and hand-delivered them directly to the people affected and heard many stories of bravery and sorrow.

We are still dealing with the aftermath of clients coming in who have lost everything

and with the help of Essilor we have been providing clients with spectacles at no charge.

I wanted to make everyone aware of the great support I had from those suppliers and how grateful the people in this commu-nity are.

Picture is of a couple from Stoneville(Susie Itzstein and Shelton Huettig) who lost eve-rything in the fire, their 100-year-old home, their business and a beautiful bush block. Still smiling and grateful of the support they had been shown. ■

Donnelee ArnoldOwner & Optical DispenserMundaring Spectacle Maker,Mundaring, WA

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Susie Itzstein and Shelton Huettig

EVERYONE READS INSIGHT!

FCA Excellence inMarketing Award Winner

2013

FCA EstablishedFranchisor of the Year

2013

Australian Retailer of the Year

2013

Australian RetailEmployer of the Year

2013

Asia-Pacific Best Retail Training Organisation

2013

Roy Morgan ResearchNo. 1 for eye tests

2013

In early 2013, we quietly launched a new website for

optical professionals across Australia and New Zealand

– spectrum-blog.com. Its aim? To present, in real-

time, all the emerging Partnership, Locum, Student,

Graduate and general Employment opportunities on

offer in our new and current stores.

Now, just one year later, we’re already welcoming

more than 450 unique visitors each week to the site,

on average. More than 1500 optical professionals

have signed up to receive regular email updates on

particular types of role, as and when they emerge.

The big benefit? It’s easier than ever before for us to

match up optical professionals just like you with the roles

you may have your heart set on in one of our stores.

So, if there’s a particular role, in a particular location in a

particular region of Australia or New Zeaand that you’re

seeking, visit Spectrum to see what’s on offer and then

contact one of our recruitment team members... the key

individuals are all listed on the site’s ‘Contact Us’ page.

FOR THE FULL SPECTRUM OF CAREER OPPORTUNITIES...GO TO SPECTRUM-BLOG.COM – ParTnershiP, emPlOymenT, lOcum, sTudenT and GraduaTe rOles.

Visit spectrum-blog.com or simply type ‘Specsavers Spectrum’ into your search engine

MARCH 2014

Cataract benefits‘threat’ is a furphy A call for Medicare benefits

for cataract surgery that at first glance appeared to be

a re-run of the then federal gov-ernment’s attempt in 2009 to slash such benefits has tuned out to be a furphy and nothing more than sof-tening up for whatever the federal government is planning to do with the health scheme.

The call for cataract surgery benefits to be cut was made on ABC Television’s 7pm News on Saturday evening 23 February by the chief executive officer of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, Ms Alison Verhoeven, when she welcomed the federal government’s decision to review the whole health-care system.

It was claimed on the ABC News program that cataract pro-cedures only take 20 minutes yet there is a Medicare benefits of $500 for the procedure.

A vice-president and the trea-surer of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, Dr Brad Horsburgh, said on the program that patients are now receiving benefits that are 40 per cent of what they were when the benefit for cataract extraction and intraoc-ular-lens implant was introduced.

Dr Horsburgh later told Insight he was developing a feel-ing of déjà vu and that it is cer-tainly frustrating for the matter to be raised again. “Why do they persist?” he asked.

If the benefits are cut, it would be a breach of the government’s pre- and post-election commitments not to touch health, although that

is now up in the air, despite Prime Minister Tony Abbott as recently as 1 February saying there would be no cuts to health.

Some weeks later, he stated: “We will absolutely keep our com-mitments, does that mean that every single bit of existing spend-ing will remain in perpetuity, of

course not”, whatever that means.In a later discussion, Ms

Verhoeven told Insight her com-ment was in the context of the federal government’s planned overall review of health expen-diture and referred us to the website of the Medical Services Advisory Committee, which in-cludes details of procedures for its consideration, including cata-ract-surgery benefits.

The ‘threat’ is the second time in less than five years that cataract surgery benefits under Medicare have come under attack, the pre-vious attack being by the then federal health minister, Ms Nicola Roxon, in 2009. Ms Roxon wanted to cut the benefits by 50 per cent.

That ended with a back-down by Ms Roxon, after The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists fought hard against any reduction, in the end settling for a 10-per-cnt reduction.

Ms Roxon ended up with egg all over her face from the episode.

Had the 50-per-cent cut Ms Roxon wanted gone ahead, the

benefit would have been reduced by 96 per cent in real terms since 1987. The planned cut would have been the third since then.

The benefit was to have been reduced from $623.70 to $311.85 from November 2009, saving the government-owned Medicare as much as $62 million a year in

benefit payouts for the 200,000 cataract procedures each year.

In 1987 there was a 40-per-cent cut, in 1996 there was a 10-per-cent cut and there was to be a 50-per-cent cut in 2009.

In a response to the 2009 budg-et proposal, RANZCO and ASO said cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world; of the cataract operations performed in Australia, 70 per cent are per-formed in the private health sys-tem and 30 per cent in the public system; and there is a “vast” num-ber of people waiting for cataract surgery in the public system.

Also, that advancing technol-ogy has delivered greatly-improved visual results, with improved safety and improved quality-of-life out-comes; the visual outcomes of cata-ract surgery are extremely good with greater than 98 per cent of patients being returned to normal vision, allowing them o return to a nor-mal lifestyle (continuing to drive, maintain independence and live at home); and, importantly, dramati-cally decreasing the risk of falls.

Furthermore, the improved visual outcome also has significant

positive impacts on the mental state of patients, with restored confidence, self esteem and rever-sal of mental deterioration previ-ously noted by family members.

There is a perception that, due to the fact that cataract surgery is so common, being done as a day procedure, and with outcomes so

good, it must be a “simple” pro-cedure, according to the RANZCO and the ASO. “Over the past 20 years the technological advance-ments has allowed the develop-ment of an operation that is far safer, yet technically more diffi-cult, to perform. This is a complex procedure requiring the surgeon to be absolutely meticulous and exact in undertaking the proce-dure to ensure a good result.”

And that is still the position today.

The greatest current threat to cataract surgery benefits (and who knows what else) is the claim by the federal health minister, Mr Peter Dutton, that the health sys-tem is “riddled with inefficiency and waste” and that he intends to eliminate same, however sources say there is no evidence to date that cuts to cataract-surgery ben-efits are envisaged.

Mr Dutton’s point of view is contrary to what a number of health experts claim is the true state of affairs, including one of the architects of the universal health scheme, Professor John Deeble (see page 6). ■

5www.insightnews.com.au

FCA Excellence inMarketing Award Winner

2013

FCA EstablishedFranchisor of the Year

2013

Australian Retailer of the Year

2013

Australian RetailEmployer of the Year

2013

Asia-Pacific Best Retail Training Organisation

2013

Roy Morgan ResearchNo. 1 for eye tests

2013

In early 2013, we quietly launched a new website for

optical professionals across Australia and New Zealand

– spectrum-blog.com. Its aim? To present, in real-

time, all the emerging Partnership, Locum, Student,

Graduate and general Employment opportunities on

offer in our new and current stores.

Now, just one year later, we’re already welcoming

more than 450 unique visitors each week to the site,

on average. More than 1500 optical professionals

have signed up to receive regular email updates on

particular types of role, as and when they emerge.

The big benefit? It’s easier than ever before for us to

match up optical professionals just like you with the roles

you may have your heart set on in one of our stores.

So, if there’s a particular role, in a particular location in a

particular region of Australia or New Zeaand that you’re

seeking, visit Spectrum to see what’s on offer and then

contact one of our recruitment team members... the key

individuals are all listed on the site’s ‘Contact Us’ page.

FOR THE FULL SPECTRUM OF CAREER OPPORTUNITIES...GO TO SPECTRUM-BLOG.COM – ParTnershiP, emPlOymenT, lOcum, sTudenT and GraduaTe rOles.

Visit spectrum-blog.com or simply type ‘Specsavers Spectrum’ into your search engine

MARCH 2014

Published for 37years!

38

Published for

38

Published for

Years!38

Published for

READ BY EVERYBODY!

It would be the second ‘threat’ in 5 years, but is only part of softening up for cuts to costs of health care

6 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

UNIVERSAL HEALTH SCHEME

Medicare: 30th Anniversary

1st February was the 30th Anniversary of the Medicare universal health scheme,

introduced in 1984 by the Hawke federal government as a follow-on to the Medibank scheme, in-troduced in 1973 – the first such scheme in Australia.

According to the federal par-liament’s website, Medicare is the Commonwealth-funded health in-surance scheme that provides free or subsidised health care services to the Australian population.

“It provides free hospital ser-vices for public patients in public hospitals through the Australian Health Care agreements with the states, subsidises private patients for hospital services (75 per cent of the schedule fee) and provides benefits for out-of-hospital medical services such as consultations with

GPs or specialists (85 per cent of the schedule fee) with no limit on fees actually charged.”

Medicare also provides benefits for optometrical services (85 per cent of the schedule fee), but with no benefits payable if higher fees are charged.

Following mounting dissatis-faction with the existing voluntary health insurance scheme, major changes to Australia’s health-care system were introduced by the new-ly-elected Whitlam government.

CommencementMedibank commenced on 1 July 1975 after the passing of the Medibank legislation by a joint sit-ting of Parliament on 7 August 1974.

According to the second-read-ing speech of the Health Insurance Bill 1973 delivered by the social

services minister, Mr Bill Hayden, on 29 November 1973, the purpose of Medibank was to provide the “most equitable and efficient means of providing health insurance cover-age for all Australians”. The objec-tives of the original Medibank were

The original legislation pro-posed financing the program through a taxpayer levy of 1.35 summarised by one of its archi-tects, RB Scotton, as universal in coverage, equitable in distribu-tion of costs, and administratively simple to manage.per cent on taxable income, with exemptions for low-income earners. However the Senate rejected the bills deal-ing with financing of the pro-gram in August 1974 and again in December 1974. Consequently, the final program was funded entirely from general revenue.

The cost of Medibank in its first year (1975-76) was $1.647 bil-lion, according to Scotton (1977). The hospital side of Medibank in-volved free treatment for public patients in public hospitals, and subsidies to private hospitals to enable them to reduce their fees. The Medibank program had only a few months of operation before the dismissal of the Whitlam gov-ernment on 11 November 1975, and the subsequent election of the Liberal-National coalition under Mr Malcolm Fraser in December 1975.

‘Medibank Mark II’ was launched on 1 October 1976 and included a 2.5 per cent levy on in-come, with the option of taking out private health insurance instead of paying the levy.

Other significant changes in 1976 included the federal govern-ment declaring the hospital agree-ments with the states invalid, and the subsequent introduction of new hospital agreements under which the federal government provided 50 per cent funding for approved net operating costs. Also in 1976 legislation was passed allowing the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) to enter the private health insurance business. This led to the establishment of Medibank Private on 1 October 1976.

In 1978 medical benefits were

reduced to 75 per cent of the schedule fee and bulk billing was restricted to holders of Pensioner Health Benefits cards, and those deemed by the doctor to be, in the Minister’s words, ‘socially disad-vantaged’. The health insurance levy, and the compulsion to insure was abolished in 1978.

In 1979 Medicare benefits were limited to the difference be-tween $20 and the scheduled fee. And in 1981 access to free hospital and medical care was restricted to pensioners with health care cards, sickness beneficiaries, and those meeting stringent means tests. An income tax rebate of 32 per cent was introduced for those with private health insurance.

Major changesThe major changes introduced by the Fraser government were largely rejected by the Hawke government, which returned to the original Medibank model. Although the financing ar-rangements were different, and there was a name change from Medibank to Medicare, little else differed from the original.

Medicare as known now came into operation on 1 February 1984, following the passage in September 1983 of the Health Legislation Amendment Act 1983. It differed from the original Medibank pro-gram only in matters of detail.

Dr Neal Blewett, PhD, in his sec-ond reading speech in September 1983, described the legislation as “a major social reform” that would “embody a health insurance system that is simple, fair and affordable”. He also emphasised the “univer-sality of cover” as being “desirable from an equity point of view” and “in terms of efficiency and reduced administrative costs”.

Funding for Medicare was to be offset by a Medicare levy, originally set at 1 per cent of taxable income, with a low income cut-off point of $7110 per year for a single person and $11,803 for married couples and sole parents. Below those in-come levels no levy was payable. The Medicare levy is currently set at 1.5 per cent of taxable income. ■

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8 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

RANZCO HOBART MEETING

Global update on cataract surgery

Assoc Prof Nitin Verma (Tasmania) gave a global update on cataract surgery

which he estimated was operating at about one-third the level required to meet 2020 goals.

The most common perfor-mance indicator for cataract surgery is the number of surgeries per mil-lion of population. While the most obvious problem is lack of ‘supply’ (of practitioners), the lack of de-mand (by patients) can be nearly as much of a problem.

Currently, the rate-limiting step is the number of trained cataract surgeons.

The biggest challenge follow-ing surgery is that of suitable or any after-care. A suitable measure of the quality of cataract surgery was given as the post-surgical posterior

capsule rupture rate (PCR rate). Another measure is the VA after

surgery with one WHO study show-ing less than 80% of patients had VA better than 6/18. Prof Verma itemized an ideal outcome as: good VA, rapid recovery (eye and VA), low resultant astigmatism, a short procedure, and one that required minimal follow-up. He also made a point that few contemplate: apha-kic spectacles are more expensive than many IOLs. Internationally, phacoemulsification is now regard-ed as the ‘gold standard’ for cataract surgery and there is a strong trend towards universal use of small-in-cision cataract surgery (SICS) that usually does not require sutures to close the portal of entry into the eye.

However, the latter was seen as something of a ‘problem’ by Prof

Verma because he believes that in the third world especially, sutur-ing of ocular wounds is becoming something of a lost art but even in SICS cases, wound leakage can lead to endophthalmitis and some su-turing may be required.

Generally, he saw the complete cataract-surgery repertoire being lost and he made the point that phaco is not the complete picture and sometimes additional steps are needed but may not be known. He also noted in passing that over-all, cataract surgical complications were proportional to the incision size, hence the shift to SICS as the preferred technique.

A later speaker, Dr Michael Haybittel (Burnie, Tasmania) made the claim that while SICS and phaco generally had similar outcomes,

the surgeon must have the skills to convert a phaco case to an extra-capsular cataract extraction (ECCE) ‘on the fly’ if necessary. ■

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www.insightnews.com.au

RANZCO HOBART MEETING

Challenge of ophthalmic education in India

The challenge of ophthal-mic education in popu-lous India was the topic

tackled by Dr Prashant Garg, training director of the widely known LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad, India.

Anyone who has been to the LVPEI will probably be fa-miliar with both Dr Garg and the breadth and depth of the challenges presenting routine-ly to its many clinics.

Dr Garg detailed the py-ramidal LVPEI Good Eye Care Delivery Model with a beyond-tertiary Centre of Excellence at the peak. Lower layers of the model refine the need for fur-ther eye care progressively so that only those in need occupy the scarcer and more expen-sive resources higher up the pyramid.

Optometrical and para-optometrical services are a part of the pyramid’s base

layers. Some of the challenges faced include: ophthalmologi-cal residencies that overlap re-sponsibilities of the numerous medical colleges and the state medical boards.

An additional complica-tion arises because health is a state responsibility (just like Australia). As well, the usual lack of funds also applies but a far greater problem exists in the sheer magnitude of the problem (India is the world’s second-most-populous coun-try, and probably destined to be the most-populous as a result of China’s previous one-child policy).

The resulting lack of time for individual care and a lack of sub-specialty services were also cited as problems.

Medical colleges do not have enough time for compre-hensive training and educa-tion and medicine in general has problems of lack of lead-ership, improper attitudes, and a lack of accountability.

Furthermore, the country lacks a centralised certification sys-tem which leads to a variety of skill levels and some graduates not being ready to practice.

As far as the national ex-amination boards were con-cerned they were unpopular, applied variable standards, and had a centralized exami-nation system with a poor pass rate.

Dr Garg’s answer to how that can be changed in-cluded: more funds, more instruments, more teach-ers, more time for education including train-the-trainer programmes, a re-assess-ment of training centres, and setting minimum levels of competence.

In his view, if excellence, equity, and efficiency are to be achieved, more short training courses and clinical-examina-tion-skills tests are required. Given the magnitude of the problem that will take time, a lot of time. ■

Dr Mark Whiting (Geel-ong, Victoria) spoke about protecting the

cornea in general and the cor-neal endothelium in particu-lar. For mostly obvious reasons he categorically stated that penetrating keratoplasties had no place in third-world sce-narios, the need for competent after-care being among the most obvious.

He also urged caution and double checking when using solutions in theatre proce-dures because of the possibil-ity, for example, of confusing

distilled water and lactate Ringer’s solution whose ap-pearances are similar.

Even the delivery of a lens nucleus from the eye poses a risk to the endothelium and he advised pushing-down on the eye to ‘extrude’ the lens through the incision.

In comparing the viscoe-lastics Healon and HPMC (hydroxypropyl methylcellu-lose) Dr Whiting claimed that while Healon is marginally superior, HPMC does not re-quire refrigeration, a consid-eration that takes on a whole

different dimension in third-world situations. Naturally, preservative-free solutions are preferred. ■

SoSIMPLE45th Annual Scientific Congress papers

The 45th Annual Scientific Congress of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists was held in Hobart last November. Here is Part 2 of Insight’s report on papers presented.

Prashant Garg

Mark Whiting

Protecting the cornea and endothelium

RANZCO HOBART MEETING

Rapid Fire/Best Papers and Q&A

Eye injuries in children

A lot of recent and use-ful information was delivered by speakers

in a Rapid Fire/Best Papers session following a seven-minute presentation and three-minute Q&A format.

Dr Dana Robaei spoke about acanthamoeba kera-titis (AK) in 196 patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital (UK) over the period 1991-2012. Approximately 48% of cases were culture posi-tive, about the same per-centage were male whose average age was 34 years. Fortuitously, and perhaps a little surprisingly, just 1.5% of case were bilateral despite the opportunity of-fered almost certainly being bilateral.

As is already known widely, 94% of the cases were contact lens-related, mostly soft contact lens wearers. Despite the condi-tion being well known now for two to three decades and the wider use of confocal microscopes (the organisms can be seen with a confocal

microscope), it took three visits on average for the cor-rect diagnosis to be reached.

As usual, the condition was most commonly mis-taken (in 51% of cases) for herpes simplex keratitis (HSK). The treatment pe-riods required averaged a lengthy 8.2 months.

The most-common treatment was the applica-tion of PHMB (polyhexam-ethylene biguanide) either alone or in combination with another anti-acanthamoe-bal, e.g. Brolene (sparing use was recommended because of concerns surrounding the latter’s toxicity).

Unfortunately, Dr Robaei reported, complications of the original infection are common, e.g. 18% got a sec-ondary bacterial keratitis and 35.7% exhibited a scle-ritis. Worse, 10.8% experi-enced a corneal perforation. Of the perforation cases 52% went on to have a penetrat-ing keratoplasty (PK) where-as the average for other cases was nearly as high at 48%.

Exposure to ocular ster-oids prior to appropriate treatment commencing made the odds ratio (OR) of a worse or poorer visual out-come to rise to as high as 4X. The OR rose to 9x if the pa-tient was less than 60 years of age.

Dr Robael’s general ad-vice was to be very cautious of ever making a diagnosis of HSK in any contact lens wearer until the possibility of AK was ruled out (while Australia has a lower inci-dence of AK for water supply technology reasons largely, that general advice should still be applied rigorously because of the serious eye and vision ramifications of AK). When the trophozoite form (non-encysted, ac-tive and growing form) has colonized the corneal epi-thelium, a biopsy should be assessed and cultured. ■

Dr Clairton De Souza addressed the issues surrounding eye in-

juries in children around the world. As expected males are more than twice as likely to be injured than females but surprisingly, somewhere between 25 and almost 50% of children injure their eyes at some stage of their childhood.

Seasons seem to only change the source of the injuries rather than the incidence and for exam-ple balls in summer might be replaced by snowballs in winter as the offending projectile.

While in developed

countries air guns are a common source of the more serious eye injuries, in the lesser world warfare in-volving guns, mines, aerial bombs, laser weapons, etc. increase the possibilities, and the potential severity, of ocular trauma.

Sport remains one of the most common causes ac-counting for more than 10% of all injuries. Fortunately, sports injuries are also among the easiest to address because the cause is usu-ally well defined and steps can be taken to decrease or eliminate the problem.

Citing the Canadian experience with trauma

(including lost eyes) from ice hockey pucks, the use of appropriate helmets and face protection saw a reduc-tion of more than 90% in se-rious cases and no eyes lost to blindness. ■

www.insightnews.com.au

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www.insightnews.com.au

RANZCO HOBART MEETING

Indigenous health service has 8,000 regulars on its booksOne of the more inspir-

ing presentations was delivered by Assoc

Prof Noel Hayman, one of the few indigenous general medi-cal practitioners in Australia. Currently, he is clinical director of the Inala (a Brisbane sub-urb) Indigenous Health Service (IIHS), an award-winning ven-ture by Queensland Heath for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people that opened more than 20 years ago.

When opened the cen-tre was accessed by as few as 12 aboriginal patients (1995 figures), it had no aboriginal employees, and generally had nothing relevant to that group.

Under Prof Hayman’s steerage it now has aboriginal nurses and ancillary staff and it has walls lined with aborigi-nal art all of which is for sale. In 2013 the IIHS had 10,000 patients on its books, 8,000 of whom are regulars. Specialist services are provided at the centre on an as-needed basis and other non-staff practition-ers visit the centre as part of a cultural exchange.

As the centre grew the staff levels have increased and Prof Hayman’s ultimate goal is to make the IIHS a ‘centre of ex-cellence’ for aboriginal and

Torres Strait Island peoples. It already has links to univer-sities and medical colleges (University of Queensland, Griffith, James Cook, and Gold Coast University Hospital) and seeks indigenous medical students and those who want to care for indigenous peo-ples to assist them to deliver enhanced care. It also aims to improve its involvement with the local community to lower barriers to them seeking med-ical care at the service as and when required.

The former Queensland government under Anna Bligh committed $7 million and later $12 million in recurrent fund-ing to the centre. No update on the status of that funding was given in Hobart. Tellingly, the service has a low staff turnover (regarded as a very good sign) and one of its primary goals is to ascertain what works and what doesn’t in care delivery to the target audience.

In 2013 the Queensland health minister opened a new centre, the IIH Centre of Excellence, within the complex targeting DR screening to cater for the known 2-4x higher in-cidence of the disease among the target patient group. All di-abetic indigenous patients are

screened for DR routinely and most DR services are delivered in-house so that the patients are in familiar surroundings.

Because of the focus of the centre it is becoming a centre for relevant research and any-one wanting to undertake suit-able research is invited on the service’s website to make con-tact about their ideas.

The IIHS is also a part of the Medical Specialist Outreach Assistance Programme op-erating in Cunnamulla (Queensland) as part of a $10.5 million project undertaking telehealth research spanning Inala and Cunnamulla.

One measure of Prof Hayman’s success would have to be his selection as the Queensland nominee for the 2011 Australian of the Year award. ■

A symposium on Overseas Development Special Interest Group –

International Ophthalmology chaired by Assoc Profs Nitin Verma and Geoffrey Painter. Again a rapid-fire format was used with either eight-minute or five-minute presentations given.

Chairman of RANZCO’s International Development Committee (IDC), Dr Neil Murray (New Zealand)

discussed activities that inter-face with those of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), the International Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness, Vision 2020, and other con-sortia. Currently, projects in the Pacific islands, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are active and the IDC is running regional leadership projects, online mentoring (Pacific Eyes Online), and an international

scholarship programme to supports ophthalmic profes-sionals to attend international conferences.

The RANZCO IDC endeav-our is one of the few credible players in the medical eye care education and professional standards fields. It is also an accredited development or-ganization with 49 RANZCO Fellows delivering more than 168 days of service each year at a cost of around $1.4 million. ■

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RANZCO HOBART MEETING

12 www.insightnews.com.au

Challenges of rural and remote eye-care

The Closing the Gap through Clinical Commitment and Technology session was

chaired by experienced rural and remote eye care ophthalmologist Dr Mark Loane (Brisbane).

The first speaker was renowned remote-area ophthalmologist Dr Tim Henderson who has spent more than 13 years working from and in Alice Springs serving a huge expanse of central Australia.

Dr Henderson was central to the creation of IRIS (Indigenous and Remote Eye Health Service) in mid-2010 to service a significant area of Australia that had little access to regular ophthalmic services.

For the period 2010-2014, the federal government funded IRIS to the tune of $5 million through the Australian Department of Health and Ageing (now simply the Department of Health after the cur-rent government moved the Ageing portfolio to the Department of Social Services).

Describing IRIS as using a uni-fied approach, i.e. ophthalmolo-gist, optometrist, ophthalmic nurses, dispensing staff, etc, he said the project has its own office and secretarial resources and the usual ophthalmic equipment as well as operating microscope, lasers, spe-cial clinic stools, etc. Other equip-ment required is usually carried to the job as necessary.

Describing cataract surgery as the heart of the project, Dr Henderson stated that experience has shown that if cataract surgery does not ‘work’, other endeavours are likely to fail also, i.e. cataract sur-gery is the key to success, without it, the other pursuits tend to fall by the wayside.

To address obsolescence, great-er wear-and-tear on equipment because of sub-optimal working environments and transshipment, and evolving technology that brings better methods and/or equipment to the table, IRIS has instigated a five-year equipment-replacement programme.

IRIS coverage is vast: a major city, an inner region not far removed from the programme’s city base,

outer regions, remote regions, and an aptly named very remote region. He described the project’s coverage as amounting to ‘much of Australia’. He did admit that a gap existed be-tween the city/outer regions and the remote/very remote regions.

A slit-lamp, a phaco machine, a telemedicine facility, operating microscope, etc. are installed in numerous remote locations and the ‘network’ managed to pass the 10,000 consultations stage over the 2011-2013 period.

More than 1,000 surgical pro-cedures were carried out in the re-mote and very remote zones over that time.

Equipment to the value of $1.5 million now resides in those two remote areas. About 20% of indig-enous people live in the two remot-est areas as do 7.7% (remote) and 13.7% (very remote) of Torres Strait Islanders.

Apart from the many challeng-ers that are predictable or obvious, Dr Henderson also nominated the following as additional considera-tions: very high staff turnover (often less than two-to-three years), dif-ficulty establishing continuity of services with a cost to the estab-lishment of relationship building, short-term problems of planning/yearly budgets, long-term problems including organizational efficiency, over emphasis on reporting and re-port completion, and a public hos-pital service being somewhat reliant on a passing parade of RANZCO registrars, Fred Hollows Foundation fellows with other positions being unfilled most of the time.

Currently, IRIS has 32 slit-lamps in service and the general mode of

operation is for optometrists to ‘fil-ter’ patients at the input stage and those requiring further/ophthal-mological care are then referred to Dr Henderson and colleagues for follow-up.

The challenges facing Dr Henderson and colleagues encom-pass the desperate needs of those in the catchment area, the often chal-lenging surgical cases, the breadth and depth of the conditions pre-senting, and the inadequate thea-tre time to cope with the amount of work required (ophthalmology is not the only surgical pursuit to have access to the operating theatres).

He described the situation gen-erally to be both rewarding and frustrating but omitted, deliber-ately, to apportion those competing extremes. He views the training op-portunities offered as excellent and unique but believes that they could be better if a supporting, sustain-able team was always present.

In his opinion the actual envi-ronment is a remarkable example of the natural environment while being socially and culturally in-teresting. To him eye treatment is preventative medicine as it helps maintain and support the individ-ual and their independence, their family (usually extended), and the local community. Furthermore, good vision is important to the in-dividual maintaining their own health, job retention, driving, and filling cultural rôles (both sexes). One area of some 60,000 people is 40% indigenous but that subgroup makes up 60% of the workload, i.e. they are disproportionately repre-sented among those requiring oph-thalmological care.

The culture of indigenous peo-ple also brings its own problems to such an extent that Dr Henderson described practitioners as need-ing to be ‘pragmatic’. Problems include the culture having differ-ent priorities to those of the medi-cal professionals, e.g. patients lost to follow-up for months, years, or forever because something more important to them or their group in-tervenes or they go walkabout and don’t return. Staffing is an ongoing

frustration and improvements promised in 2008 have still not been delivered. With federal razor gangs in action broadly it seems unlikely that such promises are ever going to be delivered. The eye unit in Alice Springs has been promised $3 mil-lion whereas $5-6 million is what is really needed for projects such as the Icare telemedicine network.

He stated that a ‘gap’ of about 20,000 people existed who do not have access to the services re-quired and extending coverage to those people is stalled currently. Geographic access to those people is also probably more difficult with distance and population density (sparsity) being just some of the is-sues in play.

Dr Henderson also believes that there are some vested interests who try to maintain the ‘gap’ and that is fuelled at least partially by some dependencies that have developed over time.

Despite all that has been achieved he believes that good ac-cess to health care alone is not the total story because for reasons that have not been elucidated even when it is available, the uptake of services offered has been patchy.

Staff also need to be flexible be-cause clinics can be cancelled with zero notice (patient no-shows, staff no-shows, or impractical shortages of appropriate staff). Sometimes trained staff prove to be too mobile or the situation in the clinic staffing too ‘fluid’ to be useful.

Dr Henderson’s parting state-ment was his belief that if the eyes can be ‘fixed’ there is a massive benefit in all other aspects of health care. ■

Tim Henderson

Mark Loane

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Word of MouthLast issue I wrote about success. I ended by stating that our best ambassadors are our happy pa-tients, who drive referrals through our doors. I maintain that’s the best form of marketing. It always was and probably always will be. We do however have to attract pa-tients to see us in the first place.

For a new optometrist work-ing in a chain it’s not such an issue as patients are driven into the ‘store’ by a well-oiled, multi-million-dollar marketing ma-chine. A practice located in a mall or busy shopping strip will also get some walk-in traffic, assum-ing they have a reasonably ap-pealing place and/or some sort of ‘deal’. It’s always been hard to start up a new practice on the 5th floor of an office building, even more so today. Opening up in a medical centre will at least bring in some punters.

After word of mouth referrals and those from ophthalmologi-cal and optometric colleagues the next best place for getting new patients and enquiries was tradi-tionally the ‘Yellow Pages’. Today that’s pretty much a dead duck. When last did you physically pick up and search a hard copy of the yellow pages? We used to have multiple entries and paid tens of thousands of dollars for a quar-ter or half page advert. A full page was like twenty-five grand!

Digital MediaBack in 1998 when I set up our practice website in New Zealand, there were only about five other optometrists with an online pres-ence. I realised back then that this was the way of the future and so

it has proven to be. I was amazed at how many people contacted us through the website, as I am by how many of my former pa-tients continue to track me down via Google. Having been on the web for many years one can type my name in and pretty much the first few pages have links to my websites, articles, conference presentations and more. It’s all about creating and maintaining a presence.

No practice should be without a decent website.

New patients would often comment on how impressed they were with the content and func-tionality of our original site. We used knowledgeable, profession-al web designers that understood search engines and the like. Too many people make the mistake of using people who may know how to make a website look nice but it’s as functional as a damp brick. Too many websites (and food labels and business cards), are designed by twenty-year-old MAC operators working on 29-inch monitors. They seemingly have no clue about fonts and vis-ual acuity and how the website may appear to a fifty-year-old presbyope browsing for an op-tometrist on a 10 inch iPad or 4 inch smartphone screen.

After personal referrals the Internet is now the best form of attracting patients. We’ve also tried banner adverts, which worked quite well. So long as you get value for money and return on investment the aforementioned are good options, as are ‘AdWords’ and other fancy ways of attract-ing business. Getting links to you from other sites is also beneficial. It’s thus worthwhile for you and your practice set up on as many health directories and other local business sites as possible. Make sure too that your suppliers list you in their directories or outlets. Join the optometric association and contact lens society so people can find you via the ‘find a practi-tioner’ link.

Speaking of associations, log onto the OAA website and look for the Contact Lens Hub. Among others, the archived webinars en-titled ‘don’t forget your marketing cape’ and ‘online is here to stay’ are useful with some very good data and tips on marketing and surviving in this online world.

There are a numerous ways to optimise the Internet to help drive business your way. Digital media people will of course hype-up the Internet. As always get good advice, seek out profession-als and of course word of mouth recommendations should always be considered. There we have it again; word of mouth is still good even in the era of digital media.

Social NetworkingPeople are also all hyped up about the value of social net-working and Facebook (FB) is a good place to obtain new busi-ness. One does however have to be careful not to mix business with pleasure. Good advice that has stood the test of time. Thus make sure you have a practice-specific FB page. Don’t try using your personal FB page as one to attract or communicate with patients. The same can be said of Twitter. I don’t want to see or hear about drunken antics at 2am after a night on the piss if I am looking at say my dentist’s page. I also don’t want to see ‘sooo kuuuu’ images of the cat or your kids on the potty, or have to read some inane diatribe be-tween you and a mate on Twitter. I mean wtf I came to your site for business reasons.

I reckon LinkedIn is a far more professional place for market-ing and interaction and believe that this will supersede FB and Twitter, in time, for professional marketing.

As always don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Right now Twitter is reportedly in ‘trouble’ as its no longer growing at the re-quired pace, nor seeming like a

money-making, sustainable busi-ness. Experts from Princeton also predict that Facebook will follow similar patterns to a viral epidemic and Facebook may thus lose 80% of users by 2017. (Search Google for Epidemiological modelling of online social network dynamics, by Cannarella & Spechler.) To illustrate this point when last did you see or use MySpace or Bebo, which were all the rage just a few years ago?

Every dog has his day but every single patient you can get from any source is one more that you had.

Tradition!Don’t totally write off traditional media. Radio adverts can work, as does TV, at a cost. Use national and local newspapers for occa-sional marketing.

As my marketing consultant used to stress, the best way to see the value of such things is to measure the response, usually via some sort of offer specific to that campaign. One series of radio ad-verts we did seemed almost like a waste of money yet another one was a great success. The same could be said of newspaper ad-verts. One really needs to keep your name out there. With tradi-tional media being clobbered by digital media the upside is that the traditional media are now of-fering value for money options, rather than the rip off rates they used to charge.

Keep a small entry in the yel-low pages, as there are still some who are not connected to the dig-ital world. Although I used online yellow and white pages in the past I find them pretty useless at times and often get better faster hits, to the right people, with Google.

Don’t forget business cards. Keep some on you. There will al-ways be people you meet who will ask for your card, or who you can hand one to.

Apps and your own online re-tail site also have a place but more on that down the track. ■

OPINION

Alan P SaksMCOptom [UK] Dip.Optom [SA] FCLS [NZ] FAAO [USA]

Saks on Eyes

14 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

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EDUCATION INSIGHT

TAFE’s Sydney dispensing course relocated from Ultimo to Randwick– By Lewis Williams, PhD

The Certificate IV Optical dispensing course hosted previously by Sydney TAFE

at Ultimo (Ultimo College) has been moved to Randwick College (known locally simply as Randwick TAFE), the eastern-suburbs hub of Sydney TAFE.

The first intake of students at Randwick, expected to total about 30, is scheduled to occur in time for the start of the 2014 year. A second student intake of a similar size is ex-pected mid-year.

The first full-time teacher ap-pointed to the relocated course is Mr James Gibbins a popular and experi-enced teacher who has extensive ex-perience of the Certificate IV courses offered by TAFE NSW, some with the previous face-to-face Ultimo course, most with the Open Training Education Network – Distance Education (OTEN DE) programme.

The OTEN DE course is head-quartered in Strathfield (an inner western suburb) as it is one of TAFE NSW’s Western Sydney Institute offerings. Paradoxically, the an-nual one-week block-release prac-tical and face-to-face sessions that round out its distance-education programme are hosted next door to Randwick College in an historic building (once part of the Randwick Tramway Workshop) owned by the University of NSW.

That location is expected to change in the near future but no plans regarding the logical step of amalgamating facilities have been mooted. Rather, the possibility of moving the OTEN course to an as-yet-unbuilt facility at Kingswood (outer western Sydney) has been aired. From a marketing point of view that location could be a prob-lem. Furthermore, the transport difficulties confronting a non-Syd-neysiders arriving at Sydney Airport, Central Station, or a bus terminus, will require some thought.

The relocation of optical dis-pensing was part of a broader move to create a health precinct at Randwick TAFE involving the de-livery of other allied health courses

including dental assisting and prosthetics, fitness (various), hear-ing device prescription and evalu-ation, remedial massage, massage therapy practice, and sterilisation services.

The proximity of the college to the Prince of Wales Hospital may also have been a factor in the pre-cinct’s development.

Interestingly, Randwick City Council has expressed support for the precinct’s creation which some would argue is in stark contrast with their ‘handling’ over several decades of the much more signifi-cant UNSW nearby.

For the move to be effective, decisions were taken about what Ultimo equipment would be transferred, what was to be donat-ed (e.g. to Nepal), and what was to be discarded.

The new course’s need for modern dispensing and edging equipment has been recognised by the ophthalmic supply indus-try, the Optical Distributors and Manufacturers Association, and the Optical Dispensers Trust Fund, which have expressed strong inter-est in making the course as modern and relevant as possible.

Unlike the previous Ultimo course, which encompassed one-day-per-week face-to-face for two academic years, the Randwick course is being condensed into a more intensive one academic year

programme. The one-day-per-week component remains but that is being bolstered by a significant on-line component (using Adobe Connect software) and an op-tional second full-day of tutorial support targeting all subject areas but with clear foci on practical dis-pensing skills, optics, and relevant mathematics.

New teaching facilities in-stalled include a modern, simulat-ed retail dispensing environment, a fully-equipped edging facility and workshop, and lecture rooms equipped with the latest digital multi-touch whiteboard tech-nology. It is hoped that the main teaching theatre will also become a CPD centre and meeting place for optical dispensers.

When speaking to Insight, Mr Gibbins expressed appreciation of Randwick College’s corporate cul-ture which he described as being very responsive and driven to suc-ceed. He has also been given ap-proval to continue his previous involvement, along with other ADOA members, in the dispensing activities within the UNSW’s School of Optometry and Vision Science clinics one day a week.

Recently, 15 representatives from ODMA met with the college’s management regarding the relo-cated course and its direction and all participants view the outcome as being very positive.

It is hoped that with the stu-dent numbers achieved, each practical session will consist of just two equal groups involved in separate activities. Should the de-mand exceeds expectations that plan may have to be reconsidered.

The support given to the new course by the industry in the form of significant equipment dona-tions and other gestures will in-crease the pressure on the TAFE NSW ‘system’ to rationalise its Certificate IV Optical Dispensing offerings.

The obvious answer would be a single course, located conveniently at Randwick, with two ways of re-ceiving the required knowledge, one by face-to-face, the other by distance learning. In an era of in-creasing vertical integration within the ophthalmic industry generally, it is difficult to see how an embat-tled ophthalmic supply chain could also afford a similar equipment gesture to the OTEN course. Staff issues are not a barrier to closer course ties as most of the core staff from both courses have worked together harmoniously over many years for the betterment of the dis-pensing profession.

An official opening is planned early in the new academic year.

To tour the new facility or to discuss any training needs contact James Gibbins on (02) 9469 8684 or james.gibbins@tafensw.edu.au. ■

TAFE NSW’s Randwick College building housing the course in optical dispensing

Vertometers and edging-machines at the Randwick facility

16 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

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LATE NEWS

Essilor buying Coastal Contacts; big online vision-care retailers

Specsavers test MPs’ sight in UK

Essilor International on 27 February announced that it has entered into a binding

agreement to acquire all of the out-standing common stock of Coastal Contacts one of the world’s leading online vision-care retailers.

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), Coastal.com is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ and reported revenue of $C218 mil-lion for the fiscal year ended 31 October 2013.

Founded in 2000, the company designs and distributes one of the widest online selections of optical equipment, including contact lens-es, prescription and non-prescrip-tion eyeglasses, sunglasses and various accessories. Products are sold through several local websites covering mainly North America and Europe as well as the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil.

The company also operates a handful of bricks-and-mortar stores in Toronto and Vancouver, with one mooted to open in Sydney this month.

The company claims to have more than five million customers worldwide.

Coastal.com’s loss from oper-ating activities in the year to 31 October 2013 was $C14,9 mil-lion against $C3.5m the previous year. Loss before income taxes was $C16.1m against $C4.32m a year ago.

Net loss for the year was $C15.9m against $C4.88m previous. Basic and diluted loss per share was $C0.52 against $C0.17 previous.

Adjusted LBITDA was $C9.9m against adjusted EBITDA of $C1.4m a year ago. As expected, basic and diluted loss per share was $C0.52.

For the year, the company re-ported sales of $C217.5m against $C196m the previous year.

Better sightCommenting on the acquisition, Mr Hubert Sagnieres, Essilor’s chairman and chief executive of-ficer, said said: “The internet has an important role to play in help-ing us to fulfill our corporate mis-sion of enabling people to enjoy a better life through better sight.

“The first step toward good visual health is a comprehen-sive eye examination. But in our industry, as in many others, the purchasing process is becoming more diversified.

“The internet, if used prop-erly, can help to drive market growth by educating consum-ers and making it more conveni-ent for them to enjoy good visual health. With Coastal.com, Essilor is acquiring a recognised online vision-care platform. Our com-mitment is to contribute to shape this distribution channel for the benefit of the entire industry as well as consumers.”

Mr Roger Hardy, chairman and CEO of Coastal.com, said: “Directors of Coastal.com unani-mously recommend that share-holders accept Essilor’s offer. As a member of the world’s leading vision care group, we will be able to offer our customers even bet-ter service. Combining Coastal.com’s expertise in online sales with Essilor’s innovation, mar-keting and logistics capabilities will allow us to focus our offer more effectively on the various categories of consumers.”

Online sales are said to ac-count for roughly four per cent of the global vision care mar-ket, which is estimated at some $US100 billion based on retail prices, Essilor’s statement said, adding, “They are likely to con-tinue growing at a double-digit rate for the foreseeable future.”

Essilor has been involved in online distribution for several years through its subsidiaries FramesDirect and EyeBuyDirect and through MyOnlineOptical, a turnkey e-commerce engine that enables American eye-care professionals to offer an online complement to their in-store offerings.

Essilor said it intends to “lev-erage online distribution to im-prove the quality of vision-care information, optimise the de-ployment of its products and of new online technologies, and

provide wider access to vision-correction solutions for exist-ing eyeglass wearers and for the 2.5 billion potential wearers worldwide.”

Essilor is offering $C12.45 per Coastal.com share, which repre-sents a premium of approximate-ly 20 per cent to the closing share price of $C10.39 per share on 26 February and approximately 42 per cent to the weighted aver-age price of $C8.74 quoted on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the last 60 trading days. The transac-tion represents a net equity value of approximately $C430 million.

The transaction will be structured as an arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act and is subject among others to the approval of the Competition Bureau in Canada and to that of Coastal.com’s shareholders.

Mr Hardy, founder, chairman and CEO, along with Coastal.com’s directors and officers, have entered into support and voting agreements pursuant to which they have agreed to vote their shares of Coastal.com, rep-resenting 16 per cent of all out-standing shares, in favor of the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this April.

Essilor Australia did not respond to a request for comment from Insight as we were going to press. ■

Specsavers Corporate Eyecare’s vision screening service has been testing the

eyesight of MPs at the House of Commons in London.

Working alongside insur-er RSA and road safety char-ity Brake, Specsavers Corporate Eyecare has been involved in the

‘Fit to Drive’ campaign since it was launched by RSA in 2011.

Ms Laura Butler, key ac-counts manager for Specsavers Corporate Eyecare, said: “Fit to Drive has targeted support from prominent parliamentarians from the start but for MPs to put themselves forward and take part

in vision screening was a great display of their support.”

Specsavers Corporate Eyecare offered vision screening by an optometrist to all MPs with an interest in road safety and eye health and dozens took the op-portunity to have their eyes checked.

The portable eye-screening machine used for events like these allows Specsavers Corporate Eyecare to check whether a per-son’s eyesight meets with the basic legal requirements for driv-ing, which equates to the ability to read a number plate at a dis-tance of 20.5 metres. ■

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HEALTH FUNDS INSIGHT

Best way to finance Medicare is to raise levy: architect of scheme

Assistant health minister accused of misleading parliament; toughing it out

The best way to finance Medicare is to raise the levy on incomes rather than in-

troduce a $6 fee to see a general medical practitioner, according to one of the architects of the univer-sal health scheme, Professor John Deeble.

Australians will not accept any change to the scheme that restricts access to those who can afford it, he said.

Professor Deeble, who was co-author of the proposals for Medibank and then Medicare dismissed claims by federal health minister Peter Dutton that Medicare risked becoming unaf-fordable unless a $6 fee was paid for each visit to a general medical practitioner.

Marking the 30th anniversary of Medicare, which was intro-duced by the Hawke government,

Professor Deeble said that in an advanced society “anything is sus-tainable” and if the society wants it.

Mr Dutton claims health costs will become “unmanageable” without change and that figures show an escalation in health spending per person underlined the need to cut “waste”.

The federal government’s com-mission of audit is considering whether introduction of a $6 fee to see a GP should attract a pri-vate-health-fund benefit, which consumder advocates say would increase inequality.

Professor Deeble said that Australians would not accept any move to restrict access to the universal health scheme and its

“life-preserving services”.He suggested raising the

Medicare levy to 2.75 per cent to help meet growing health costs,

but said he expected that would require political courage.

Mr Dutton said “with millions of Australians facing the chal-lenges of obesity, diabetes and dementia into the next genera-tion, our task now is to make sure we strengthen and improve our health system into the future”.

Prime Minister Mr Tony Abbott, said on 1 February he has no plans to introduce mandatory co-payments for bulk-billed GP consultations.

Speaking on the day Medicare marked its 30th birthday, Mr Abbott told reporters: “Nothing

is being considered, nothing has been proposed, nothing is planned.”

He was in Brisbane to launch the Griffith by-election campaign of former president of both The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and the Australian Medical Association, Dr Bill Glasson, who was attempting (unsuccessfully) to win former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s former seat of Griffith.

The push for the introduction of a $6 fee came from a former Abbott policy adviser and was out-lined in a submission the federal government’s commission of audit.

The commission’s recommen-dations to the government are being kept secret, however the opposi-tion’s successful by-election can-didate, Ms Terri Butler, claimed Dr Glasson supports co-payments. ■

The federal assistant health minister, Senator Fiona Nash, has been accused of misleading parliament over her chief of

staff initially refusing to resign and then doing so amid allegations of conflicts of interest after her office had intervened to shut down a food-rating website.

So far, Senator Nash has been toughing it out, including a laughable appearance before a Senate estimates committee, at which she stonewalled and simply refused to answer per-tinent questions.

Senator Nash is under pressure over her former chief of staffer ’s role (with her agree-ment) in the taking down of a website sowing health food ratings, which was criticised by some sections of the food industry because it showed up some of their products.

It has emerged that her chief of staff Mr Alastair Furnival is a former chairman of a opposed to a new health star rating website, which provided nutritional information about food products, and was removed just 20 hours after it began operation, allegedly at the behest

of Mr Furnival and others.When questioned about removal of the

website, the health department’s role in that, and the background and role of Mr Furnival, Senator Nash told parliament he was not in any way connected to any lobbying firm.

Several hours later, she informed the Senate that was not the case.

Soon after, Mr Furnival resigned his position.

LATE NEWS:Just as Insight was going to press, the special minister of state, Mr Michael Ronaldson, was refusing to say whether he had sent a letter approving Senator Nash’s chief of staff to start work while he was still director of a company that owned a lobbying firm representing junk food clients.

Senator Ronaldson was questioned by Senator Penny Wong in Senate estimates on 25 February about whether he knew that Mr Furnival still held a directorship and co-owned Strategic Issues Management, one of the three

companies that makes up the Australian Public Affairs partnership, when he took up the job late last year.

Under the statement of ministerial staff standards the special minister of state must send a letter of permission for a ministerial staffer to work while retaining a directorship of a company.

Paragraph six of the statement of stand-ards for ministerial staff says ministerial staff must “have no involvement in outside employment or in the daily work of any business, or retain a directorship of a com-pany, without the written agreement of their minister and the special minister of state.” Senator Ronaldson sits on the govern-ment staffing committee which vets and ap-proves staff appointments to ministerial offices and took the question about wheth-er he sent a letter of approval on notice. Mr Furnival had three contracts which were signed off by the prime minister’s chief of staff, Ms Peta Credlin, two of them short-term and one ongoing. ■

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TF1561_1040x1420.indd 5 02/09/13 09.36

20 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

No plans for co-payments : PM

Healy Optical Pty Ltd P: 02 9420 3200 F: 02 9420 3222 E: sales@healyoptical.com.au www.healyoptical.com.au

TF1561_1040x1420.indd 5 02/09/13 09.36

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT

Virtual Refractor: The Whole Story

Now that the true prov-enance of the award-win-ning Virtual Refractor has

been clarified (see Letters to the Editor in this issue) it is time to present the whole story regarding its development that spans about a quarter of a century and harks back to a different era.

So successful has the pro-ject been, that its 4th version won the 2013 Sydney Design Awards’ Digital Experience Website Award against about 3,000 competitors.

Originally conceived and de-veloped by Dr Jack Alexander over 25 years, it was bought by the Brien Holden Vision Institute’s Public Health Division (formerly the International Centre for Eyecare Education) in 2013.

Sometime circa 1990, Dr Alexander, a senior lecturer in the School of Optometry (as it was then) found himself in a frustrat-ing position – the person who had taught subjective refraction in the school (Dr Dan O’Leary) had left and, in the absence of a replace-ment, Dr Alexander was pressed into service.

For those readers who are familiar with the refraction pro-cess, imagine taking a group of neophyte students through the steps and how quickly it can de-generate into a confusing, mono-tone of seemingly endless steps punctuated by the occasional invocation not to forget that changes in the spherical com-ponent of 0.50D or more require offsets (half the change and of the opposite sign) in the cylin-drical component, if any, to keep the circle-of-least-confusion hovering near or on the retina.

With one of the sharpest en-quiring minds in the business, Dr Alexander began to review possi-ble solutions to his teaching frus-trations not just in refraction but also in retinoscopy and binocular-vision education. He already had extensive experience in interactive computing going back to the late 1970s when the Department of Optometry as it was then, acquired

it first minicomputer (an Interdata 7/16 which, despite being the size of a large refrigerator, probably had less computing power than a modern, multi-function $3 digital watch).

Version 1While on sabbatical in the United States in 1988, Dr Alexander was introduced to the Amiga computer (Commodore Business Machines), a computer well ahead of com-peting machines of the time with comprehensive graphical and 3D capabilities, that was already in use in some vision-research laboratories he visited. From the outset, the Amiga came with AmigaBASIC, a BASIC program-ming language from a small soft-ware company called Microsoft, written mainly by its co-founder William Gates III (now known sim-ply as Bill Gates – Microsoft sup-plied versions of BASIC for many machines of the era including the Sharp series of pocket computers circa 1980 but not the BBC Micro).

Using AmigaBASIC, Dr Alexandear created a bitmap image of a refractor head inspired by the Green refractor head (B&L), added a sphere power ‘wheel’, then a cylindrical lens feature, etc. until the project ballooned into a serious tool of unequalled (still!) capability. He also scoured the literature searching for the mathematical equations that linked visual acuity with dioptric equivalence so that the interac-tion between the dioptric power on the virtual refractor, the se-lected Rx (the unknown), and the likely Snellen chart appearance were related realistically .

The Amiga (1985 to about 1994) and its manufacturer soon fell by the wayside as the IBM/Mac trend became a tidal wave.

The earliest copyright claim for the Alexander Virtual Refractor is given as 1992 (other dates are 1998, 2000, 2003). Various names for the program came into use but the most common colloquial one was ‘Refractor Jack’ which is still

used sometimes by old hands. The ‘Virtual Refractor’ is its for-mal name and that is the one still in use.

Version 2Not long after its release in 1984 the Mac became the ‘darling’ of the academic world and with the demise of the Amiga platform the Virtual Refractor was rewritten, with difficulty because of the dif-ference in graphic systems among other reasons, for the Mac using Symantec C++ (née Think C). Ultimately, that move to a C-based language became a feature of the versions he authored.

Version 3Dr Alexander retired from aca-demia in 1997 but when a version of the ‘product’ was shown to Prof Brien Holden (circa 1998) the idea was floated that he write a version for the then dominant Windows platform (another Microsoft crea-tion). Rising to the challenge he started working part-time on a Windows version using Borland’s C++ Builder programming envi-ronment. It was then more than ever that the advantages of the Amiga’s separate display, sound, and graphics chipsets and a games controller were most obvious.

The project was under the aus-pices of ICEE (the International Centre for Eyecare Education) with funding from government grants and Essilor International (in the form of the Varilux Academy Asia-Pacific) which aimed to pro-vide educational resources to practitioners and educators sepa-rately across Australia and the Asia-Pacific. The Virtual Refractor was part of a 32-week curriculum which was supported by an eight-module set of printed manuals some of which were also authored by Dr Alexander.

Over more than a decade, tens of thousands of students in over 70 universities have been exposed to the Virtual Refractor in Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore,

Taiwan, and the Philippines, among others.

By a process of evolution the capabilities of the product grew along the way. A refractive error could be selected randomly by the programme and that became the ‘target’ for the student, the level of VA appropriate to the Rx selected would be displayed on screen probably using Gaussian blur to simulate the vision experienced by the ‘patient’, voice was added so that the virtual patient could re-spond to the changes made by the student practitioner (“That’s bet-ter”, “That’s worse”, “That made no difference”, etc).

Fortunately for the neophyte, no ‘engineer patient’ was cre-ated – “ Well the line on the right has a blue halo to its left and a red-brown halo to its right but the line also appears a little mis-aligned by about 1° anticlockwise and it’s perhaps 2 mm higher than the equivalent on the left, etc., etc., etc.”. Sadly, the quizzi-cal patient remark, “Do you know what you are doing?”, in response to the student making more than two lens changes in the wrong direction was dropped from the Macintosh version and was not reinstated. Later, near refraction was added, later still the near re-fracting distance could be stipu-lated as a user option.

From an early stage, the results of the virtual refractions could be transferred to a floppy disk (re-member them?) and submitted as part of an assessment system within the course. The submitted data was then ‘marked’ automati-cally and a summary of results supplied to the course co-ordina-tor. Later that was changed to an on-line submission system with the same capabilities. Naturally, those ‘back-end’ systems were also Dr Alexander’s products.

The program and its applica-tions were featured in abstracts from the 5th (1995) and 6th (1997) Scientific Meetings in Optometry and the 2nd Education Meeting in Optometry (2000). A paper by Dr Alexander

22 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

– By Lewis Williams, PhD

MARCH 2014

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT

about his Virtual Refractor won a best paper award from Clinical & Experimental Optometry.

The product’s evolution con-tinued solidly until about 2004 and intermittently until about 2007. Throughout its life the most cur-rent version of the Virtual Refractor has been in use continuously with-in the School of Optometry and Vision Science (SOVS) and its ear-lier incarnations. Offers to create a high-resolution image of a refrac-tor head were made by the author of this article circa 2000 but the in-decision surrounding how to ‘mar-ket’ the product and the changes that that would require resulted in no action being taken at the time. While it was used in various situa-tions around the world, especially Asia-Pacific, it probably never achieved the heights it deserved.

Version 4Eventually, ICEE became the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Public Health Division, and a decision was made sometime in 2012 to update the whole product.

That was partly in response to issues arising from the wide adoption of Windows 7 (in 32- and 64-bit version for added complex-ity) and the arrival of the much-unloved Windows 8/8.1.

After a few false starts in-house investigations of possible ways of evolving the product and removing its dependence on his-toric operating systems, screen resolutions, and aspect ratios, e.g. VGA (640 X 480 pixels), the task was eventually given to but-terfly, a creative digital agency based in Melbourne with whom the BHVI PHD already had some dealings and whose capabilities were known. As it drew up plans for the delivery of on-line edu-cation programmes both here and overseas incorporating the Virtual Refractor, the rational decision was made to make the product browser-based to en-able that to happen. That meant that after more than 20 years and three core versions, yet another version was required.

The latest version is coded in HTML 5 and Javascript by a team at butterfly. with input from Mr Barry Brown (digital media, BHVI), Mr Michael Morton (op-tometrist, computing consult-ant, BHVI’s education team) and Dr Alexander. The ‘new’ product is based on Dr Alexander’s 2004 version. What commenced as a two-week project became a 5.5-month marathon because of the complexity of what was being

attempted and interpretation of existing code that often had in-terdependencies that were not anticipated (anyone saddled with the task of interpreting the pro-gram coding of others will under-stand fully).

Because the project was then heading in a somewhat differ-ent direction, Dr Alexander sold his interest in the product to the BHVI in 2013 after ensuring it was off to a sound start. As a previous party to the product’s creation, the SOVS has been accommo-dated favourably under the new arrangement.

According to butterfly their brief was: To turn an out of date C++ virtual-refractor program into a state-of-the-art digital phoropter for teaching optom-etrists (sic).

A taste of the product can be had at: www.butterfly.com.au/what/we-ve-done?view=item&id=44. (Note: Phoropter is a trade mark of American Optical [25 Apr 1921] and its successor Reichert Technologies [originally a special-ist Austrian microscope manufac-turer] and the name belies the main reason for the instruments existence, namely refraction and not binocular co-ordination assessment).

Currently, development of Version 4 is at the Phase 3 stage with more and more of the origi-nal’s features being incorporated as well as new ones being conceived. Among new features is a module that will provide feedback to the student about the various paths they took to arrive at the Rx (an-swer). It is unlikely that the original quizzical option alluding to incom-petence will make a return.

So successful has the new project been that it won the 2013 Sydney Design Awards’ Digital Experience Website Award against about 3,000 competitors.

A future version will be avail-able for tablet computers but a decision has been made not to attempt mobile phone ver-sions largely because of the small screen size and the large amount of information that has to be ac-commodated in each screen view.

The current team that created Version 4 and Dr Alexander for his cumulative efforts over almost 25 years, ought to be justifiably proud of their award – their ‘baby’ is unequalled and a tour de force of just what can be achieved by a combination of the right ideas, the right knowledge, and the right skills being in the hands of the right people at the right time. ■

The federal government has spent almost $1 million fig-uring out whether unortho-

dox procedures such as iridology and the dubious therapy ‘rolfing’ are efficacious, including at least $140,000 on homeopathy.

The quest has been delegated to the country’s peak medical re-search body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, whose researchers might have scratched their heads upon re-ceiving the list of 18 targeted

therapies. ‘Rolfing’, for example, is de-

scribed as a holistic system of fas-cia manipulation that organises the whole body in gravity. It is a type of massage therapy.

Others are well-known

suspects, including aroma-therapy, kinesiology and re-flexology. Yet, though medical practitioners might instantly dismiss many of the therapies as bogus, the research council has spent 14 months and counting. ■

Federal government spends up on figuring out iridology

23www.insightnews.com.au

Version 3 of the Virtual Refractor Setting the record straight

RESEARCH

New findings on how cataracts form

Comprehensive eye exami-nations can help identify some chronic conditions

and help with early diagnosis

so patients can start treatment sooner and better manage their disease, according to a new study by UnitedHealthcare in the

United States. With more than 133 million

people nationwide with at least one chronic condition, according

to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study has broad implications. ■

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24 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

Eye examinations can identify chronic conditions: study

Groundbreaking new find-ings by an international team of research chemists

about how cataracts form could be used to help prevent the world’s leading cause of blindness, which currently affects nearly 20 million people worldwide.

“That’s the dream, and this is a big step,” Professor Rachel Martin, University of California (UC) at Irvine associate professor of chem-istry and co-author of a paper in the journal Structure, said.

“Understanding the molecular mechanism of what goes wrong in the eye that leads to a cataract could

lead to the development of better treatment options, including more sophisticated artificial lenses and drugs,” Professor Martin said.

It has long been known that human eyes have a powerful abil-ity to focus because of three kinds of crystallin proteins in their lens-es, maintaining transparency via a delicate balance of both repelling and attracting light. Two types of crystallin are structural, but the third – dubbed a ‘chaperone’ – keeps the others from clumping into cataracts if they’re modified by genetic mutation, ultraviolet light or chemical damage.

The researchers painstakingly explored and identified the struc-tures of the normal proteins and a genetic mutation known to cause cataracts in young children. They found that the chaperone proteins bind far more strongly to the mu-tated proteins in an effort to keep the lens clear. One major prob-lem: Every human eye contains a finite number of the helpful pro-teins. Once they’re used up, the re-searchers learned, weakened ones quickly begin to aggregate and form blinding cataracts. Now that that mechanism has been mapped at the molecular level, the team is

hopeful that organic chemists can create sight-saving treatments to prevent such aggregation.

While people with adequate medical care can have corrective surgery for cataracts, the World Health Organization has found that millions suffer major vision loss because they do not have access to laser surgery or other options.

By 2019, the number of people older than 50 with impaired sight is expected to grow even higher, par-ticularly in China, India, Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean nations. ■

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EDGING EQUIPMENTCheck out the new range of quality

laboratory equipment from Essilor instruments. From entry level to high-tech.

At OptiMed our focus is on you.

At OptiMed our focus is always on helping you make your practice perfect with the latest diagnostic instruments, consultation room furniture and laboratory equipment.

Call 1300 657 720 or visit www.optimed.com.au for more information.

S Y D N E Y • M E L B O U R N E • B R I S B A N E • P E R T H • A D E L A I D E • A U C K L A N D

Phone 1300 657 720 Email sales@optimed.com.au Web www.optimed.com.au

A new phase in supreme style and comfort for both the patient and practioner.

Height adjustable table optional.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Visually-impaired people could benefit from Israel’s ‘tactical’ CLResearchers at the Faculty

of Engineering at Israel’s Bar Ilan University have

developed a prototype contact lens that could enable visually-impaired people to see the world in a whole new light.

Developed by Professor Zeev Zalevsky, the contact lens pro-cesses digital images and trans-lates them into tactile sensations which can then be felt on the user’s cornea, allowing them to form a picture of their physical surroundings.

The system uses a smartphone or mounted camera to capture

images that are then transformed into a form of electronic Braille. The lens, fitted with electrodes, then mechanically stimulates the cornea, enabling the perception of objects around the wearer. Prof Zalevsky, who heads the Electro-Optics study program at Bar Ilan, said that only short training was necessary for users to become accustomed to and use the lens effectively.

“We did preliminary clinical trials on people and were able to transmit basic spatial shapes through tactile sense which the subjects were able to recognize

after practice of a few minutes,” Prof Zalevsky said.

“The more shapes you wish to recognize the longer the training should be, but it is similar to what happens when a blind person learns to recognize Braille writing, it is the same type of learning.”

The device is worn just like a regular contact lens and, while still in early development, holds significant potential as an aid for visually-impaired people.

“It’s like reading Braille, not with your fingertips but with your eyes,” Prof Zalevsky said. “We can encode an image with many more

points than the Braille systems and use these to stimulate the surface of the cornea.”

Though promising, the lens is yet to undergo thorough testing, with the team currently seeking funding to complete full-scale clinical trials and move into mass production.

“If we get the investment we are looking for, then the re-search and development period will be completed within about two years,” Prof Zalevsky said. “Obviously that is an estimation that strongly depends on the ca-pability to get funding.” ■

CFEH notches up 20,000 referralsThe Centre for Eye Health lo-

cated adjacent to the School of Optometry and Vision

Science at the University of New South Wales late last year celebrat-ed reaching 20,000 referrals.

There were over 80 optom-etrists from New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory present at the celebration.

“We celebrate to acknowledge that 20,000 at-risk people from NSW and the ACT have been given the chance of a better future. That has been made possible by the in-credible uptake of the centre and our services by our valued refer-rers,” centre director Professor

Michael Kalloniatis said. “Every referral we receive is

important; it’s a step towards re-ducing the incidence of preventa-ble vision loss for our community and gives another patient a bet-ter opportunity to maintain good vision.”

The celebration took place during the lunch break of the centre’s annual full-day SCOPE (Series of Continuing Ophthalmic Professional Education) ses-sion, a service that supports op-tometrists in developing their knowledge in advanced imaging interpretation and earning man-datory CPD points.

Seven optometrists who at-tended the celebration were presented with awards for their “outstanding” support of the cen-tre and its services over the past few years.

“I would like to thank all of the 1,000-plus optometrists in NSW/ACT who refer their patients to the centre for advanced imaging assessment; not only are you sup-porting the centre and our servic-es, but also taking action to avoid unnecessary vision loss. I would also like to encourage all NSW/ACT ophthalmic professionals to register and refer appropriate pa-tients for advanced imaging and

assessment – early detection saves sight,” Professor Kalloniatis said.

The Centre for Eye Health specialises in the early detection of eye disease through advanced imaging and is an innovative solution to assist the public by accessing critical eye tests. Its ser-vices are provided free of charge to all patients. Patient referral is required from an optometrist or ophthalmologist for an assess-ment at the centre.

Since opening in 2009 the centre has seen over 17,000 pa-tients at risk of losing vision and conducted over 30,000 advanced-imaging eye tests. ■

127 ophthalmologists in training; 813 practising as at 2012

There were 127 ophthalmol-ogists-in-training in a rec-ognised program as at 2012,

according to a report, The report, Medical workforce 2012, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on 28 January.

Their average age was 53.6 years; 37.3% were women; and they worked

an average of 48.5 hours a week.There were 813 specialist clini-

cal ophthalmologists, with an av-erage age of 52.7 years, and 38.2% aged 55 and over, 17.7% women and an average weekly hours worked of 42.6 hours.

The total medical workforce is continuing to grow, with increased

supply across all regions of Australia, according to a report released on Friday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The report shows that in 2012 there were 91,504 medical practitio-ners registered in Australia.

“Between 2008 and 2012, the number of medical practitioners

employed in medicine rose by just over 16% from 68,455 to 79,653,” AIHW spokesperson, Teresa Dickinson said.

Physician was the largest main specialty, followed by surgery.

GP numbers grew by 8.1% dur-ing this period with a notable in-crease in rural practice. ■

26 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

EVERYONE TRUSTS INSIGHT!

Luxottica Group reports record $11.4bn sales for 2013 full year Luxottica Group SpA has reported record €7.3 billion ($A11.4 billion) sales for the 2013 full year, com-pared to €7.09 billion in 2012, an increase of 3.2%.

The company has also reported sales in the fourth quarter were €1.65 billion, up 0.8%, compared to the results recorded in the same pe-riod of 2012 at €1.63 billion.

During the year, the retail di-vision’s optical segment reported especially strong performance in emerging markets, most notably in China, Hong Kong and in Latin America, while strong performance was also reported by OPSM in Australia.

According to the company, the result is attributable to “the solid organic growth which has been pur-sued with determination since the beginning of 2013 and throughout the entire year. We have closed an-other record year, achieving solid performances in 2013 across all of the geographic areas in which we operate, with peaks of excellence in emerging markets and Europe.

“Growth also continued in North America, where the wholesale division and Sunglass Hut achieved particularly positive results,” Mr Andrea Guerra, CEO of Luxottica, said. “Based on the strong increase in net sales, we expect that the growth in the operating profitability of both divisions will be aligned to the growth reported in the first nine months of 2013.”

The wholesale division’s net sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 amounted to €644.2 million, mark-ing an increase of 5.4% compared to the same quarter of 2012 at €611.3 million. The division’s net sales for the full year were €2.99 billion, compared to €2.77 billion in the same period of 2012, an in-crease of 7.9%.

Total net sales in North America for the full year 2013 increased by 3.5% in US dollars, driven in particu-lar by the outstanding performance

of the wholesale division, which was up 6.7% in US dollars, the company said.

The wholesale division as a whole grew each quarter through-out 2013, in particular, in emerging markets and the travel retail chan-nel. Europe also delivered solid results, with significant growth es-pecially in Germany and France.

Net sales in the US were positive for Ray-Ban as the company cited the brand’s performance globally. It also noted that Oakley exhibited a solid growth in Europe and re-ported strong, double-digit results in emerging markets. The launch of the Giorgio Armani eyewear collec-tions was executed achieving results aligned to expectations, and the premium and luxury segment grew consistently throughout the year.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, net sales for the retail division were €1.00 billion, down 1.9% over the same period in 2012 at €1.02 bil-lion. The retail division’s compa-rable store sales grew by 3.0% over the same period in 2012 driven by emerging markets and Europe.

According to Luxottica, the fourth quarter of 2013 completes “a year of transition for LensCrafters” which reported comparable store sales down 1.6% in the quar-ter but up 1.0% for the full year 2013. Against that retail backdrop, Sunglass Hut once again reported “stellar” performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year, with comparable store sales up by 5.1% and 5.9% respectively.

For the full year 2013, the retail division reported net sales of €4,321 million which were flat for the full year 2012 at a reported €4.31 bil-lion. Sunglass Hut had another year of growth, reporting total net sales which were up, with excellent trends in comparable store sales overall in the US, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Brazil during 2013.

Essilor buys up in USA, Canada and BrazilEssilor International has signed up of six new transactions in the United

Stateas, Canada and Brazil that rep-resent combined full year revenue of approximately €38 million ($A58 million).

In the US., the company com-pleted three new partnerships, acquiring majority stakes in two prescription laboratories – RD Cherry in Michigan and Plunkett Optical in Arkansas – that gener-ate revenue of $US9.8 million and $US3.3 million, respectively.

Essilor also acquired a majority share in Frame Displays, a compa-ny that designs, manufactures and distributes display furniture and accessories for optical stores, with revenue of $4.5 million.

In Canada, Essilor reported it strengthened its distribution net-work by signing a partnership agreement with Riverside Optical, a group of prescription laborato-ries that operates in Quebec and Ontario, with revenue of $C26 million. The agreement will allow Riverside to enhance its product portfolio and speed the company’s local development in the mid-range segment, Essilor said.

Essilor also forged partner-ships with Benson Edwards Optical Lab and CPS 360 Optical Lab, two Ontario-based prescription labo-ratories with revenue of nearly $C3 million.

Lastly, in Brazil, Essilor rein-forced its geographic coverage with the signing of a partnership agree-ment with Comprol, which gener-ates revenue of €5.4 million. This prescription laboratory is the com-pany’s first facility in the Federal District (Brasilia), whose 2.5 million inhabitants have the highest aver-age income of any state in the coun-try, Essilor noted.

Commenting on the new trans-actions, Mr Hubert Sagnieres, chair-man and chief executive officer of Essilor, said: “With 27 new transac-tions, the partnership strategy was especially active in 2013, thereby enabling Essilor to strengthen its ties with eye-care practitioners around the world and to deploy its mission of improving eyesight.

“In an optics market that

remains highly fragmented, Essilor will continue to develop its regional deployment model, which is unique and creates value for the company’s shareholders.”

Jonathan Paul Eyewear and Live Eyewear settle trademark dispute in US Jonathan Paul Eyewear and Live Eyewear have announced the suc-cessful resolution of their pending trademark disputes.

Effective immediately, retail-ers will be permitted to use ‘fitover’, ‘fit over’, or similar variations (e.g., fit-over, fits over) to describe their products.

Trademark counsel for Jonathan Paul Eyewear, Robert Kleinman of Kleinman Law Firm in Austin, Texas, confirmed that the company has decided to release their trademark registrations incorporating the term ‘Fitovers’ and added: “We arrived at a creative solution that was in the best interest of the industry as a whole as well as the particular par-ties. This change should unleash the massive growth potential of this eyewear segment.”

Live Eyewear owns Fitover sun-glass brand Cocoons as well as the OveRx collections designed to fit over prescription eyewear, in-cluding Vistana and LightGuard. According to a release from Live, “the parties consider this matter re-solved amicably in its entirety”.

Google launching first Rx Glass Google Glass is taking a big step clos-er to the mainstream consumer mar-ket, and to the optical industry, with Google’s release of its first prescrip-tion eyeglass collection for Glass.

Although Google’s proprietary ‘smartglass’ is still in beta test and is currently being offered only to Glass Explorers – an exclusive group of early adopters – the availability of an Rx-able version of Glass could significantly expand the potential market for the device once it goes into full release later this year. ■

INDUSTRY

Business Briefs

27MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

28 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

ASSOCIATIONS INSIGHT

Eye Bank ANZ joins new Global Alliance

Queensland University of Technology defends scrapping interviews for medical-course applicants

RANZCO Younger Fellows’ Advisory Group established; seeking input

The Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand and five other world-leading eye bank associations have

joined together to launch the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations (The Global Alliance) in order to support and develop eye-banking services around the world.

Global Alliance representative and EBAANZ chair, Dr Graeme Pollock, said on 26 February: “The key aims of the Global Alliance are to develop global collaboration on best practice, sharing of information on scientific meetings, development of confer-ences and education events, establishment of a worldwide register of eye banks, develop-ment and promotion of global-coding-and-traceability efforts, and bio-vigilance systems for ocular tissue.

“Advocacy and education also play a cen-tral role in the organization’s development

and we are looking forward to working with colleagues around the world to support the needs of their eye bank staff and ultimately the donor, donor family and the recipient.

“The concept of the Global Alliance also seeks to assist existing global eye bank as-sociations to support and combat unethical practice associated with donation and trans-plantation, as advised by the World Health Organisation’s ‘Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism’.”

The signatories of the new Global Alliance include the; Eye Bank Association of America, European Eye Bank Association, Association of Eye Banks of Asia, Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand, Pan American Association of Eye Banks, and the Eye Banks Association of India.

While a memorandum of understand-ing is in place between those foundation

partners, each association will retain their independence, identity and position as a re-gional association.

The development of the Global Alliance will not disrupt any affiliations, partnerships, prior and future arrangements or projects of each association, and individual eye bank members will continue to participate with their local eye bank association.

While still in the foundation phase, the Global Alliance key stakeholders have launched the new initiative and a new web-site, www.gaeba.org ready to provide the platform for future dialogue and communi-cation around the world. ■

The University of Queensland’s School of Medicine has de-fended scrapping interviews

as part of its selection process, maintaining they are little more than “performance art” where ap-plicants tell the interviewers what

they want to hear. The explanation from the

school comes just weeks after it was found that ceasing the inter-views in 2009 had led to a large drop in the proportion of females accepted into the school.

Of domestic graduate-entry students, the proportion of fe-male students slumped from 48 per cent in 2008 to just 26 per cent in 2012.

Applicants are currently as-sessed solely on grade point

average and GAMSAT results, which appears to favour male students.

But the university’s MBBS program director, Dr Jennifer Schafer, said interviews could advantage ‘self-promoters’. ■

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists has es-

tablished the Younger Fellows’ Advisory Group to represent the views and interests of fellows within less than 10 years of ob-taining their RANZCO fellowship.

The group is made of repre-sentatives from Australia and New Zealand.

Chair of the YFAG, Dr Christine Younan, told Insight a number of events specifically targeted for younger fellows have been planned for 2014, commencing

with a questionnaire sent out to them in order to gain a better understanding of the issues that are most important to them, the results of which will be used to plan future events and sessions and to also guide the work that the group undertakes.

Another initiative is the in-stigation of a ‘welcome pack‘ for newly-admitted fellows, which is hoped will be a useful resource for new fellows as they com-mence their careers. It is still in a pilot phase as feedback is re-ceived and assessed. It is also

intended to place much of the content of the pack on the mem-bers’ section of the RANZCO website.

Planning is already underway for this year’s Annual Scientific Congress in Brisbane, which will include an interesting and inter-active program filled with infor-mation and speakers addressing subjects that are particularly rel-evant to younger fellows.

Also, the group is planning social events for younger fellows, details of which will be provided closer to the events.

Young fellows will be able to keep up to date with program de-velopments by reading RANZCO News and e-News or by visiting the 2014 Congress website www.ranzco2014.com.au

New fellows’ input is very im-portant to the group, which sug-gests that if any have missed the opportunity to complete the re-cent survey or have ideas or con-cerns to raise, they should feel free to contact Ms Sarah Stedman (manager, memberships) at the college at sstedman@ranzco.edu, who liaises with the group. ■

*UV-absorbing contact lenses are NOT substitutes for protective UV-absorbing eyewear such as UV-absorbing goggles or sunglasses because they do not completely cover the eye and surrounding area. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, a division of Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Ltd., 45 Jones Street, Ultimo NSW 2007 Australia. Phone 1800 125 024. www.acuvue.com.au.

©Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Ltd 2013. ® TM Registered Trademark. CCP 8639/13

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Get set for Optrafair

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Put the 11th – 13th April 2014 in your diary now and register for Optrafair London.

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» Education

» CET points

» Business advice

» IT and practice management

» Fashion frames

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» Lab equipment

Get set for Optrafair

London

Put the 11th – 13th April 2014 in your diary now and register for Optrafair London.

Dedicated to the needs of the optical profession, Optrafair London will provide visitors access to the latest products and services, as well as ideas, networking opportunities and education to help further your career and build your business.

So whatever your area of expertise, from optometrist to ophthalmologist, dispensing optician to practice owner, lab technician to receptionist. Optrafair London is the optical event you and your practice cannot afford to miss.

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and

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

25195_Optrafair_news_style_final_dps.indd All Pages 14/01/2014 11:30

ASSOCIATIONS INSIGHT

Two new optometrical associations formed in United StatesTwo new associations of

optical professionals have recently been launched

in the United State – The American Association of Doctors of Optometry (AADO) and The Optometric Society (TOS).

The AADO was started in the summer of 2013, and the TOS of-ficially opened for business on 1 January 2014.

Both nascent organizations broadly describe their purpose as providing “a voice for eye-care professionals”.

Defined as a “profession-al membership organisation” whose status as a Nevada-based non-profit mutual benefit 501(c)(6) tax-exempt corporation is pending, “The Optometric Society is a new organization to serve those doctors who want a voice and representation in their profession,” Dr Lisa Shin, OD, in-terim president of the TOS, told VMail.

Promotional materials from TOS state: “Concern over the

present state of the profession should prompt optometrists in all modes of practice to join.”

Dr Shin elaborated that those concerns include “the increased role of government in health care, the proliferation of schools and colleges of optometry and

the influence and control of third-party payers.”

When asked about the im-petus for founding this new or-ganization, Dr Shin told VMail, “Our members feel their voice is being lost in the larger discus-sion about what is best for the

profession. There are many is-sues facing optometrists and their ability to practise indepen-dently. We hope to address those issues and work within the pro-fession to improve the quality of eye care while advancing the profession as a whole.”

TOS interim board members held their first meeting in early January. In attendance were pres-ident Dr Shin, OD; vice president Dr Gary Litman, OD; secretary Dr Jennifer Flaherty, OD; and treas-urer Dr Michael Santarlas, OD.

The organisation’s found-ers felt there was a need for a different type of optometric organization.

“The Optometric Society will not be an organization where its leaders make decisions for every-one else,” Dr Shin said. “We felt there was a need for an organisa-tion that was more representa-tive. That’s why polls will be very important to our organisation. We will ask our membership where they stand on the issues, and the leadership will move in the direction of these polls.”

The TOS posts seven bullet points within its mission state-ment, among them to: Represent the individual optometrist, re-gardless or practice modality; promote a positive, mutually-supportive relationship among the membership, the schools of optometry, residency programs, the state boards of optometry and other optometric profes-sional organizations; to improve the quality and accessibility of optometric care available to the public; and to ensure that licensed doctors of optometry are properly recognised by the public, its regulators, third-party payers and the government, and that they are not excluded from programs available to the profes-sion and third-party payer plans.

While both new associa-tions cite “unfair treatment” by third-party payers as among the reasons for their founding, The

American Association of Doctors of Optometry more specifically defines its mission as “directly opposing unfair and illegal busi-ness practices by vision care plans.” In fact, in its promotional materials, the AADO cites this as its primary reason for starting the organization: “The mission of the AADO is to improve the qual-ity of eye care in America. That starts by removing barriers to the delivery of optometric care and restoring competition among eye-care providers.”

AADO founder and executive director, Dr Craig Steinberg, OD, explained to VMail that “inde-pendent optometrists can’t un-ionise because we don’t have a common employer,” but at the same time they are feeling the pressure from third-party payers. “When third-party plans impose upon all independent eye-care providers a set of rules requir-ing everyone to have the same discounts, have lab work done by the same labs and source their materials from the same suppliers, there’s a natural im-pact that stifles competition,” Dr Steinberg said. “Maybe if optom-etrists could contribute to one collective fund they could create something powerful enough to stand up to third-party plans.”

One of the AADO’s first ac-tions was hiring Washington, DC, anti-trust attorney Mr David Balto for the purpose of inves-tigating vision plans for illegal actions.

“To defend you against the recent avalanche of predatory actions and contract changes imposed by third-party vision plans, Balto will investigate the third-party payer practices and contracts and then represent the AADO before the Federal Trade Commission seeking a fed-eral investigation into practices the AADO believes to be anti-competitive, unfair and illegal,” stated the AADO’s promotional materials. ■

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Insight ad.indd 1 13/01/2014 12:01:01 PM32 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

‘Concern over the present state of the profession should prompt optometrists in all modes of practice to join.’

33MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

TRIBUTE

ObituaryArnold Schmied, Sr. – co-founderof Silhouette International

Arnold Schmied, Sr., the co-found-er of Austrian eyewear company Silhouette International, passed

away in Linz, Austria, on 31 January follow-ing a long illness. He was 89 years of age.

In 1964, with his wife, Anneliese, he founded Silhouette International Schmied AG, headquartered in Linz, with the vision to make accessories out of visual aids that make people look good while improving their vision, which will be carried into the future by some 1,500 employees worldwide.

In a statement, Silhouette’s board of directors said: “With the passing of Arnold Schmied, Sr., not only have we lost a great entrepreneurial personal-ity, but a person – pioneer and vision-ary – who has marked the lives of us all and who, with his courage, his enthu-siasm, and his joy, will always be a role model for us. We are grateful for a great

entrepreneur and person, and will con-tinue his life’s work with joy and enthu-siasm, just as he would”

Lionel Minter and Cassandra Mow, speaking on behalf of the Silhouette Australia staff, said: “He was a very humble man. We would like to acknowl-edge that the initial vision of Arnold and Annaleise Schmied lives on today, through their family and the business (still owned and administered by their children), as an absolute desire to not only remain an independent family business but to continue to research, design, develop and manufacture all Silhouette products in the facility in Linz only.

“He had a quiet nature but was al-ways welcoming on our visits to Linz. He was remarkable and we will miss him, but are thankful he survived to the 50th year of the Silhouette company.” ■

34 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

FASHION INSIGHT

Dame Edna wins accolade for Service to Specs at Specsavers awards in UKAustralia’s own Dame Edna

Everage, currently on her farewell tour, won an ac-

colade for ‘Services to Spec’s at a recent Specsavers event in the United Kingdom – what has be-come known as ‘The Oscars for Specs Wearers’.

Model and DJ Amber le Bon followed in her mother’s foot-steps in stealing the limelight as she was crowned ‘Specsavers’ Style Star 2013’.

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ runner-up, comedian Jack Carroll, was awarded ‘Best Newcomer’ at the event at London’s Royal Opera House, staged to raise funds for anti-bullying charity, Kidscape.

The Specsavers awards saw a red carpet buzzing with bespecta-cled stars, including X factor and reality TV star Rylan Clark, Made in Chelsea’s Oliver Proudlock, pop sensation Lulu and comedienne Jenny Eclair who were all there to present awards to ordinary British specs wearers who look extraordi-nary in their glasses.

Amber le Bon, daughter of model Yasmin and Duran Duran frontman Simon le Bon, said: ‘I’ve been wearing glasses since I was little and I’ve always been teased because of it, but I really don’t care because I have always loved wearing them! I have a pair that my family call my granddad glasses, they’re vintage and I ab-solutely love them.

‘Receiving this award genu-inely means a lot to me because I was taunted so much growing up as a glasses wearer and the fact this event raises awareness and money for such a worthwhile charity as Kidscape makes it all the more meaningful.’

The awards, hosted by Kidscape ambassador Gok Wan, saw Suzan Smith, age 65 from Harrogate, presented with the overall Spectacle Wearer of the Year 2013 prize.

Melanie C, who has been a glasses wearer since her early teens, launched the search for Britain’s best specs wearers aged 16 and over early last year. She appeared on the night to perform her new single, Loving You, with X Factor winner Matt Cardle.

An auction held on the evening, run by TV personality Christopher Biggins saw money-can’t buy lots, including behind-the-scene experiences on TV show Saturday Kitchen and BBC Radio London with Gaby Roslinand go under the hammer. It raised a fur-ther £35,000 for Kidscape, bring-ing the total raised by Specsavers for the charity through the com-petition to £160,000.

Other stars appearing on the night included Donna Air and radio presenter Anna Richardson, who helped judge the competi-tion; afterparty DJs Giles Deacon and Henry Holland, Strictly star

Vanessa Feltz and X Factor win-ner Joe McElderry.

The ‘Spectacle Wearer of the Year 2013’ winner Suzan Smith received a two-week premier, all-inclusive holiday for two in St Lucia courtesy of Smugglers Cove and Virgin Holidays with £250 worth of spending money.

Specsavers supports several UK charities including Guide Dogs, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Sound Seekers, the road safety charity Brake, the anti-bullying charity Kidscape and Vision Aid Overseas, for whom stores have raised enough funds to build a school of optometry in Zambia and open eye-care outreach clinics in much of the country. ■

The British Contact Lens Association has launched a mobile app, ahead of its

flagship Clinical Conference & Exhibition in Birmingham this June.

“The BCLA mobile app is the latest in a growing suite of tools de-signed to enhance the experience of BCLA members and conference delegates alike,” BCLA president, Andy Yorke, said on 18 February.

“Available to download now, the free app will ensure delegates have all the key information they need

about the conference in the palm of their hand.”

Key features of the BCLA app are:• iPhone and Android compatible;• A clean layout that fits well on

desktop, tablet or smartphone web browsers;

• Instant access to the confer-ence programme, speaker information, exhibition and sponsor details, venue, maps and floorplans;

Quick links to the BCLA web-site for travel, accommodation,

social events and contacts; • Access to social networks such

as Twitter and Facebook;• Note-making facility;• In-box for the latest updates;• Favourites tool in the ‘My event’

area; and• Exhibitor listings including

product details and the oppor-tunity to contact suppliers prior to the event.

Jashan Bahia, BCLA marketing manager, said: “We will be updat-ing the app at various stages in

the lead-up to the conference as well as incorporating additional features. They will include, for in-stance, downloadable abstracts, venue maps and programme up-dates. “We encourage all those planning to attend the conference to make full use of all its great fea-tures and benefits.“

The BCLA mobile app is now available to download for free on the Google Play Store for Android and the Apple iTunes Store for iOS devices. ■

Dame Edna in full flight

… and with ‘Specsavers’ Style Star 2013’ Amber le Bon

BCLA mobile app goes live

Three good reasons to Get ComfortableTM with Biotrue® ONEday lenses

References: 1. Data on File, Bausch & Lomb Inc. Results from a 21 investigator, multi-site study of Biotrue ONEday lenses, with a total of 414 eligible subjects (210 daily disposable lens wearers, 204 planned replacement lens wearers). After 7 days of wear, subjects completed an online survey. Consumers rated Biotrue ONEday lens performance across a range of attributes and compared the performance to their habitual lenses. 2. Brennan NA. A model of oxygen fl ux through contact lenses. Cornea 2001; 20(1):104-108. 3,4,6,10. Data on File, Bausch & Lomb Inc. 5. Bergmanson J. Clinical Ocular Anatomy and Physiology, 14th ed. Houston TX: Texas Eye Research and Technology Center; 2007. 7. Data on File, Bausch & Lomb Inc. Twenty-two subjects participated in a randomised, double-masked, contralateral eye study to evaluate water loss of Biotrue ONEday,1-Day ACUVUE MOIST, and 1-Day ACUVUE TruEye. After 4, 8, 12, and 16 hours of wear, lenses were removed and immediately weighed (wet weight). The lenses were then completely dried and reweighed (dry weight). The percent water loss was then calculated for each lens from the wet and dry weights (Statistically signifi cant.) 8. Data on File, Bausch & Lomb Inc. Results of in vitro study in which Biotrue ONEday, 1-Day ACUVUE Moist, DAILIES AquaComfort Plus, and 1-Day ACUVUE TruEye lenses were allowed to dehydrate under the same ambient conditions of approximately 72°F with a relative humidity of 30% (Statistically signifi cant.) 9. Data on File, Bausch & Lomb Inc. Results of in vitro study in which Biotrue ONEday, 1-Day ACUVUE MOIST, DAILIES AquaComfort Plus and 1-Day ACUVUE TruEye lenses were placed on a model cornea with 0.00µm of spherical aberration. Images were acquired every 10 seconds up to 180 seconds and analysed using pattern matching algorithms. A score for each 10-second interval is determined by comparing how closely the test image matches the time 0 image. Mean scores over the 180-second interval were determined and compared. * UV Warning – Helps protect against transmission of harmful UV radiation to the cornea and into the eye. WARNING: UV-absorbing contact lenses are NOT substitutes for protective UV-absorbing eyewear such as UV-absorbing goggles or sunglasses because they do not completely cover the eye and surrounding area. The effectiveness of wearing UV-absorbing contact lenses in preventing or reducing the incidence of ocular disorders associated with exposure to UV light has not been established at this time. You should continue to use UV-absorbing eyewear as directed. NOTE: Long-term exposure to UV radiation is one of the risk factors associated with cataracts. Exposure is based on a number of factors such as environmental conditions (altitude, geography, cloud cover) and personal factors (extent and nature of outdoor activities). UV-blocking contact lenses help provide protection against harmful UV radiation. However, clinical studies have not been done to demonstrate that wearing UV-blocking contact lenses reduces the risk of developing cataracts or other eye disorders. Consult your eye care professional for more information. Bausch & Lomb (Australia) Pty. Ltd. 16 Giffnock Avenue, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113. Date prepared 12/13. 2014-01-029

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The outer surface of the Biotrue® ONEday lens is designed to mimic the lipid layer of tear fi lm to prevent dehydration and maintain consistent optics.6-9

Biotrue® ONEday features the same water content as the cornea (78%) to promote natural comfort.5,10

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MANAGEMENT INSIGHT

36 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

Practice Dollars

As staff are a practice’s most valuable resource, owners should be aware of their

obligations toward employees. Unsurprisingly, practice own-ers (employers), on occasion, overlook relevant legislation and complex, frequently changing, regulations.

Significant employment re-lations legislation amendments have been made to the Fair Work Act 2009 and other related legislation:• a modern awards review

process• superannuation guarantee

levy (SGL) increase from 9% to 9.25% and upper age limit removal

• workforce reporting/notifica-tion obligations

• discrimination laws • NSW smoking laws• worker’s compensation, and• immigration laws.

In 2013 business owners were required to amend dis-crimination policies in line with Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender

Identity and Intersex Status) Act 2013 (Cth) changes prohibiting discrimination against persons for sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.

In addition to SGL rate chang-es, employers were required to use a default fund registered by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to offer a My Super product. From July 2014 employ-ers with 20 or more employees, and July 2015 for employers with 19 or less employees, are required to follow data and e-commerce standards for superannuation contributions.

All decisions are accessible on Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) website, including Fair Work Amendment Act 2013. In 2014 the four-year term of modern awards will commence with further likely changes.

Noteworthy changes relate to parental leave, concurrent leave, flexible working requests, con-sultation requirements and FWC anti-bullying jurisdiction.

From 1 January 2014 new FWC anti-bullying jurisdiction al-lows employees to seek an order

to stop bullying if they believe they have been bullied at work. Although this jurisdiction does not include pecuniary penalties, a range of orders, including an order to stop, may be issued.

Fair Work Amendment Act 2013 requires modern awards employers to consult employees about regular rosters or ordinary work hours. In 2013 FWC decided to vary modern awards by insert-ing a Consultation clause, sum-marised below:

“Employers must:• consult employees affected,

and their representatives, about proposed regular roster or ordi-nary work hours;

• provide employees affected, and their representatives, in-formation about proposed changes (e.g. nature of changes to regular roster or ordinary work hours and proposed com-mence timing);

• invite employees affected, and their representatives, to give their views about the impact of proposed changes (including any impact on their family or caring responsibilities);

• consider any views about the impact of proposed changes given by employees concerned and/or their representatives.

Consultation requirements do not apply where an employee has irregular, sporadic or unpredict-able working hours. These provi-sions apply in conjunction with other award provisions concern-ing scheduling of work and notice requirements.

13 new Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) changes to legislation commence from March 2014, replacing existing Information Privacy Principles and National Privacy Principles. Several APPs differ from existing principles e.g. use/disclosure of personal information. ■

Why not register to the HPC Helpline to access Industrial, Legal, Practice Management and Business

Management experts all year round for all your practice queries. Send your

queries to helpline@hpcnsw.com.au.

Professor Nathan Efron from Queensland University of Technology asks optom-

etrists to record their contact lens fittings for an annual survey inves-tigating the current state of contact

lens prescribing in Australia.Optometrists can fill in the de-

tails of ten patients they fit with contact lenses on the ‘Survey of Contact Lens Prescribing’ form available from Professor Efron at

n.efron@qut.edu.au.Participants have until 30

March to return the form, which can be submitted even if optom-etrists have not fitted ten patients by this time.

Recording the details of the next ten patients fitted with con-tact lenses could make a vital con-tribution to an overall indication of contact lens prescribing trends, Professor Nathan said. ■

The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton, is urging

all Queensland hospital medical practitioners to reject state-gov-ernment contracts in their current form and is calling on the govern-ment to return to the negotiating

table in good faith to reach a fair and balanced agreement.

“The contracts are an insult to the professionalism and dedica-tion of hardworking doctors and undermine the provision of qual-ity medical care for the people of Queensland,” Dr Hambleton said.

“Doctors feel like they are being forced to sign draconian contracts that strip basic employee rights and threaten their livelihoods. They are being put under enormous stress.

“The Government must end its ‘take it or leave it’ approach and immediately re-open contract

negotiations.”Royal Brisbane and Women’s

Hospital senior medical officers have rejected the employment contracts, as have their colleagues in Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Nambour and Prince Charles Hospital. ■

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Employment Relations – forever changing landscape

AMA urges Queensland medical practitioners to reject ‘dodgy’ contracts

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38 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

STUDY INSIGHT

Blindness prevalence reduced over past 20 years, but ...The global prevalence of

blindness and moderate to severe vision impairment

has reduced markedly in terms of percentage over 1990-2010, according to a comprehensive review published in the journal Ophthalmology, the Centre for Eye Research Australia reports.

However, because of popu-lation growth and the relative increase in older adults in every re-gion of the world, there has been an overall but relatively small increase in the number of people with vision impairment and blindness.

Globally, there were 32.4 mil-lion blind people in 2010, and 191 million people with moderate and severe vision impairment. Of

these numbers, the review showed that more than half of the world’s blind lived in the most populated countries: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The burden of vision impair-ment continues to be greatest among those 50 years of age or older. Within this age category were 85 per cent of the people who are blind and 78 per cent of those with moderate to severe vi-sion impairment.

The prevalence of blindness in women was also greater than men in all world regions. The prevalence of age-standardised blindness for women was more than 1.5 times higher than men in high-income regions.

The review was undertaken by the Vision Loss Expert Group, a global collaboration of almost 80 ophthalmologists and optom-etrists, including the Centre for Eye Research Australia and the University of Melbourne.

According to Department of Ophthalmology honorary and report co-author Professor Jill Keeffe, estimating trends in the global burden of blindness and vision impairment is important in understanding areas of unmet need and the effects of interven-tions such as cataract surgery.

“The percentage of people across the world with blind-ness and vision impairment has pleasingly decreased due to a

concerted effort by governments and eye health organisations,” Professor Keeffe said.

“However, the need for further measures is significant and likely to grow with ageing and growing pop-ulations in high risk countries.” ■

Let everyone know your event is ON – tell your family and neighbours, spread the word through social media and email your work colleagues.

Raise much needed funds for community ‘Family History Awareness’, Glaucoma Australia’s telephone support line and eye health provider resource materials.

With your assistance we can help save sight.

Visit www.glaucoma.org.au/BIGbreakfast for a host pack and other information.

RegisteR nowwww.glaucoma.org.au/BIGbreakfast

Make tHe woRLD’s Big BReakFast a success

Join us to host

tHe woRLD’s B.i.g BReakFastduring World Glaucoma Week 9 - 15 March, 2014

39MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

EXHIBITIONS INSIGHT

Leading experts drawn to Optrafair London exhibition in April

Down it goes!

Experts in every aspect of op-tics – and how the benefits can be brought to patients

– will be speaking at Optrafair London at Olympia on 11-13 April.

Many will be speaking as part of the free-to-attend three-day CET lecture programme. Peer review sessions and workshops also bring an abundance of opportunities to engage with the experts.

Covering everything from con-tact lenses for children and the presbyopic; dry eye; treatment and referral advice from a range of spe-cialist ophthalmic surgeons; lat-est advances in optical coherence tomography and other diagnostic technology; the paperless practice and clinical record keeping; plus building the best relationships with patients.

Sponsors of the CET are Association of British Dispe-nsing Opticians, Bausch + Lomb, Briticsh Contact Lens Associ- ation, Carl Zeiss Instruments, Cooper Vision, Essilor, Feder- ation of Manufacturing Opticians, Federation of Dispensing Opticians, Heidelberg Engineering, Hoya and Topcon have ensured that the most inspirational speak-ers are gearing up to offer their knowledge to those who are look-ing to the future.

Mo Jalie, from Ulster University, will pass on his pearls of wisdom about adaptive spectacle lenses, and the four methods of achieving variable power.

David Henson, from Manchester University and famed the world over for his eponymous

perimeters and research behind the technology, reviews visual field screening for glaucoma and the specific needs of the United Kingdom optometrist whose role extends from routine screening to the monitoring of loss in shared-care schemes.

David Thomson, from City University, gives a clear focus on children’s vision screening and his ambitions to improve that amongst the school age population.

Praveen Patel, from Moorfields Eye Hospital, will speak about OCT, the workhorse of today’s practice. His research into find-ing novel therapies for macular disease brings a great depth to his presentation.

Clare O’Donnell, from Manchester and Aston Universities, will look at alternative vision cor-rection options and the latest IOL surgery innovations. An overview

of what practitioners can expect when examining patients with multifocal IOL designs will be given and the role of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery will be discussed.

Teifi James, the youngest ever council member of the College of Ophthalmologists, has a keen inter-est in dry eye and will speak about meibomian gland dysfunction.

Robert Petrarca, London ophthalmologist, who originally qualified as an optometrist, is now undertaking a MD (Res) on new treatments for neovascular AMD. Speaking about advances in ophthalmology, his research has included epimacular brachy-therapy as part of the MERITAGE and MERLOT randomised clinical trials. Investigating ocular micro-encapsulation drug delivery tech-niques with the London School of Pharmacy will also be discussed.

Chris Hemmerdinger, oph-thalmologist from the north-west of England, has a special interest in glaucoma, corneal and external eye disease and will be speaking about referral criteria for common ocular disease.

Bruce Evans, director of research at the Institute of Optometry, is a Fellow of the College of Optometrists and holds its higher qualifications of Diploma in Contact Lens Practice and Diploma in Orthoptics. Speaking about children’s vision and contact lenses, the topic re-flects his research into children’s vision, dyslexia, orthoptics, con-tact lenses, and headaches includ-ing migraine.

John Nolan, from Dublin, is an expert in ocular nutrition and macular pigment, and leads the five year CREST (Central Retinal Enrichment Supplementation Trials) project which is investigat-ing the impact of supplementation with the macular carotenoids on visual performance in normal sub-jects, and in patients with AMD.

Elaine Grisdale and Barry Duncan, from the Association of British Dispensing Opticians will speak about better paediatric dis-pensing for optometrists and dis-pensing opticians.

Jayne Rawlinson, of FODO will lead discussions into the princi-ples behind great patient/custom-er experience, supported by David Brett-Williams and Steve Taylor.

To register your free place on the CET courses visit www.optra-fair-london.co.uk. ■

The 30-year-old Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour,

the site of many ODMAfairs, is being demolished to make way for a new one which will have a greater exhibition area, bigger and better

facilities and will have onsite ac-commodation available too.

Its demolition and the time it will take to rebuild it was the rea-son for the biennial ODMA exhibi-tion being transferred to Brisbane last year and for next year. ■

preliminary program

7.40 registration

8:00Diagnosing the watery eye patient

Dr Justin Friebel

8:40Eyelid lesions & masses - a diagnostic guide

Dr Justin Friebel

9:20Managing acute uveitis

Dr Lyndell Lim

10:00Acute secondary angle closure after implantable collamer lens (ICL) implantation

diagnosis and managementDr Tu Tran

10:40 morning tea

11:00Endothelial keratoplasty - past, present & future

Dr Jacqueline Beltz

11:40Corneal grand rounds

Dr Jacqueline Beltz & Dr Dermot Cassidy

12:50 lunch

1:30Update on childhood cataract

Dr Jonathan Ruddle

2:10Glaucoma... under 40 - You’ve got to be kidding

Dr Jonathan Ruddle

2:50Vitreo-macular disorders - New insights & novel treatment strategies

Dr Jonathon Yeoh

3:30Latest clinical applications of corneal cross-linking

Dr Rick Wolfe

4:10 afternoon tea

4:30Update on diabetic retinopathy

Dr Edward Roufail

5:10Diagnosis of ocular media conditions

Dr Edward Roufail

5:50 close

Sunday 25 May 2014Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre

http://www.focusmelbourne.com.au

42 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

EDUCATION INSIGHT

IACLE: A global community

Ipsita Hom Roy is a final-year optometry student at Manipal University in the

Indian state of Karnataka. Along with teaching staff and other students she is watching a live lecture on corneal topography from contact lens educator Dr Shehzad Naroo. Dr Naroo is in his office at Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Ipsita is one of more than 1,000 students and educators so far to take part in a ground-breaking programme of online lectures, broadcast live in coun-tries across the world thanks to the International Association of Contact Lens Educators and sup-port from its sponsors within the contact lens industry.

Established 35 years ago this year, IACLE is dedicated to raising the standard of contact lens edu-cation and promoting the safe use of contact lenses worldwide. Web Lectures are just one of a raft of initiatives since IACLE introduced major changes to its leadership and membership structure.

Dr Naroo took over as President in 2011 with Professor Philip Morgan of the University of Manchester as Vice-President. ‘I’m very proud to carry the title of IACLE President. It’s a fantastic role to have. I’m trying to fill the shoes of my great predecessor Debbie Sweeney,’ he says.

Changes included simplify-ing membership to encourage more educators and associates in industry to join. And last year the organisation moved its AGM to Europe to coincide with the British Contact Lens Association Clinical Conference, the world’s largest an-nual contact lens meeting.

But for Dr Naroo, the main step forward for IACLE has been extending its global reach. ‘We are limited with funding so embrac-ing technology has been an im-portant development for us. Being able to deliver distance-learning programmes, and especially live lectures reaching multiple institu-tions simultaneously – this allows international engagement, directly with keynote speakers in the field.’

Going placesIACLE’s Web Lectures were first pi-loted by Dr Naroo, via Skype, at a hospital training centre in Pakistan. Director of Educational Programs Nilesh Thite then took the trial to the next level, using the WebEx platform to broadcast live to four priority institutions in India.

Since then, expertise has been shared across the Americas, with educators and students in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Perú among the latest to benefit. Many more lectures are planned, in Asia Pacific countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan.

IACLE coordinates these events with local members in priority countries, arranges the speakers and works with educators to set the topics. Lectures average 45 min-utes, followed by a question and answer session, and students are encouraged to contact the present-er afterwards if they wish.

‘The Web Lectures are fantas-tic, says Dr Naroo. ‘This week I delivered a lecture to 14 institu-tions signed in worldwide. It’s the

first time we’ve had so many. We have such a reach with these lec-tures and so many students poten-tially taking part. It’s amazing to think of people sitting listening to you thousands of miles away. And the feedback we get from the stu-dents is very positive, they’re very appreciative.’

The lectures are also raising the profile of IACLE’s work around the world. ‘When you visit these countries – through IACLE I’ve been to Korea, Argentina, India and Pakistan – and meet people face to face, there’s a lot of respect that our organisation is helping them in-crease their knowledge.’

Ipsita has certainly found the experience valuable. She has al-ready attended four Web Lectures, delivered by educators from the UK and India. ‘The lectures give us the opportunity to hear experts from different corners of the globe and will help us go on to be suc-cessful clinicians. This method of teaching and learning will defi-nitely add value to contact lens practice,’ she says.

Shehzad Naroo (far right)) with IACLE team members (l-r): Australia-based global operations manager Siobhan Allen, global education manager Lakshmi Shinde, director of educational programs Nilesh Thite, and director of operations Bonnie Boshart

China’s Tianjin Vocational Institute hosts a recent two-day members’ meeting

A landmark initiative from the International Association of Contact Lens Educators is helping to ensure the safe use of contact lenses worldwide. Alison Ewbank* reports:

43MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

EDUCATION INSIGHT

Essential resourcesLive online lectures are just one of a range of programs offered by IACLE, which is the leading pro-vider of educational and infor-mation resources for contact lens educators.

The IACLE Contact Lens Course is a 10-module programme of lectures, practical sessions and tutorials, in print and DVD Rom formats, for members to down-load and use in teaching. The Distance Learning Program is a self-study programme to help new educators improve their own con-tact lens knowledge and teaching skills. And Student Trial Exams can be used to test final-year and post-graduate students’ knowledge.

The IACLE Case Report Series comprises 15 interactive problem-based presentations for use in tutorials and lectures or as a self-study aid for students. Along with other multi-media resources, all these resources are available free to members via the IACLE web-site, and in several languages. Members also receive Information Interface, an email service with links to key papers from journals and other sources, and a monthly e-newsletter.

IACLE’s Fellowship Program, allowing successful candidates to apply for coveted FIACLE sta-tus in recognition of their contact lens knowledge and skill, is under-standably one of its most popular. Held every two years, the latest

Fellowship Exam took place in November 2013.

Train the Trainer and Members’ Meetings are also held regularly in priority countries, and Dr Naroo regards these as a crucial part of IACLE’s work. ‘The meetings en-sure that educators have confi-dence in passing on their skills and share ideas for good practice. It surprises me sometimes the lack of confidence, rather than ability, of some trainers and it’s great that IACLE is able to tease out these qualities.’

Rewarding achievementsIACLE’s resources and programs are well established but other plans are set to raise its profile further. In 2013 the association introduced its first Travel Award, enabling a member who would otherwise be unable to attend the BCLA Clinical Conference the chance to take part. Nepalese op-tometrist Kishor Sapkota received the award and travelled to the UK for the conference and accompa-nying IACLE Education Day.

This year the awards have been extended to recognise and reward achievements in contact lens edu-cation worldwide, with an IACLE Contact Lens Educator of the Year Award for each of the three re-gions: Asia Pacific, Americas, and Europe/Middle East-Africa.

The 3rd World Congress on Contact Lens Education, planned

for Manchester in May 2015, will be the next big event for IACLE and will bring together educators and industry partners for a two-day meeting ahead of the BCLA conference in Liverpool, UK. The aim is to set the educational scene for the next decade.

IACLE is also looking at the potential for a virtual conference, and a global awareness event to promote contact lenses in the ed-ucation sector and beyond.

Challenging timesFor all its success, there are major challenges ahead. IACLE received its first funding in 1992, providing a launch pad for many education-al programs and resources world-wide. As funding grew throughout the 90s, it was able to expand its scope but funds have diminished over the past decade as companies

have merged and gone through difficult economic times.

As a result, IACLE has had to allocate resources carefully and limit how it grows its pres-ence. Current platinum spon-sor Alcon, silver sponsors CooperVision and The Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, and bronze sponsor Bausch + Lomb together continue to support IACLE. To expand its activities once again, it has modi-fied its funding structure in the hope of attracting new sponsors.

Dr Naroo explains: ‘We make the best possible use of the spon-sorship we receive and our return on investment, though medium-term, is increasing the number of lens wearers worldwide through excellent education. It’s great that key people across industry share this ethos.’

IACLE in numbers …841 active members in 71 countries

3 regions: Asia Pacific, Americas, and Europe/Middle East-Africa

3 shared secretariats: in Canada, Australia and India

5 local offices: Tianjin China, Shanghai China, Korea, Indonesia, Peru

7 global priority countries: Taiwan, Mexico, India, Russia, Brazil, Korea, China

598 institutions reached in 2013

20,930 students reached in 2013

171 Resource Centres worldwide

106 meetings held in 2013

IACLE held a strategic planning meeting in Seoul, Korea to coincide with the Asia Pacific Optometric Congress in October. (l-r) Byoung Sun Chu (Korea national coordinator), Haiying Wang (China Tianjin office), Xiaomei Qu (China Shanghai office), Nilesh Thite (director of educational programs, India) and Cheni Lee (AP regional coordinator based in Indonesia)

Eef van der Worp is affiliated with universities in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada and United States, and has lectured at 11 optometry

schools across North America

Continued on page 46

Revisit all the moments that have defined the ophthalmic professions and industry in the past 38 years!

This issue marks a major milestone for INSIGHT – it is the 400th issueOver 38 years we’ve seen many changes in the ophthalmic professions and industry; ophthalmic professionals’ stars rise and fade, restructuring of the industry, clinical studies that have led to revolutionised eye-care, the struggles and triumphs of eye-care practitioners, new companies emerge as leaders, existing companies merge, established companies fold, and old technologies made redundant by new technologies.

DISTRIBUTED BY HEALY OPTICAL PTY LTD

www.healyoptical.com.au

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Zeiss closing SA Rx

surfacing laboratory

Zeiss is to close its surfacing

prescription laboratory at

Lonsdale, South Australia, with

a net loss of 75 jobs

No decision by Qld

Supreme Court

No decision has yet been

handed down by the

Queensland Supreme Court in

the ‘standing’ determination

WA Coroner’s finding re

post-cataract death

The WA Coroner has found that

the death of a women after she

had undergone cataract surgery

was by ‘misadventure’

398ISSUE

NOVE

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13

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

02

08

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NOVEMBER 2013

Published for 37 years!

Insight_Nov13.indb 1

22/10/13 2:13 PM

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

Court action is about safety: RANZCOLegal action launched by RANZCO and ASO against OBA is about patient safety: president

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03 New head for UniMel schoolAssociate Professor Allison McKendrick has been appointed head of UMel’s optometry department

29

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975DECEMBER 2013

$2000 CPD limit scrappedThe $2,000 limit on claims for CPD self-education is to be scrapped by the federal government

InsightDecJan1-52.indb 1

3/12/13 2:15 PM

C A 6 6 0 3THE NEW CARRERA COLLECTION CAN BE DISCOVERED AT ODMA ON STAND E8

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AMA broadens attack

on OBAThe Australian Medical Association

has broadened its attack on the

Optometry Board of Australia over

treatment of ocular inflammatory

conditions

Hospitals rowA row has broken out over

claims that there is a waiting list

of up to four years for elective

eye surgery in public hospitals

$10m research pledge to SSIA patient has pledged to donate

$10 million to the Sydney-based

Save Sight Institute to support

its research

394

ISSUE

JULY

201

3

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

01

04

09

JULY 2013

Book1-84.indb 1

13/06/13 1:31 PM

INSIGHT’S 400th Issue SpecialAfter a record 38 years and 400 issues, we’re proud that INSIGHT is the highest circulated ophthalmic publication in Australia.

To mark this milestone, INSIGHT has produced a special online 400th issue that revisits all the significant and industry changing news over the past 38 years.

Take a journey down memory lane by reliving all the industry-altering moments that have defined our professions and industry and makes it what it is today by visiting the INSIGHT website to read this special online edition.

Visit www.insightnews.com.au

INSIGHT statisticsPublished for 38 years, readers rely on INSIGHT for hard-hitting news supplying the facts that are reliable, accurate, independent and unbiased.

Ophthalmic professionals respect INSIGHT because we identify the issues that need to be covered and challenge our readers through intelligent reporting and analysis.

78% of ophthalmic practitioners rely on INSIGHT to keep up-to-date with

the ophthalmic professions.

88%INSIGHT is the most-read

ophthalmic publication with 88% of practitioners regularly reading it.

74%If ophthalmic practitioners were

to read only one publication, 74% would choose to read INSIGHT only.

85%85% of practitioners believe

INSIGHT provides balanced and independent reporting.

78%

Research conducted at ODMA2013 in Brisbane.

400th Issue dps.indd All Pages 17/01/14 11:44 AM

Revisit all the moments that have defined the ophthalmic professions and industry in the past 38 years!

This issue marks a major milestone for INSIGHT – it is the 400th issueOver 38 years we’ve seen many changes in the ophthalmic professions and industry; ophthalmic professionals’ stars rise and fade, restructuring of the industry, clinical studies that have led to revolutionised eye-care, the struggles and triumphs of eye-care practitioners, new companies emerge as leaders, existing companies merge, established companies fold, and old technologies made redundant by new technologies.

DISTRIBUTED BY HEALY OPTICAL PTY LTD

www.healyoptical.com.au

Prin

t Pos

t App

rove

d PP

2416

13/0

0061

Zeiss closing SA Rx

surfacing laboratory

Zeiss is to close its surfacing

prescription laboratory at

Lonsdale, South Australia, with

a net loss of 75 jobs

No decision by Qld

Supreme Court

No decision has yet been

handed down by the

Queensland Supreme Court in

the ‘standing’ determination

WA Coroner’s finding re

post-cataract death

The WA Coroner has found that

the death of a women after she

had undergone cataract surgery

was by ‘misadventure’

398ISSUE

NOVE

MBE

R 20

13

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

02

08

16

NOVEMBER 2013

Published for 37 years!

Insight_Nov13.indb 1

22/10/13 2:13 PM

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

Court action is about safety: RANZCOLegal action launched by RANZCO and ASO against OBA is about patient safety: president

08

Prin

t Pos

t App

rove

d P

P24

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/000

61

399

ISSUE

DECE

MBE

R 20

13

03 New head for UniMel schoolAssociate Professor Allison McKendrick has been appointed head of UMel’s optometry department

29

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975DECEMBER 2013

$2000 CPD limit scrappedThe $2,000 limit on claims for CPD self-education is to be scrapped by the federal government

InsightDecJan1-52.indb 1

3/12/13 2:15 PM

C A 6 6 0 3THE NEW CARRERA COLLECTION CAN BE DISCOVERED AT ODMA ON STAND E8

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Insight 245x195.pdf 1 22/5/13 4:33 PM

Prin

t Pos

t App

rove

d PP

2416

13/0

0061

AMA broadens attack

on OBAThe Australian Medical Association

has broadened its attack on the

Optometry Board of Australia over

treatment of ocular inflammatory

conditions

Hospitals rowA row has broken out over

claims that there is a waiting list

of up to four years for elective

eye surgery in public hospitals

$10m research pledge to SSIA patient has pledged to donate

$10 million to the Sydney-based

Save Sight Institute to support

its research

394

ISSUE

JULY

201

3

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

01

04

09

JULY 2013

Book1-84.indb 1

13/06/13 1:31 PM

INSIGHT’S 400th Issue SpecialAfter a record 38 years and 400 issues, we’re proud that INSIGHT is the highest circulated ophthalmic publication in Australia.

To mark this milestone, INSIGHT has produced a special online 400th issue that revisits all the significant and industry changing news over the past 38 years.

Take a journey down memory lane by reliving all the industry-altering moments that have defined our professions and industry and makes it what it is today by visiting the INSIGHT website to read this special online edition.

Visit www.insightnews.com.au

INSIGHT statisticsPublished for 38 years, readers rely on INSIGHT for hard-hitting news supplying the facts that are reliable, accurate, independent and unbiased.

Ophthalmic professionals respect INSIGHT because we identify the issues that need to be covered and challenge our readers through intelligent reporting and analysis.

78% of ophthalmic practitioners rely on INSIGHT to keep up-to-date with

the ophthalmic professions.

88%INSIGHT is the most-read

ophthalmic publication with 88% of practitioners regularly reading it.

74%If ophthalmic practitioners were

to read only one publication, 74% would choose to read INSIGHT only.

85%85% of practitioners believe

INSIGHT provides balanced and independent reporting.

78%

Research conducted at ODMA2013 in Brisbane.

400th Issue dps.indd All Pages 17/01/14 11:44 AM

Online

46 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

As to the wider challenges fac-ing the contact lens industry and profession, Dr Naroo finds these harder to pin down. ‘I suppose the answer is a combination of things and the challenges are different in different markets,’ he observes.

‘In Asia-Pacific the challenge would be to increase the number of trained practitioners to increase the contact lens market. In Europe the challenge may be related to dropout, and maybe in North America to the internet, which challenges the traditional retail model of contact lenses.

‘What IACLE can do is train the future generation so there’s a mar-ket there that they can move in to. Without those trained educators there won’t be the trained profes-sionals so there won’t be a market. It’s a long-term approach.’

But the ultimate beneficiary of IACLE’s work, for Dr Naroo, is the patient: ‘IACLE’s mission is to

ensure that wherever someone goes to have contact lenses fitted they are seen by a skilled prac-titioner, their aftercare is done by a skilled practitioner and the management of their contact lens needs is by a skilled practitioner.

‘In turn this will mean hap-pier patients, happier practition-ers – as their patients are more loyal and less likely to drop out of wearing contact lenses – and hap-pier manufacturers, as we see the whole sector grow and invest in better products for patients for the safe future of contact lenses.’

Looking aheadFunds permitting, IACLE would also extend its role to new parts of the world.

‘Russia, for instance, is deemed a priority country by industry,’ says Dr Naroo. ‘We’re working hard with Russian educators to try and launch IACLE there in a bigger way

but we don’t have an active pres-ence there as yet. When they want our help, we’re ready.

‘In addition to our prior-ity countries, we’re looking to increase our presence in Africa. There are good opportunities in East African countries such as Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, where there are trained profes-sionals who want to move educa-tion forward, so we might want to make our own move there.’

IACLE has already been ap-proached by two Middle Eastern countries – Qatar and Saudi Arabia – where it traditionally has not had a major presence. ‘The Middle East and Africa may need to be a separate region or regions, since their require-ments are different from Europe and they have different levels of training. At the moment we group them together. I can see that changing in the near future.’

Back at Manipal University, Ipsita’s teacher Premjit Bhakat is already seeing the benefits of being part of a global community. ‘We’ve had good experience with IACLE. It’s helped us increase our knowl-edge and become good practition-ers. And with IACLE’s help, we’re in touch with all the major educators and researchers in contact lenses.’

With continued support from its members and industry part-ners, IACLE hopes to help many more students like Ipsita in future and increase the number of skilled contact lens practitioners around the world. ■

This article is based on a feature first published in the UK journal, Optician. For more information visit www.iacle.

org and view a sample Web Lecture on IACLE’s YouTube channel.

*Optometrist Alison Ewbank is special projects editor of Optician.

Pharmacists are seeking $50 for conducting 30-minute health checks that would

include measuring weight, blood pressure, blood glucose and cho-lesterol, according to documents leaked to News Limited, publisher of The Australian newspaper.

The proposal, apparently

drafted by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and currently before the federal health department, argues that up to 60 per cent of people with pre-diabetes could be prevented from developing the condition.

According to the documents at News Limited, which said it had been handed leaked documents on

the proposal, the initial program will be rolled out from October with 1.5 million patients assessed by the end of the year.

News Limited said the program in its initial phase would cost the government around $75 million.

Other life-style risk factors such as smoking and alcohol intake

would also be assessed during the pharmacy consultation.

One-to-one discussions would take place in a “dedicated consulta-tion area to ensure patient privacy”, the guild adds, and only accredited pharmacies would be eligible for the payments, which would go to pharmacy owners. ■

Luxottica Group’s subsidiary Eye Safety Systems has been awarded the third of four

possible option-year extensions on a contract to supply an unspeci-fied number of ‘prescription lens

carriers’ (a.k.a. spectacle frames) to United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian

agencies through to 2 March 2015. The extension will be worth up

to $US9.8 million. ■

EDUCATION INSIGHT

Candidates who are successful in the Fellowship Examination can add the letters FIACLE after their names in recognition of their contact lens knowledge

Ping Tang is director of the Tong Ren Hospital in Beijing, China, where her interests include legal issues surrounding contact lens fitting

Continued from page 43

Pharmacists seek $50 for 30-minute health checks

Luxottica wins US military contracts

MARCH 2014

DIARY DATES

47www.insightnews.com.au

Diary Dates

2014MARCH

1-3Southern Regional Congress (SRC), Optometrists Association Australia (Victoria Division)Location: Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Victoria.Contact: www.optometrists.asn.au/victoria.

1-640th Annual NANOS MeetingLocation: Wyndham Rio Mar Beach ResortContact: http://www.nanosweb.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=372

2-5Saudi Ophthalmology 2014 ConferenceLocation: King Fahd Cultural Center, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaContact: http://www.saudi-ophthal-mology.org

7International Congenital Cataract SymposiumLocation: Yale Club of New York City, New York City, New York, USAContact: http://cmetracker.net/EMORY/Files/Brochures/1927.pdf

9-15World Glaucoma Week Contact: Glaucoma Australia (02) 9906 6640 or 1800 500 880; Website: www.glaucoma.org.au

20-23The 5th World Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology (COPHy)Contact: http://comtecmed.com/cophy/201

28-30International Vision Expo and ConferenceLocation: Javits Centre, New York United StatesConact: www.visionexpoeast.com

31- 3 April11th International Conference on Low VisionLocation: Melbourne, AustraliaContact: http://www.vision2014.org/

APRIL

2-6World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC) 2014Location: Tokyo International Forum/Imperial Hotel TokyoContact: http://www.woc2014.org/

11-13OPTRAFAIR LondonLocation: Olympia NationalHammersmith Road, Kensington, London W14 8UXContact: www.optrafair-london.co.uk T: +44 (0)20 7385 1200

25-27Australian Vision Convention (AVC)Location: Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition CentreContact: www.etouches.com/avc2014 or Ph: +61 7 3839 4411

25-292014 Annual Symposium & Congress of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery Location: Boston, MassachusettsContact: http://www.ascrs.org/future-past-ascrs-symposia-dates-locations

MAY

4-8ARVO 2014, Association for Research in Vision & OphthalmologyLocation: Orlando, Florida, USA.Contact: www.arvo.org

20-222014 Royal College of Oph-thalmologists Annual CongressLocation: International Convention Centre Birmingham, UKContact: http://www.rcophth.ac.uk/page.asp?section=518§ionTitle=Annual+Congress+2014

21-23XIII Ukrainian Congress of OphthalmologistLocation: Filatov Institute Odessa, UkraineContact: http://www.tou.org.ua/en/events/congresses/xiii-congress-of-ophthalmologists-calendar/

25-31Macular Degeneration Awareness Week 2014Contact: 1800 111 709 or www.mdfoundation.com.au

JUNE

24-27Manchester Royal Eye Hospital ConferenceLocation: Manchester Conference Centre Manchester, United KingdomContact: http://www.mreh200.org.uk/

27-29Retina International World ConferenceLocation: Toulouse, FranceContact: http://www.retina2014.com/

JULY

19 - 20NACBO Vision Conference 2014Location: Coogee, Sydney Contact: www.acbo.org.au or Email: info@acbo.org.au

AUGUST

16 -17Western Australia Vision Education (WAVE)Location: Pan Pacific, PerthContact: +61 08 9321 2300 or Email: admin@optometrywa.org.au

SEPTEMBER 13-17ESCRS 2014Web site: http://www.escrs.org/Location: London, United Kingdom

25–28112th DOG Congress of OphthalmologyContact: http://www.dog-kongress.org

26-282nd Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Con-gress held in conjunction with the 10th International Symposium of Ophthalmology – Hong KongLocation: Hong KongContact: venuscheung@iso-hk.orgor website http://apgc-isohk-2014.org/

OCTOBER

1-4EVER 2014 CongressLocation: Acropolis Convention CtreContact: http://www.ever.be/c_page.php?id=277

18-21AAO Annual Meeting 2014Location: McCormick PlaceChicago, Illinois, United StatesWeb site: http://www.aao.org

NOVEMBER

12-152014 Italian Society of Ophthal-mology Annual MeetingLocation: Rome, Italy Contact: www.soiweb.com

DO YOU HAVE AN EVENT FOR OUR CALENDER? Please email your details to: insightnews@bigpond.com

1-31 JULY

RANZCO EYE FOUNDATIONWWW.EYEFOUNDATION.ORG.AU

Positions VacantOptometrist - Full Time or Part Time - Alexandra Hills QueenslandA full time or part time position is available at Aphrodite Livanes Eyecare Plus Alexandra Hills for an experienced optometrist. We have been established for 25 years and have built a reputation for high standards of eye care as well as ex-cellent customer service. We have state of the art equipment including a retinal camera, OCT, field analyser and autorefractor. We are seek-ing an optometrist that is a friendly, caring person and is passionate about providing a high standard of eye care. Our practice has special interest in behavioural optometry, sports vision, contact lenses and is Brisbane’s first Colour Vision Sight Centre. We have no Sunday work and salary is negotiable and de-pendant on experience.Any enquires please contact Aphrodite Livanes.Home: 3890 4946.Work: 3824 1878.Mobile: 0407 585 952.Email: apliv@bigpond.net.au

Optometrist - Part-Time Rockdale Region, NSWPart time Optometrist required for newly established business in the

Rockdale Region. We are looking for someone to work two or three days per week. Please forward your resume to hussghazi@gmail.com or phone Hussein on 0402 870 826.

Optical Dispenser / Retail Assistant- Melbourne Eastern SuburbsThis is a permanent part-time Optical dispensing position in an independ-ent Eastern suburbs practice. Work Wednesdays, Thursday, Fridays and some Saturdays. Located twenty minutes from the CBD. Occasional full weeks, such as Saturday 15 March - Saturday 22 March 2014. Skills Required: Optical retail / dis-pensing experience essential; ex-cellent customer service skills, retail optical sales, basic administration, computer literacy, the ability to work independently and without supervi-sion and be reliable and highly mo-tivated. The package: Competitive hourly rate, Bonus incentive pack-age, training and staff optical discounts.Contact Ruth on 0407 331 483 for further discussion.

Sales Representative - Victoria & TasmaniaA marvellous opportunity has pre-sented itself to a successful, hard-working, charismatic, Sales Rep/

Agent who is loved by his/her customer friends. If you’re look-ing for an equally, successful and dynamic partner – this is our lucky day. Domani Eyewear, has built up a stable of recognisable brand names that offer affordable luxury over the past 2 decades and have earned the loyalty of Australia’s larg-est buying groups and retail chains. We have an enviable 98% order fill rate, release 52 new models per year and can offer you a discount structure to work with that will give you the edge. We offer a gener-ous remuneration package. If you are excited to care for and further build our client base we’d love to hear from you. Submit your let-ter of application and resume to; torsten@domanieyewear.com.

Optical Dispenser - P/T, F/T position, Eyedeal Optometrist Morningside QLDFlexible working hours, great pay and product allowances. We are looking for people interested in pro-viding quality customer service, with retail experience and strong custom-er service skills. If you are passionate about working in an Independent Optometry Practice, looking for a change to more flexible workplace with large range of frame and lens choices, and want to be part of a

48 www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 2014

CLASSIFIEDS

MarketPlace Phone: 02 9955 6924Email: insightnews@bigpond.com

Sauflon Australian Territory Managers

Sauflon is the fastest growing contact lens manufacturer in the world, manufacturing the widest range of contact lens care products in today’s market. Sauflon manufactures an extensive range of contact lenses including the latest generation silicone hydrogel lenses, available in daily disposable and reusable modalities. The clariti® family of lenses is positioned to help Eye Care Professionals provide the healthiest and most comfortable lenses to all of their patients in spherical, toric and multifocal designs.

We are initially seeking applicants for positions in NSW and QLD with further opportunities available in each state as we move forward. The positions would suit an optical dispenser / assistant or receptionist wanting to take a bold new step in their career or current optical sales reps.

Specifically, we are seeking applicants with a proven track record in sales, are highly motivated, able to work autonomously, have good computer literacy, strong administrative abilities, highly effective communication skills, and a great attitude. So if you are a confident team player with a strong sales focus and hold a current Australian driver’s license we want to hear from you!

This is a fantastic opportunity for any experienced optical sales person to step up into a role that will provide accountability and front line sales management exposure. A generous salary package and ongoing training and support will be offered to the successful candidates.

Applications, including your CV and cover letter outlining your skills and experience to jobs@sauflon.com.au , all applications are treated in the strictest confidence and only those considered will be notified.

Optometrist Nedlands & Innaloo, WAWe are after a friendly caring person who is happy to work Saturdays to join our friendly team in a full scope optometry independent practice. Our equipment includes retinal cameras, Oct, Gdx, Medmont Field Analyser and Topographer.We have qualified back up staff to make your day enjoyable and rewarding.Part time is acceptable as long as one is able to increase to full time when the other Optometrists are on holidays.If this is what you are after please phone Julie Lourie on 0412911729.

Practice for Sale – Airlie Beach, QLDWell established practice of 8 years in one of the most beautiful locations in the world. Enjoy a laidback lifestyle while drawing a

significant wage. Consulting on average 4.5 days in a 6.5 day/week practice. Well trained, loyal staff. Astonishing local support, with

clients also traveling from up to two hours away to receive excellent service and select from boutique frame range. High quality equipment,

including full edging lab (optional in sale). Practice built out of love, and only on the market because of changing family situation.

Please phone 0401 693 253

caring team that puts the patient first, then we want to hear from you! Apply now to make the next move in your Optical Retail future. We look forward to meeting with you! Please email your CV to z@eyedealoptom.com.au or call 0413874065.

Equipment For SaleTest Room Equipment• 2 x chair and stand with Reichert

refractor head• Slit lamp and Keratometer • 3 x wall snellen test typesChair and Stand in good work-ing order. Near new refractor head. Pick up from Madeley, North Perth. All for $12,000.00. Call (08) 9409 6318 or 0402 848 792

Work Wanted Dispenser/Mechanic - VICLooking for Dispenser/Mechanic position. I have twenty years experi-ence. Will work in Melbourne metro and country Victoria. Please contact - Dean 0417 136 764

49MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

CLASSIFIEDS

MarketPlacePhone: 02 9955 6924Email: insightnews@bigpond.com

Careers in Metropolitan Adelaide

National Pharmacies Optical is an integral part of National Pharmacies, providing our members with personalised, quality optical services through our branches located across metropolitan Adelaide.

National Pharmacies offer:• Career opportunities in Optical

Dispensing: blending your eye for style with your technical knowhow.

• The opportunity to study on the job to gain a qualification in Optical Dispensing

• Various positions available for experienced Optical Dispensers including trainee positions across metropolitan Adelaide.

If you are seeking a challenging, satisfying career then visit our website at www.nationalpharmacies.com.au and click on “CAREERS” to view the available positions and to apply.

• Save your photo or video during eye examination directly on to your phone

• Extra software or hardware not requiredUsually $399

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Smartphone adaptor on slit lamp(Fits all sizes)

www.insightnews.com.auMARCH 201450

THIS year marks the 65th anniversary of graduation with the Diploma of Optometry

from Sydney Technical College by the famous 1949’rs – all 23 of them.

They were the first graduates under the ‘Father of Optometry in New South Wales’, the legendary Professor Josef Lederer.

Their number included eight ex-service-men from World War II – Alan Vine-Hall, Lloyd Hewett, Bernie McMahon, Dick Harvey, David Cotterell, Alan Catford, Keith Yates and Maurice Saunders.

It was a unique situation, with many of the ex-servicemen older than their lecturer, Josef Lederer. And of course some of them still wore military uniforms during the earlier part of the course, one even wearing a Sam Brown belt!

The remaining 15 member of the class were young students straight from high school, who heard of many of the adventures of the eight, some of them hair-raising and of great interest.

No doubt that contributed to the successes the 1949’rs mostly went on to enjoy.

COMING clean has been ‘The Publication Whose Name We Do Not Utter’ with its

removal of the fanciful claim that it “is only distributed to medically qualified eye care pro-fessionals in Australia and New Zealand” that had been on its website for an indeterminate time.

It was a preposterous claim that could not be justified because it simply wasn’t true and was misleading, with actual medically-qualified

recipients (ophthalmologists) being only about 13 per cent of that publication’s circulation, the remaining 87 per cent not being medically qualified – i.e. being optometrists, optical dis-pensers, orthoptists and the supporting oph-thalmic industry.

An all-time low in ophthalmic publishing.

THE Queensland Division of Optometrists Association Australia is holding its annu-

al Australian Vision Convention on the Gold Coast, commencing on 25 April – Anzac Day.

Don’t the organisers know that Anzac Day is a day when we respectfully pay tribute to those who gave so much to make the country what it is today? Don’t they care?

Anzac Day is much more important than any conference – optometrical or other.

SOME good news on the industrial front with the Victoria government investing $22

million over three years as its contribution to-wards saving the SPC Ardmona fruit-and-veg-etable-processing operation in the Goulburn Valley, saving an estimated 2,700 direct and indirect jobs from extinction. The good news came after the Credlin-Murdoch-Abbott fed-eral government refused to provide $25 mil-lion to save the company.

The company’s parent, Coca-Cola Amatil, is investing $78 million as well, mainly to modernise the plant.

Members of the local ophthalmic com-munity and their respective clienteles are no

doubt pleased, as well as the rest of the com-munity at large there.

And take a bow local MP Sharman Stone, who spoke openly against the decision of her own federal-government colleagues not to provide financial aid to the company, even calling Prime Minister Abbott and Treasurer Hockey ‘liars’, something that does not occur often.

THERE’S a new trick at a chain of phar-macies that appears to be designed to

fool people into believing they’re buying big-brand sunglasses at those outlets when they obviously are nothing but cheapos.

The swing-tag says, in small italic text If you like (say) GUCCI or FENDI (or some other fashion brand, in big bold block letters) you’ll love wearing these (in small italic).

Surely one for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or Fair Trading to have a look at to check it’s not misleading.

SOME of the antics of ASIO (a.k.a. the Australian Security and Intelligence

Organisation) in the late 1970s and early 1980s have come to light from its vaults, including its records on ‘persons of interest’ such as ophthalmologist the late Fred Hollows, along with Michael Kirby, future High Court judge, Reverend Ted Noffs, writers Christina Stead and Christopher Koch, actors Peter Finch and Leonard Teale, poet Kenneth Slessor and painter Lloyd Rees.

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Zeiss closing SA Rxsurfacing laboratoryZeiss is to close its surfacing

prescription laboratory at Lonsdale, South Australia, with

a net loss of 75 jobs

No decision by QldSupreme CourtNo decision has yet been

handed down by the Queensland Supreme Court in

the ‘standing’ determination

WA Coroner’s finding re post-cataract deathThe WA Coroner has found that

the death of a women after she

had undergone cataract surgery

was by ‘misadventure’

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

All the ophthalmic news that matters!

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Published for 37 years!

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At Insight we pride ourselves on our large readership that has been built up over the last 37 years. It is circulated to ophthalmologist, optical dispensers, orthopists, optical manufactures, distributors, wholesalers and laboratories; no subscription is payable to anywhere in Australia.

We value our subscribers and want to ensure our address list is as up to date as possible. This form is only for the use of Insight. Please let us know if there are any changes to your details or give this form to your colleagues if you know they are not receiving Insight.

All the ophthalmic news that matters!Court action is about

safety: RANZCO

Legal action launched by

RANZCO and ASO against

OBA is about patient safety:

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New head for UniMel

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optometry department

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975

DECEMBER 2013

$2000 CPD limit

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AUSTRALIA’S LEADING OPHTHALMIC NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1975FEBRUARY 2014

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51MARCH 2014www.insightnews.com.au

All nonsense, as the ASIO boys and girls went about playing cops and robbers, or the security game’s equivalent. All a waste of time too.

CHIROPRACTOR regulators have been named the “perpetrator of the most pre-

posterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-sci-entific piffle” in Australia.

Known as the ‘Bent Spoon’, the latest award handed out by the Australian Skeptics was given to both the Chiropractic Association of Australia (CAA) and the Chiropractic Board of Australia (CBA).

The Skeptics accused both organisations of failing to stop some chiropractors from treating patients for conditions such as asthma, ADHD, bed-wetting and ear infections!

HOW long will the present darlings of the CPD-presenter world last, particularly like

the one described by his firm as being almost a ‘rock star’?

With the pace of change ever increasing, nobody can keep up with all of it, no matter how hard they try. In any case, variety is the spice of life, even if people try to be at the fore-front, audiences eventually tire of them.

And the CPD-points necessity increases pressure on presenters to be interesting and in-formative, not to be in showbiz.

AUCKLAND University in New Zealand is about to graduate 60 new optometrists,

with the majority unlikely to find a position there. One estimate is that only 15 will find em-ployment, leaving 45 seeking positions.

One obvious target for employment will be Australia, where they will be welcomed with open arms, particularly by the corporations in their endeavours to keep up with demand for optometrical services.

I hear that enrolment in this year’s first year of the optometry course at Deakin University in

Victoria is about 95 students – a remarkable in-crease on the 64 who enrolled in first year of the course two years ago.

LEAKED documents showing that the Pharmacy Guild of Australia wants pharma-

cists to conduct 30-minute health checks that would include measuring weight, blood pres-sure, blood glucose and cholesterol have, pre-dictably, been seen by the medical profession (or certainly by the Australian Medical Association) as almost the end of civilization as we know it.

And that the Guild wants the government to pay pharmacists $50 a shot for the health checks adds salt to the wound.

As Labor governments are supposed to be mates of the optometry profession, aren’t Liberal-National governments supposed to be mates of the medical profession, so how come it’s even considering the proposal?

OPTOMETRISTS Association Australia’s wholly-owned subsidiary, the buying and

marketing group ProVision, predicted last year that it would have more members by now.

Well it’s not quite there, having increased its membership by 24, for a grand total of 480 ver-sus the 880 it predicted.

AS Australia’s very own airline (well sort of) Qantas edges its way towards oblivion, its

leadership is, as usual, putting the blame on employees, firing them left, right and centre.

But the real culprits are being left alone – to date. The real blame rests with the top management of the company, particularly the succession of non-performers in the CEO’s po-sition – Margaret Jackson, Geoffrey Dixon and Ireland’s very own Alan Joyce.

Big-time investors are getting ready to force out Alan Joyce, along with chairman Leigh Clifford set for the high jump before long.

Not before time.

WEARING a Google Glass computer on your face might be the way of the future,

but has it occurred how stupid people wearing one will look?

IT’S amazing how many people are careless when letting us know of a change of address.

They readily provide details of their new ad-dress, but no mention of their previous address.

Makes you wonder at times how bright they actually are.

AS Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his side-kick Foreign Minister Julie Bishop blun-

der about trying to bring broadcaster ABC to heel, there’s much said about what should and shouldn’t be reported by any section of the media.

The answer is quite simple: if its publication would annoy or embarrass a government, then publish it!

Incidently, do the people who want to change the ABC (for sheer political reasons) want to lose the army of talented people Aunty has on its staff and the abilities they bring to

it, replacing them with commercial-station likes of ranters such as Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Andrew Bolt, or not-grown-ups like Kyle Sanderson and his sidekick Jackie O, or the rest of the them?

Alas, they probably do.

I HEAR the world of one of the retail groups has been a hot bed of rumour, intrigue, di-

rector-election pressure, mostly to do with con-cerns about nepotism.

It’s all to do with family members being en-gaged to work in the business without much apparent attempt to ascertain if they were the best persons available for the positions.

The trouble started when one director questioned such engagements, citing concerns about possible nepotism. Before long other di-rectors had entered the fray, with some mem-bers following too; the split began to widen.

So, the hierarchy took to the rooftops, urg-ing the membership to vote at the next election for anyone but the director who had first blown the whistle.

In the end, that happened; the director was not re-elected; the family members stayed in their positions.

I think it’s called empire-and-fortune protection.

FINALLY, congratulations to Bernie and Eileen Egan on their recent 60th wedding

anniversary.Bernie served his apprenticeship as an

optical mechanic at Frank G O’Brien in Camperdown, Sydney, before joining Polarizers production team. He then started his career as a salesman extraordinaire for first Australian Optical Co, which became International Optical Corporation, then for Optyl Australia during almost the whole of its formidable exist-ence (he was the first staff member appointed by the company here under then managing di-rector David Pank).

Eileen and Bernie have five children. They are now living in happy retirement.

One of the legends about Bernie was when AOC’s social golf club was playing at North Ryde Golf Club in Sydney. Hitting off with what turned out to be an almighty slice onto the next fairway, he calmly took his buggy and clubs to a nearby two-metre fence and threw the lot over the top, to the admiration of the other players. Then he quietly went and collected it all and re-joined the other players.

Not a word was said by anyone, but Bernie felt much better! ■

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