A macular disease update for eye health professionals
In this edition of Macula Matters, MDFA’s email newsletter for eye health professionals, we announce the launch of new CPD courses tailor-made for optometrists.
There’s also a CPD webinar with ophthalmologist A/Prof Wilson Heriot for all practitioners.
You’ll also meet one of the eight researchers MDFA is supporting in our recently announced round of research funding, hear thelatest from another MDFA-funded researcher, learn how MDFA Patron Ita Buttrose put eye health on the national agenda this month, and investigate a case study from the Centre for Eye Health.
In this edition…
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MDFA launches new CPD for optometrists
We have launched free CPD courses for optometrists that have been developed with Australia’s leading retinal specialists, including world-renowned ophthalmologist Professor Paul Mitchell AO. MDFA offers two Government-funded courses – one on age-related macular degeneration, and one on diabetic eye disease – available through the Optometry Australia Institute of Excellence or MDFA’s website.
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Meet the researcher: Prof Justine Smith
In May 2021, MDFA awarded a total funding pool of more than $1 million to eight exciting Australian researchers – including Prof Justine Smith from Flinders University. This project will investigate the potential to use existing drugs to treat macular oedema, which is responsible for sight loss in a range of macular conditions both rare, like retinitis pigmentosa, and common, such as diabetic retinopathy.
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CPD webinar with A/Prof Wilson Heriot
Eye health professionals are invited to join ophthalmologist A/Prof Wilson Heriot for a webinar titled ‘Geographic Atrophy secondary to Age Related Macular Degeneration’. This MDFA webinar has received OA Institute of Excellence Quality Assurance and is worth 1.5 CPD hours with assessment.
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Case study from the Centre for Eye Health
This case study features a colour fundus photograph showing a white-yellow lesion with superimposed OCT angiography findings. What do the flow signals on OCT angiography represent?
a. Intraretinal hemorrhage
b. Choroidal neovascularisation
c. Chorioretinal atrophy
d. Projection artefact
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Catch up on the Ita Buttrose Oration
In May, long-time MDFA Patron Ita Buttrose AC OBE used a nationally televised address at the National Press Club in Canberra to warn the Federal Government about a massive increase in the number of people going blind, if it approves a proposal to slash the Medicare rebate for eye injections.
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Prof Mark Gillies' ground-breaking research
MDFA-funded researcher Prof Mark Gillies’ ever-expanding digital database – known as the Fight Retinal Blindness! Registry – assesses how well eye injections work in the real world, helping clinicians deliver the best care to their patients across the globe. So where is Prof Gillies’ research heading in 2021?
Posted: May 2021
