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Over 250 ophthalmologists attended the 6th annual Ophthalmology Updates! Conference held at the Fullerton Hotel, Sydney on 24-25 August 2023. Many delegates commented that this was one of the best line up of speakers ever organised. Professor Justine Smith wowed the audience with her knowledge of toxoplasmosis and experience as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. Professor Robyn Guymer gave an impressive update on the management of age-related macular degeneration. Beautiful surgical videos were shown by oculoplastics guru Professor Dinesh Selva. Dr Nathan Kerr gave the latest evidence on iStents, Associate Professor Anthony Hall discussed CMV in immunocompetent patients and Associate Professor Michael Lawless spoke on the 10 things to make one a better cataract surgeon. Day One was rounded off by special guest Dr Norman Swan, who made us think about the how medicine is portrayed in the media. This was followed by a sumptuous feast at Bennelong Restaurant in the Sydney Opera House.
Day Two continued the excellent content, including Myopic Retinopathy by Dr Mali Okada, and a fascinating talk by Dr Elsie Chan on the influence of the microbiome on corneal disease. Professor Celia Chen gave an outstanding talk on Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, which paired nicely with Dr Geoffrey Parker's radiology talk. Finally, Dr Craig Donaldson gave us tips on strabismic syndromes (with excellent videos) and Dr Lianne Lim spoke on new treatments for choroidal melanoma.
Medicine and the Media | Dr Norman Swan
Medical Retina | Prof Robyn Guymer
Toxoplasmosis & Leadership | Prof Justine Smith
Oculo-plastics | Prof Dinesh Selva
Cataract | A/Prof Michael Lawless
Neuro-ophthalmology | Dr Celia Chen
Paediatrics | Dr Craig Donaldson
Glaucoma | Dr Nathan Kerr
Vitreo-Retina | Dr Mali Okada
Radiology | Dr Geoffrey Parker
Uveitis| Dr Tony Hall
Ocular Oncology | Dr Li-Anne Lim
Cornea | Dr Elsie Chan
| Subspecialty | Time | Topic | Title |
| REGISTRATION & COFFEE | 8:00-8:25 |
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| Welcome | 8:25-8:30 |
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Oculoplastics Dinesh Selva
| 8:30-8:42 | Common condition | Surgical Video Vignettes |
| 8:50-9:02 | Frontier | Endoscopic Orbital Surgery | |
| 9:10-9:22 | Cases |
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| Toxoplasmosis & Leadership Justine Smith Moderators: Peter McCluskey, Tony Hall, Adrian Fung | 9:30-9:42 | Common condition | Toxoplasmosis Update |
| 9:50-10:02 | Frontier | Medical Journal Publishing in 2023 | |
| 10:10-10:22 | Frontier | What I learnt during my time as President and Executive Vice President of ARVO | |
| MORNING TEA | 10:30-10:55 |
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| Medical Retina Robyn Guymer Moderators: Sam Fraser-Bell Adrian Fung
| 11:00-11:12 | Common condition | Emerging Treatments for Neovascular AMD |
| 11:20-11:32 | Frontier | Emerging Treatments for Geographic Atrophy | |
| 11:40-11:52 | Cases |
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| Glaucoma Nathan Kerr Moderators: Emily Gregory-Roberts, Richard Symes | 12:00-12:12 | Common condition | Integrating Hydrus and iStent into your clinical practice for primary open-angle glaucoma |
| 12:20-12:32 | Frontier | New approaches to the subconjunctival space | |
| 12:40-12:52 | Cases | ||
| LUNCH | 1:00-1:55 |
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| Uveitis Anthony Hall Moderators: Peter McCluskey, Richard Symes | 2:00-2:12 | Common condition | CMV in the Immunocompetent Host |
| 2:20-2:32 | Frontier | Modifiable Risk Factors in Uveitis | |
| 2:40-2:52 | Cases |
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| Cataract Michael Lawless Moderators: Tanya Trinh | 3:00-3:12 | Common condition | 10 Things That Might Make You a Better Cataract and Refractive Surgeon |
| 3:20-3:32 | Frontier | IOL Technologies and Their Role in Your Practice | |
| 3:40-3:52 | Cases |
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| AFTERNOON TEA | 4:00-4:25 |
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Special Guest Speaker Dr Norman Swan
| 4:30-5:10 | Keynote Talk | Medicine in the Media |
| 5:10-5:30 | Discussion | ||
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Conference Dinner: Bennelong Restaurant, Sydney Opera House, 6:30PM
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| Subspecialty | Time | Topic | Title |
| REGISTRATION & COFFEE | 8:00-8:25 |
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| Welcome | 8:25-8:30 |
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| Vitreoretinal Surgery Mali Okada Moderators: Adrian Fung, Gaurav Bhardwaj | 8:30-8:42 | Common condition | Myopic Retinopathy Surgery |
| 8:50-9:02 | Frontier | Novel Drug Devices and Implants | |
| 9:10-9:22 | Cases |
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| Cornea Elsie Chan Moderator: Tanya Trinh, Chameen Samarawickrama
| 9:30-9:42 | Common condition | Cicatrising Conjunctivitis |
| 9:50-10:02 | Frontier | Bugs and your body: The ocular microbiome | |
| 10:10-10:22 | Cases |
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| MORNING TEA | 10:30-10:55 |
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| Paediatrics Craig Donaldson Moderator: Loren Rose | 11:00-11:12 | Common condition | Strabismic Syndromes |
| 11:20-11:32 | Frontier | What’s really new in Paediatric Ophthalmology | |
| 11:40-11:52 | Cases |
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| Neuro-ophthalmology Celia Chen Moderator: Clare Fraser, John Leaney | 12:00-12:12 | Common condition | Arterial occlusions to the eye: from retinal emboli to ocular ischaemic syndrome |
| 12:20-12:32 | Frontier | What's new in idiopathic intracranial hypertension? | |
| 12:40-12:52 | Cases |
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| LUNCH | 1:00-1:55 |
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| Radiology Geoffrey Parker Moderators: Krishna Tumuluri, Clare Fraser | 2:00-2:20 | Common condition | Radiology 101 |
| Ocular Oncology Li-Anne Lim Moderator: Adrian Fung, Chameen Samarawickrama | 2:30-2:42 | Common condition | Pigmented conjunctival lesions |
| 2:50-3:02 | Frontier | Updates on uveal melanoma including new treatments for metastatic disease | |
| 3:10-3:22 | Cases | ||
| AFTERNOON TEA, CLOSE & FEEDBACK | 3:30 |
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Robyn Guymer is Professor of Ophthalmology at Melbourne University and a deputy director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia. She is also a senior retinal specialist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. She is a clinician scientist who leads a team of researchers primarily investigating Age related macular degeneration (AMD) and has co-authored over 300 peer reviewed papers. She is currently investigating new strategies for treating early stages of AMD and is working to identify novel imaging and functional biomarkers and surrogate endpoints to improve the feasibility of conducting early intervention trials. She has been a principal investigator in many industry sponsored trials, serves on several pharmaceutical advisory boards and is a member of several international working groups on macular diseases. She is an inaugural fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. In June 2018 she was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to medicine in the field of ophthalmology, particularly age related macular degeneration as a clinician, academic and researcher and in 2021 was inducted into the Victorian honour roll of Women.
Associate Professor Michael Lawless is one of Australia’s most experienced eye surgeons, having performed more than 30,000 surgical procedures. He was the first surgeon to perform first-generation LASIK in Sydney in 1995 and the first Australian surgeon to perform laser cataract surgery with a femtosecond laser in 2011.
In early 2022, A/Prof Lawless was the first ophthalmologist in Australia and New Zealand to perform SMILE® Pro and one of the first in the world to perform LASIK using the Zeiss Visumax 800 laser system.
A/Prof Lawless is a Clinical Associate Professor at Sydney Medical School (University of Sydney) and is recognised throughout the world as an authority on laser eye surgery. He is frequently invited to present at major international conferences.
A/Prof Lawless’s expertise encompasses laser eye surgery (LASIK, ASLA/PRK and SMILE®), cataract and lens replacement surgery (including laser cataract surgery) and phakic intraocular lenses. In addition to his refractive work, A/Prof Lawless treats corneal conditions using procedures such as corneal cross-linking and corneal transplantation.
Dr Hall studied medicine at Melbourne University and after working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital he undertook his basic ophthalmology training in Melbourne from 1987-1989. He then worked as Research Fellow in Ophthalmology at Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in 1990 where he researched viral eye disease and cytomegalovirus infection of the retina. Following that in 1991 and 1992 he worked as Clinical Uveitis Fellow at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and the Institute of Ophthalmology in London where he studied and researched inflammatory diseases of the eye. He has been a Visiting Research Associate at the FI Proctor Foundation, UCSF Medical Centre in San Francisco, USA where he undertook further study into inflammatory and infectious eye disease, and at the University of Padua where he undertook further research into ocular surface immunology. Dr Hall is a past head of ophthalmology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, past consultant ophthalmologist at the Ocular Immunology Clinic at the RVEEH and past senior fellow in the department of surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He was uveitis section editor of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology and has served as the chairman of the Qualifications and Education Committee of the Victorian Branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmology. He is currently associate professor at Monash University and director of ophthalmology at the Alfred Hospital where he operates and works on the medical retina and uveitis clinic. He is a principle associate at Eye Surgery Associates in Melbourne. He has over 70 peer reviewed papers in the fields of uveitis aetiology, and medical and surgical management. Dr Hall has also worked on aid projects in the Pacific in Kiribati, Tonga, and Vanuatu.
Professor Dinesh Selva was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of Adelaide in 2004. He is Chairman of the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology, University of Adelaide and has published over 600 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. He is a past President of the Australia-New Zealand Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons and a member of the Orbit Society. His areas of research interest include eyelid tumours, orbital oncology, endoscopic techniques in oculoplastic surgery, thyroid eye disease and blindness prevention in the developing world. He is a Member of the Order of Australia for his work as an academic and clinician. He was awarded the Doctorate of Health Sciences from the University of Adelaide for original and distinguished contributions in the field of eyelid tumours.
Professor Smith is an ophthalmologist-scientist, co-appointed as Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor at Flinders University and Senior Consultant at Flinders Medical Centre, the largest comprehensive public hospital in Adelaide. She is Deputy Director (Clinical Translation) of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute. Professor Smith leads a research program in uveitis and has published over 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Professors, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, and she was one of the first Superstars of STEM selected by Science and Technology Australia.
Elsie Chan is a cornea subspecialist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. She completed her ophthalmology training and a Cornea fellowship in Melbourne, and an Anterior Segment fellowship at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. Elsie is also an Honorary Fellow with the Centre for Eye Research Australia and the University of Melbourne. She is an investigator on studies on keratoconus and endothelial disorders which have been awarded ORIA and NHMRC grants. Elsie is a member of numerous committees including the Scientific Program Committee for the RANZCO Annual Scientific Congress, and she is currently a Section Editor for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.
Dr Nathan Kerr is a fellowship-trained glaucoma subspecialist in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Kerr completed a prestigious glaucoma fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital and is at the forefront of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery. He serves as a Glaucoma Section Editor for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology and is a Principal Investigator in Glaucoma at the Centre for Eye Research Australia.
On finishing the Sydney Eye Hospital training programme he completed Strabismus and Paediatric ophthalmology fellowship training at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Craig has been a staff specialist at Westmead children’s Hospital since 1997, a visiting VMO at Sydney Eye Hospital and Sydney Children’s Hospital since 2001. He is currently head of the Strabismus Unit at Sydney Eye Hospital. From 2012 -2018 he was president of the Australian and New Zealand Strabismus society and a board member of the Orthoptic Board of Australia from 2007 onwards.
Among other things he has also been RANZCO NSW state secretary, a RANZCO councillor, RANZCO annual conference programme committee member, external examiner to the Hong Kong College of Ophthalmology and Director of training of registrars for the Sydney Eye Hospital programme and paediatric and strabismus section editor for the journal of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO). He remains programme organiser in paediatrics and strabismus for the annual APAO conference, supervisor of Fellows at Westmead Children’s Hospital and director of the board at Epping Surgery Centre. Over several years, through Sight for All, he has contributed to setting up a successful teaching programme in Strabismus and Paediatrics in Cambodia. Craig has authored numerous papers and lectured extensively in Australia and overseas.
In January 2019 he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for services to ophthalmology and medicine and in March 2019 awarded the APAO prevention of blindness award in Asia.
Dr Mali Okada is a sub-specialty trained Medical Retina and Vitreoretinal specialist. She is a consultant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and is a senior researcher with The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Eye Research Australia.
She has published more than 30 peer reviewed papers on retinal diseases. Her research interests includes novel retinal imaging and therapeutics. She was a recipient of the Global Ophthalmology Award Program for her work on optical coherence tomography angiography. Dr Okada is the current co-chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmology clinical standards committee. She also serves on the committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Retina Specialists (ANZSRS).
Professor Celia Chen is a Clinical Professor with University of South Australia and consultant neuro-ophthalmologist/ clinician-scientist at Flinders University. She completed a prestigious neuro-opthalmology fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Celia is the current president of the Neuro-Ophthalmic Society of Australia.
Celia’s achievements include :
She has an excellent research record and is the recipient of both national and international scholarships and awards including the American Australian Education Fellowship, South Australian Science Excellence award, Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement awards.
Dr. Chen is dedicated to providing mentorship and learning opportunities for young ophthalmologists in the Asia-Pacific region. She has been doing field work in Cambodia for over 10 years and providing fellowship opportunity, through APAO Women in Ophthalmology International Fellowship Program, Kim Frumar Scholarship and Eye Surgeon’s Foundation fellowship program. This has helped young ophthalmologist from a developing country to receive fellowship training in a subspecialty area of ophthalmology, at an international training centre of excellence.
Dr Li-Anne Lim is an ocular oncologist, cataract surgeon and general ophthalmologist. She has a special interest in managing patients with cancer of the eye including adult eye cancer such as melanoma, lymphoma and conjunctival tumours, and paediatric eye cancer such as retinoblastoma as well as simulating lesions.
Li-Anne graduated from the University of NSW medical school and also completed a Masters degree from the University of Sydney in Clinical Ophthalmology with a treatise on conjunctival melanoma. She spent one year at the Henry C. Witelson Ocular Pathology Laboratory, McGill University, Montreal, Canada following which she completed her ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital, which included 6 months as the Professorial Senior Ophthalmology Registrar. As a recipient of the Normal Rose Travelling Scholarship and RANZCO travelling scholarship, she pursued further subspecialty fellowship training at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, USA. Training under leaders in the field Drs Carol and Jerry Shields, Li-Anne exclusively dealt with the diagnosis and management of intraocular and periocular malignant and benign tumours, and simulating lesions. Experience at this high volume, tertiary referral centre, has allowed Li-Anne to gain expertise in the clinical management of eye cancers, research, and new imaging and therapeutic technologies.
Li-Anne is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney and has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. She is a member of the International Society of Ocular Oncology and is involved in the Multi-institutional Ocular Oncology Multidisciplinary Meeting at The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent’s Hospital. Together with Dr Michael Giblin, the first ophthalmologist to undergo fellowship training in Ocular Oncology in Australia, Li-Anne is dedicated to providing the highest standard of care for patients with eye cancer. Dr Lim is also an experienced general ophthalmologist.
Dr Geoffrey Parker graduated from Flinders University of South Australia and trained in Radiology at Royal Adelaide Hospital, gaining Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Radiologists. He undertook sub-specialist fellow
ship training in Head and Neck Radiology and Interventional Neuroradiology at the University of Utah in 1990-91 and has worked at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in these fields since 1992. he is currently District Team Leader in Interventional Neuroradiology and heads a team of six Neurointerventionalists who provide a 24/7 Emergency Thrombectomy Service for Acute Stroke.
He provides diagnostic and interventional radiology support to the Ophthalmology, Head and Neck and ENT Services at RPAH and Chris O’Brien
Lifehouse.
His major research interests are CSF pressure disorders, including venous disorders of the brain including Pseudotumour Cerebri, CSF leaks and variants including Eagle Syndrome and participates in the CSF Pressure Disorders Clinic at Macquarie University Hospital.
Norman co-hosts RN’s Health Report and during the COVID-19 pandemic, has co-hosted Coronacast, a podcast on the coronavirus. Norman is also a reporter and commentator on ABC’s 7.30, Midday, News Breakfast and Four Corners and a guest host on RN Breakfast. He is a past winner of the Gold Walkley and has won other Walkleys including one with his Coronacast colleagues in 2020. He created Invisible Enemies, on pandemics and civilisation for Channel 4 UK and SBS which was subsequently broadcast in 27 countries. Norman has been awarded the medal of the Australian Academy of Science, an honorary MD from the University of Sydney and in October 2022 a Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
During COVID he wrote two books. So You Think You Know What’s Good For You (Hachette) is a best seller and was released in the UK. His latest book So You Want To Live Younger Longer has also been on the best-seller list.
Norman trained in medicine and pediatrics in Aberdeen, London and Sydney before joining the ABC.
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