INVITED INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS

Dr. Ray Buncic joined the staff of the Hospital for Sick Children and the Toronto University Health Network in 1972. His special interests have been medical education and clinical research in paediatricneuro-ophthalmology optic nerve diseases, drug toxicity, eye movement disorders, and craniofacialanomalies. Dr. Buncic served as the departmental chair at HSC from 1993 to 2003. He was awarded the British Isles Claude Worth Gold medal (BIPOSA) for a “lifetime distinction in paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus”, the professional honour award by AAPOS (1986) and AAO ( 1998), and the HSC Citizenship award by the medical and scientific staff of HSC. Most recently he has been appointed a Member of the Order of Canada ( 2019) and the Order of Ontario in 2021 in recognition of his outstanding work in paediatric neuro-ophthalmology. His students have included over a hundred Fellows in paediatric ophthalmology alone as well as the ophthalmology residents at the U of Toronto since 1972.

Professor Susan Downes has been a Consultant at the Oxford Eye Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals University Foundation Trust since 2000, having completed post-residency clinical and research fellowships in Medical Retina at Moorfields Eye Hospital, and Institute of Ophthalmolo-gy where she obtained her research MD in inherited retinal degeneration (IRD). Susan is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and is the Clinical Lead for the Eye Research Group Oxford(ERGO). Susan is on the national Ophthalmology Clinical Research Network Committee and is the lead for Oxford Centre for the European Network for Rare Eye Diseases (ERN). 

She was awarded a gold medal by the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust for outstanding achievement (2014)and was in the 2021 Top List of Women in European Vision Research and Ophthalmology (http://www.vision-research.eu/index-.php?id=1298. Together with colleagues from the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and University of Oxford, she was involved in evaluating next generation sequencing in IRD; Oxford is now one of the 3 specialist NHS Genomic Eye testing hubs. Together with colleagues, she was a founder member and previous chair of the steering group of the United Kingdom Eye Genetics Group(UKEGG), and was chair of the Medical Advisory Board for Retina UK from 2018 to 2022. She was the Ophthalmology Foundation and 5th year medical student Lead from 2015-2022 and was awarded the 2021 departmental teaching prize by the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience. Her mainclinical and research interests include IRD, age related macular degeneration and macular diseases.

Amanda Salisbury is a Clinical Oncologist, a Consultant at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with a practice in Head and Neck Cancer and Skin Cancer, and a strong interest in the communication skills needed to provide effective, compassionate care.

Dr Salisbury qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford and undertook general medical training in London. She returned to Oxford to complete her specialist training in Oncology and a laboratory based research degree.

Amanda has always been a keen teacher and a trainer since her own training days and has developed this interest throughout her career. She is a Nuffield Lecturer in Clinical Medicine to Lincoln College, Oxford. She is also an examiner, and educational supervisor, for the Royal College of Radiologists with responsibilities for the specialist doctors in training. She lectures annually on the medical student finalists’ revision course, and on the Oxford MSc course in Experimental Therapeutics

.In recent years she has become interested in exploring communication skills in other specialties, especially in how to break bad news, and she has delivered a number of talks to Ophthalmologists, trainees and Allied Health professionals involved in eye care. The challenges of these difficult conversations in Ophthalmology mirror some of those in Oncology and it is helpful to explore a common approach.

As a student she was a member of the Oxford Revue and has always found that a keen sense of humour helps in the teaching of almost anything.

After a paediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, an ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, and a paediatric ophthalmology fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto he became Professor in the Departments of Paediatrics, Genetics and Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. There he helped start the oculargenetics program in 1995. He completed his Masters in Bioethics at the University of Toronto in 2001.He is the only person board certified in ophthalmology, paediatrics and child abuse paediatrics. In2008 he returned to Wills as the Chief of Paediatric Ophthalmolo-gy and Ocular Genetics and established a new Ocular Genetics program there. He is now Chief of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Ocular Genetics at Flaum Eye Institute and Chief of Clinical Genetics at Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester, New York. His clinical and research work is devoted to patients with paediatric cataract/glaucoma/uveitis, ocular genetic issues in children and adults, the ocularmanifestations of child abuse, and ophthalmolo-gy ethics. He has published over 300 peer reviewed papers, 157 book chapters, and has given over 1500 lectures worldwide. He is the President of World Eye Mission and sits on the Medical Advisory Committee of Orbis. He is involved with multiple paediatric ophthalmology specialty support groups for various rare disorders.

C.K. Patel was appointed as Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon to The Oxford University Hospitals NHSTrust in 2001 after a broad Ophthalmic training in London and Oxford followed by subspecialty training in Vitreoretinal Surgery in Toronto. Over 2 decades of practice in the UK he has pioneered approaches to imaging in babies and children and has developed a national service for the surgical management of tractional detachment in retinopathy of prematurity in the UK. He has had the privilege of participating in the training of many Australian fellows who he has persuaded to participate in his two major interests outside of ophthalmology: cricket and yoga. He looks forward to rekindling old bonds and making new ones in Queensland.

INVITED NATIONAL SPEAKERS

Tom Edwards is a Melbourne-based vitreoretinal surgeon. He also leads a research team investigating retinal genetherapy at the University of Melbourne affiliated Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) based at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.

James is an ophthalmologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics of the University of Melbourne and immediate past chair of the Australian & New Zealand Paediatric Ophthalmology Society. He is the author of 77 peer reviewed journal articles and 20 book chapters. He has been actively involved in the management of retinoblastoma for more than 30 years.

Professor Robyn Guymer AM is a Deputy Director of CERA, the Head of Macular Research at CERA, and Professor of Ophthalmology at Melbourne University. 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).Professor Guymer has investigated genetic and environmental risk factors for AMD, predictors of response to treatments for late AMD, as well as being a principal investigator in many industry sponsored trials. She is on several pharmaceutical advisory boards and is part of the Mactel consortium, the Beckman/Ryan AMD initiative (USA) and the International Classification of Atrophy (CAM) group.

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 is a member of the Macular Society and an inaugural fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Professor Guymer was named a Member in the General Division (AM) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, recognised for her significant service to medicine in the field of ophthalmology, particularly age-related macular degeneration as a clinician, academic and researcher.

She was also awarded the NHMRC’s 2016 Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship for the top ranked female research fellowship in clinical medicine.

Justin is a New Zealand ophthalmologist working at Auckland Eye and the Greenlane Clinical Centre. He has training in glaucoma (Shaffer Fellow UCSF- 1995) and in paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus (Indiana University - 1996).He is a Senior Lecturer for the Auckland Medical school and has authored papers in the fields of glaucoma, paediatrics and strabismus. He runs the paediatric ophthalmology fellowship training program in Auckland.  Justin is a past Chief Examiner and Censor-in-Chief for RANZCO. He is involved in charitable work in Cambodia and Laos to train the region's first specialist paediatric ophthalmologists.

David graduated from Sheffield Medical School in the UK in 1995, completing his general Ophthalmology training in South Yorkshire before embarking on a series of UK and overseas sub-specialty fellowships in the field of Medical retina. David first arrived on the shores of Aotearoa in 2005 and has been employed as Consultant Ophthalmologistat Greenlane Hospital specializing in the management of retinovascular and macular disease since 2009. David also holds an honorary position with the University of Auckland and is the Lead Ophthalmologist for the Auckland Diabetic Eye Screening Service. David continues to be actively involved in retinal research; his current research interests include retinal imaging and new therapeutics for MD and Diabetic retinopathy.

Jo is a clinical and coaching psychologist who works with professionals and performers in sport, small business, and creative industries. Her focus is on building lives with meaning and connection and the management of burnout and mental illness. Jo has expertise in wellbeing science – including positive psychology, ACT and mindfulness – and completed her PhD in this field. Her current focus is on wellbeing design and creative cultural experiences that promote health and wellbeing outside of the therapy room.

INVITED QUEENSLAND SPEAKERS

Dr  Gole has practiced as a Paediatric Ophthalmologist in Queensland  since 1990. He was Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane from 1995-2010, and full-time   Director of Ophthalmology, Children’s Health Queensland, from 2010-2018. He was promoted to Professor  at UQ in 2010.   Professor Gole’s research interests have included retinopathy of prematurity (on which he has published more than 25 related papers, including the landmark ICROP I and II), strabismus surgery, paediatric low vision and animal models of glaucoma. To this end, he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed research papers and has written several book chapters. 

Dr Milnes is a clinical geneticist with interest and expertise in all aspects of clinical genetics, including reproductive genetics, paediatric, adult and cancer genetics. She completed her training in QLD, obtaining her specialist fellowship in clinical genetics at Genetic Health Queensland. Dr Milnes completed further study through the University of Sydney in the Graduate Certificate of Bioethics and has a longstanding interest in the intersection of ethical issues pertaining to genetic testing and informed consent. Dr Milnes has a staff specialist appointment at Genetic Health Queensland and works privately. Together with her colleagues, this year Dr Milnes helped establish the first multidisciplinary genetics ophthalmology adult state-wide clinic, at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Dr Ann Webber is a paediatric optometrist, with a strong track record in clinical private and public practice, professional representation, regulation and accreditation, academic teaching, and clinical research. Ann holds clinical appointments within the ophthalmology department at Queensland Children’s Hospital and the optometry teaching clinic at Queensland University of Technology.  Ann has published extensively on impacts of childhood vision disorders and inter-professional collaborative models of care and holds academic appointments at both Queensland University of Technology and the University of New South Wales.