March 2018

THE MAGAZINE FOR NEW ZEALAND’S OPHTHALMIC COMMUNITY
PO BOX 106 954, AUCKLAND CITY 1143
MARCH 2018
Email: info@nzoptics.co.nz Website: www.nzoptics.co.nz

2018 • Voted by New Zealanders • 2018
TRANSFORMING
EYE HEALTH
THE ULTIMATE OPHTHALMIC COLLABORATION
At Specsavers we are focussed on providing the highest
levels of optometry and dispensing care in all our New
Zealand and Australian stores.
Our equipment and technology strategies, our close working relationships
with ophthalmology and various eye disease stakeholders alongside our
major investments into dispensing qualifications all contribute to a singular
purpose – to transform the eye health of New Zealanders and Australians.
So, if you’re concerned at the 50 per cent undiagnosed glaucoma cohort
and the under-indexing of diabetic retinopathy screenings; if you’re worried
that available in-store technology isn’t being used on every patient due to
extra fees and charges; and if you’re alarmed at the under-investment in
professional dispensing programs and technology – then we urge you to
talk to us about how you can make a genuine impact at Specsavers.
We’re on a clear mission to transform eye health in New Zealand and
Australia – and we’d like you to join us on that mission.
To ask about optometry and dispensing roles right across the country at all levels, contact Chris Rickard on 027 579 5499
or chris.rickard@specsavers.com, alternatively visit spectrum-anz.com for all the opportunities.
Reader’s
Digest
Quality Service
Award
2018 • Voted by Australians • 2018
Reader’s
Digest
Quality Service
Award
AITD
Voted by New Zealanders
Reader’s Digest
Quality Service
Award
2017
Best Customer
Service in AU
Optometry
2018
Best Customer
Service in NZ
Optometry
Best Talent
Development
Program
2017
Best Talent
Development
Program
2017
Best Customer
Service in NZ
Optometry
2017
Millward Brown
Research
No.1 for eye tests
2016
Excellence in
Marketing
Award
2016
Retail
Store Design
Award
2016
Retail
Employer
of the Year
2015
2018 Transforming eye health
2 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

DO textbook crisis?
BY LESLEY SPRINGALL
A
change of mind at the last moment has
saved budding New Zealand dispensing
opticians from having to share textbooks
this year, at least in the short-term.
In January, the Open Training and Education
Network (OTEN), part of TAFE NSW, decided to stop
the supply of the Australasian dispensing optician
(DO) course textbooks to rival DO course providers,
including the Australasian College of Optical
Dispensing (ACOD) which runs the accredited
course in New Zealand.
The course text books, Practical Optical
Workshop by David Wilson, Steve Stenersen and
Steven Daras, and Practical Optical Dispensing
by David Wilson and Steven Daras, are relevant
to the Australian/New Zealand context and are
currently a key component of the ACOD course.
ACOD’s course is endorsed by the Association of
Dispensing Opticians in New Zealand (ADONZ)
and NZ Optics understands OTEN’s decision to
suddenly stop supplying the textbooks left little
time to find alternatives and amend the course
accordingly. Though OTEN retains the rights to the
textbooks, the understanding was that the authors
wanted them to always be available to all, said one
source who didn’t wish to be named.
The textbooks were written by the late David
Wilson, who used to work for OTEN, was a cross-
Tasman champion of the importance and skills
of a good dispensing optician to any practice,
and wanted Australasian DOs to have their own
Australasian textbooks. Though other good
textbooks exist in both the US and the UK, Wilson’s
have become the standard in Australasia.
The textbook stoush itself is believed to have
been caused by the rise in the number of budding
DOs now wishing to become qualified and, in New
Zealand, registered, but who have chosen to seek
alternative providers to OTEN, such as ACOD. ACOD
was set up by former OTEN DO course teachers
James Gibbins and Chedy Kalach, just over a year
ago and reportedly enrolled more students in
2017 than any other DO course provider after
gaining the endorsement of ADONZ, Specsavers
and Australian independent optometry group,
ProVision, in late 2016 and early 2017.
After being informed of OTEN’s decision to
stop the supply and having no initial luck from
negotiating with the New South Wales-based
college, NZ Optics understands ACOD led an
appeal together with
some other industry
associations, organisations
and individuals to seek
intervention from the
NSW state government.
Adding to ACOD’s appeal
is a claim by Gibbins that
the most recent editions of
the textbooks were partly
funded by an independent,
private Optical Dispensing
Education Fund (which has
since closed) which adds
to OTEN’s obligation to
make the text books freely
available to the wider
industry. NSW Deputy Premier and Skills Minister,
John Barilaro, and his Assistant Skills Minister
Adam Marshall, are believed to be looking into the
case.
However shortly before going to press, OTEN
had a change of heart and agreed to make the
textbooks available to non-TAFE NSW students
during the first half of 2018. The decision was
driven by OTEN’s consideration of the potential
impact on students from other colleges which
don’t have sufficient resources to develop
materials for their students, said a spokesman for
TAFE NSW.
“However, in a competitive VET (vocational
education and training) market, TAFE NSW does
not consider that it is appropriate or reasonable,
on an ongoing basis, to provide its resources to
competitors in circumstances where TAFE NSW
has invested significantly in its materials. TAFE
NSW will be reviewing its textbooks in 2018 and
is intending to update these resources for use in
2019. TAFE NSW does not intend to provide these
materials to third parties.”
Given that the matter is currently still under
ministerial review, ACOD directors’ Gibbins and
Kalach were unable to comment in detail, however
they did say they welcomed OTEN’s decision to
re-supply the textbooks at least for the first half
of 2018. “Therefore, we expect to use the Wilson /
Stenersen textbooks as usual for 2018. According
to our continuous improvement practise all ACOD
learning materials, including the textbooks will be
reviewed for 2019.”
ADONZ president Donald Crichton said, “Going
Steven Daras, one of the well-respected co-authors of the Australasian DO textbooks, at work at OTEN/TAFE
forward I can see ACOD using different textbooks
to complement their course delivery. I am
confident that James and Chedy will manage a
successful adaption and that future students will
not be affected.”
One of the textbooks co-author’s, New Zealandbased
Steve Stenersen, a well-respected, longserving
DO educator and champion in New
Zealand who was recognised with an ADONZ life
member award at the end of last year, however,
said he was still very disappointed with OTEN’s
decision. “OTEN have the legal right to block sales
of the book. This is a moral issue. When I was asked
by David to co-author the book with him it was
with the intention that the book was available to
all, including Australia, New Zealand as well as
some sales in the UK, States and South Africa.”
Stenersen said he would not support OTEN’s
review of the textbooks if they continued to be just
for OTEN’s use.
In New Zealand in 2017, a record 54 students
enrolled in ACOD’s certificate IV in optical
dispensing course and larger numbers are
expected for this year’s course. The flexible course
is completed in 18-24 months part-time and
includes online work as well as practical sessions
at ACOD’s workshop in Glenfield, Auckland.
Students are expected to have worked for at least
a year in an optical practice before starting the
course and then continue to work about 20 hours
a week, while completing the course with the
support of a workplace supervisor. ▀
It’s about
the patients
EDITORIAL
The many facets of the optical industry, from
those who develop and sell the technology
and resources eye health practitioners’ need
to the optometry practice staff who assess our
eye health and make us love our new specs to
the ophthalmology team who help protect our
precious sight, are all interconnected. So, it’s sad
when one part lets down another as is the case in
two stories this month.
Admittedly, Australian dispensing optician
(DO) training organisation TAFE NSW agreed
not to suspend the sale of the Australasian
DO textbooks at the last minute for this year’s
student intake (this page), but didn’t DO-skills
advocates and co-authors the late David Wilson,
Steve Stenersen and Steven Daras write these
textbooks to benefit the whole Australasian DO
profession, without a time limit?
Then there’s the NZ optometrist who didn’t
pick up a six-year-old boy’s brain tumour and,
worse, didn’t encourage the family to return if
symptoms persisted (p4) or refer the child to
someone who might have been able to spot
something, just to be sure. We are all guilty of
being tired and over confident at times and the
resulting HDC report highlights the remorse
of the now-retired optometrist, but this case
couldn’t highlight more clearly the importance of
this industry’s role.
More positively, it’s great to hear Visique
optoms getting the thumbs up from their
patients (p4); the 2018 CCLS one-day conference
(p8-13) should not be missed; the wonderful,
entrepreneurial Kiwi ophthalmology registrar
Hong opens our eyes to the power of AI (p14);
and we take a look at safety (p14, 18) and today’s
retail trends (p19),
plus much, much
more. Enjoy!
Lesley Springall, editor, NZ Optics
ODOB reviews TAFE DO
course
The optometrists and
dispensing opticians
board (ODOB) is currently
consulting on the revocation
of the accreditation of the
‘Certificate IV in Optical
Dispensing’ course offered
by OTEN/TAFE in New South
Wales after OTEN failed to
provide additional material
requested for its accreditation.
If the accreditation is revoked,
dispensing opticians (DOs)
trained at OTEN will no longer
be recognised for registration in New Zealand.
In New Zealand, the ODOB is charged under
the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance
Act 2003 to ensure DOs are competent and fit to
practise when they apply for registration, which
requires the ODOB to prescribe the qualifications
required to meet the current scopes of practice.
The ODOB first prescribed the dispensing course
offered by OTEN as a qualification for optical
dispensing in 2005. In October 2014, the ODOB
asked OTEN for its reaccreditation application, but
OTEN advised that its course was under review,
so the ODOB placed its reaccreditation on hold.
In June 2016, OTEN provided its reaccreditation
application and when asked for additional
information, NZ Optics’ understands OTEN again
asked for the reaccreditation to be placed on hold
due to an impending governance restructure. As
this was the second request and reaccreditation
was well overdue, the ODOB declined and gave
OTEN a deadline of 14 July 2017, which it failed
to meet.
“The course might well still be suitable for
dispensing in New Zealand but OTEN have had
more than enough time to satisfy the board of this
by providing documentation and have failed to do
The ODOB is considering revoking OTEN’s accreditation for its DOs in NZ
so – hence the consultation on revocation of their
accreditation,” said Lindsey Pine, ODOB registrar.
“The board will consider submissions once the
consultation closes and make a final decision.
If the course is revoked, notice will officially be
published in the New Zealand Gazette.
“OTEN were advised some time ago that
they needed to let these students know the
Board’s decision to propose revocation of the
qualification.”
Donald Crichton, president of the Association
of Dispensing Opticians of New Zealand (ADONZ)
said, “This will not affect currently registered
dispensing opticians who studied with OTEN, only
those choosing to embark on the OTEN course
from 2018. There are no New Zealand students
currently studying through OTEN. Students
can train through the Australasian College of
Dispensing (ACOD) with the support of OptiBlocks.
There are currently more than 50 students enrolled
in this course, many of any of whom will be ready
to join the register as dispensing opticians by the
end of this year.”
When contacted, a spokesman for TAFE NSW said
the college was reapplying for reaccreditation and
was currently midway through the process. ▀
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
3

News
in brief
CL SOLUTION SAVES BIRD
Japanese contact lens (CL) company
Menicon has come to the aid of rice
paddy farmers on Sado Island who are
trying to save the local Japanese crested
Ibis. Rice farmers are encouraged to
leave their paddies submerged during winter to enable the birds to
continue to feed, but that left the farmers unable to clear leftover rice
straw, which interferes with rice cultivation. Menicon used its stain
removal CL solution technology knowhow to produce a dry form of its
solution to sprinkle on the rice fields to accelerate decomposition. The
ibis had been near extinction, but is now growing in numbers.
NON-URGENT HOSPITAL VISITS FALL IN AUSTRALIA
Almost 120,000 people presented for eye conditions at emergency
departments across Australia in 2016-17, of which 19,640 were
considered non-urgent. While the number of people seeking help
from emergency departments for eye health issues is still a concern,
said industry body Optometry Australia, it is encouraged by a
noticeable 25% drop in non-urgent conditions over the last three
years, which could relate to people’s better understanding of an
optometrist’s role.
GOGGLES FOR GLAUCOMA
A new portable brain-computer interface,
nGoggle, is proving promising for assessing
visual function loss in glaucoma patients, said
co-inventor Professor Felipe Medeiros from Duke
University, North Carolina. In initial testing,
nGoggle demonstrated greater accuracy compared with standard
automated perimetry for discriminating eyes with glaucomatous
optic neuropathy versus healthy eyes, he told Ophthalmology Times.
PROF SHRINKS RETINA SCANNER
Professor Marinko Sarunic from Simon Fraser University, Canada has
developed a new, shoebox-sized, retinal imaging scanner, that can still
produce high-resolution, 3D, cross-sectional retina images, showing
individual photoreceptors, fine capillaries and blood vessels. It’s
unique small size makes it perfectly suited for everyday use in medical
clinics and hospitals, he said.
DIOR OPENS EYEWEAR STORE
Luxury fashion house Dior has opened its first store dedicated to
eyewear. Located on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, next to its historic
flagship premises, the store offers Dior sunglasses and optical frames,
including exclusive designs and vintage pieces, optical accessories and
makeup. Optometrists will provide vision screening in store.
FIRST PATIENT RECEIVES PRIMA IMPLANT
French company Pixium Vision has successfully completed its first
human implantation and activation of Prima, its miniaturised,
wireless photovoltaic sub-retinal implant, in a patient with severe
vision loss from atrophic dry age-related macular degeneration
(AMD). “Following activation, the patient reported a first perception
of light from the central zone where there was none previously,”
said Dr Yannick Le Mer, principal investigator for Prima’s first human
feasibility study. “The patient now proceeds to the important reeducation
phase to learn to interpret the light signals and evaluate
the performance of the system.”
RAINDROP MANUFACTURER CLOSES DOWN
Revision Optics, manufacturer of the Raindrop implantable corneal
device for correction of near vision, the first FDA-approved device
that changes the shape of the cornea to correct vision, has closed
down. Though it said it still hopes to still sell the IP for Raindrop,
currently it has no offers. Raindrop received FDA approval in
June 2016 and Revision raised US$32 million, led by Johnson &
Johnson Development, in November 2016 to support Raindrop’s
commercialisation.
CHARITIES FOR VISION MERGE
Optometry Giving Sight is to merge with the Brien Holden Vision
Institute (BHVI) Foundation. “By merging our operations, we become
more effective and gain the opportunity to maximise the resources
that we can dedicate to key programme areas,” said Professor Kovin
Naidoo, BHVI’s CEO.
NEW DOCUMENTARY ON MYOPIA
US filmmaker Jane Weiner is working on a
documentary about myopia entitled ‘Losing Sight’,
scheduled for release in 2020. Having done several
films on health issues, Weiner said she was inspired
when she heard about the current epidemic.
“Everyone in my family is near-sighted, and although
we’ve had our share of eye problems (cataracts, retinal detachment,
macular degeneration, glaucoma), no one ever mentioned these
maladies might be linked to our myopia.” A trailer is available at
https://vimeo.com/215833148
CAPITALISING ON THE GLOBAL GLAUCOMA MARKET
Driven by the launch of new products, the total glaucoma market is
expected to grow to US$3.8bn in 2026 from US$2.6bn in 2016, giving
the market a compound annual growth rate of 4.1%, reported market
intelligence company GlobalData. New products due for release
include Santen’s DE-117, Aerie’s fixed-dose combination therapy,
Roclatan, and two sustained-release implants.
NZ optometrist censured
A
New
Zealand optometrist has been
found guilty of breaching the Code
of Health and Disability Services
Consumers’ Rights for not providing an
adequate level of care and skill for a sixyear-old
boy, later diagnosed with a brain
tumour which left him blind in one eye and
partially sighted in the other.
In a report released in February, and
covered widely by the general media, deputy
health and disability commissioner (HDC)
Meenal Duggal also found the optometrist’s
practice liable for his inadequate care and
recommended current directors take several
steps to better care for their patients.
All parties were unnamed in the report, but the optometrist was
a director of the practice when he first examined the boy during an
appointment on 28 March 2014. The visit was recorded as routine,
but no details of the boy’s symptoms, family ocular history, general
health or medications were documented. The optometrist recorded
the boy’s visual acuity in his left eye as 6/10 and right as 6/x,
meaning the boy could not identify the letters on the Snellen chart.
The optometrist diagnosed amblyopia, possible right eye exotropia,
and prescribed the boy glasses. No plan for follow-up or further
investigation was noted. The HDC’s report also says the optometrist
did not refer the boy for further testing or perform appropriate
diagnostic tests to rule out pathology.
A year later, the boy was taken by his parents to a medical centre,
suffering headaches, fever and vomiting. The first GP he saw diagnosed
tonsillitis and dehydration, but made a plan in case the boy’s condition
deteriorated. The boy was taken back to the medical centre a week
later, suffering severe headaches. He also couldn’t walk straight, had
started rubbing and banging his head, couldn’t see and was barely
talking. He was seen by a different GP who sent him to hospital for
a CT-scan which identified a craniopharyngioma brain tumour. The
tumour was removed and the boy survived, but he was left completely
blind in his right eye and had just 1/30 acuity in his left.
Duggal said the optometrist failed to take appropriate steps to
test the level of acuity of the boy’s right eye, consider differential
diagnoses, conduct further investigations or refer the boy to an
ophthalmologist to determine the cause of the amblyopia and
queried exotropia. He also failed to put together an ongoing
VOSO to tackle low vision
The Volunteer Ophthalmic Services Overseas
(VOSO) eye health aid group is adding low
vision to its list of aid services from this year
and is urgently seeking donations of low vision
equipment to distribute in the Pacific Islands to low
vision patients.
Auckland-based low vision consultant and
optometrist Naomi Meltzer has volunteered her
services to VOSO and, in collaboration with the Blind
Foundation, will provide low vision aids such as
magnifiers, high plus spectacles and sunglasses and
other small low vision aids, which are currently being
collected by Blind Foundations centres throughout
New Zealand.
VOSO is a New Zealand charitable trust that
provides free eye care to the people of the Pacific.
This completely voluntary-based organisation was
established 30 years ago and visits Fiji, Samoa and
Tonga on an annual basis to help restore vision
through sight-saving cataract surgery and refractive
services, including supplying thousands of pairs of glasses each year.
Two-thirds of the world’s population with low vision resides in the
Asia-Pacific region 1 . Providing low vision aids is important for improving
patient quality of life, however there are many issues and challenges for
the provision of low vision aids in the pacific, said Meltzer.
“There is huge difficulty getting low vision services in many third
world countries. New Zealand has a lot more resources than our Pacific
Island neighbours and so there are many magnifiers and low vision
aids, which are no longer required, sitting in the backs of drawers in
homes around the country.”
Meltzer said her offer to add low vision aids and training to the next
VOSO trip was met with an enthusiastic and emotional response.
“This is history in the making,” said Shireen Ali from the New Zealand
Blind Foundation.
Meltzer will be accompanying the VOSO team on their next trip in July
to Labasa, Fiji. Labasa has a high rate of diabetic retinopathy and one of
the highest rates of albinism in the world.
www.nzoptics.co.nz | PO Box 106954, Auckland 1143 | New Zealand
treatment plan to see if the boy’s visual
acuity improved or appropriately document
the boy’s history and reason for coming to
see the optometrist in the first place.
The censured optometrist retired from
clinical practice in 2015, but is still involved
in the management of the optometry
practice. He’s asked to be removed from
the Optometrist and Dispensing Opticians
Board (ODOB) register and is currently noted
on the register as non-practising. In his
response to the HDC, he said in March 2014
he was experiencing stress and anxiety due
The HDC has criticised an NZ optometrist for his lack of care to personal matters and had, had difficulty
obtaining locum optometrist cover. He said
he had “contemplated and agonised” over the probable cause of
the misdiagnosis of the boy’s eyesight and is “profoundly regretful”.
On Duggal’s recommendation, he also said he “wishes to apologise
profusely both to (the boy) and his parents for what has happened”.
Despite the optometrist telling the HDC he is no longer practising,
Duggal recommended the ODOB provide an update on his
registration status within three months of the report and, should
he decide to return to clinical practice, asked the Board to consider
whether a review of his competence is warranted.
The practice was found vicariously liable for the optometrist’s
breach of code and censured for failing to have policies or procedures
in place relating to staffing levels when unexpected leave was
required and the standard of the consultation form used at the
time. The practice was told to discuss the findings of the report with
its clinical staff; review its consultation form and recall processes;
and audit patient records for a one-month period to ensure that
patients assessed have been appropriately referred. It was also asked
to provide an update on the changes it has made to its practice,
including the implementation of its new policies and procedures,
and to conduct a second audit and report back to the HDC on the
effectiveness of these changes to ensure patients have been referred
appropriately.
A copy of the report and the optometrist’s name has been sent
to the ODOB, the New Zealand Association of Optometrists, the
Corneal and Contact Lens Society, ACC and the district health
board. To read the full report, go to http://www.hdc.org.nz/
media/390312/16hdc00646.pdf. ▀
VOSO wants your old low vision aids for its new Pacific low vision initiative
“I am feeling very excited about the VOSO trip, and also a little
nervous,” she said. “This is my first VOSO trip and I am expecting it to be
hard work and an amazing experience. I am learning a lot from people
who have been involved in VOSO, but the low vision part is adding
another dimension and is rather an unknown. We will definitely need
lots of sunglasses and low vision aids (in Lambasa) so I am hoping to
encourage optometrists and ophthalmologists to put the word out.”
If you have any small low vision aids (not CCTV devices) that you would
like to donate, please send these to Naomi Meltzer, Low Vision Services,
PO Box 28486, Remuera, Auckland 1541, or drop them in at a Blind
Foundation centre in New Zealand.
For more about VOSO, visit www.voso.org.nz
References:
1. Chiang PP et al. Critical issues in implementing low vision care in the Asia-
Pacific region. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2012 Sep-Oct;60(5):456-9.
For general enquiries or classifieds please email info@nzoptics.co.nz
For editorial, please contact Lesley Springall at lesley@nzoptics.co.nz or +64 27 445 3543
For all advertising/marketing enquiries, please contact Susanne Bradley at susanne@nzoptics.co.nz or +64 27 545 4357 in the first instance, or Lesley Springall at lesley@nzoptics.co.nz
To submit artwork, or to query a graphic, please email susanne@nzoptics.co.nz
NZ Optics magazine is the industry publication for New Zealand’s ophthalmic community. It is published monthly, 11 times a year, by New Zealand Optics 2015 Ltd. Copyright is held by
NZ Optics 2015 Ltd. As well as the magazine and the website, NZ Optics publishes the annual New Zealand Optical Information Guide (OIG), a comprehensive listing guide that profiles the
products and services of the industry. NZ Optics is an independent publication and has no affiliation with any organisations. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily
those of NZ Optics 2015 Ltd or the editorial team.
4 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

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March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
5

Shamir opens new Kiwi lab
Shamir has opened a new fitting lab and
service centre near Sylvia Park shopping
precinct in the Mt Wellington area in
Auckland.
Shamir’s business in New Zealand is steadily
growing and having a local presence is a priority
for Shamir, on a global scale, says Tony Egerton,
Shamir’s national sales manager. “To do this
efficiently, with recommendations from our
existing client base, our next step was to open
a local lab and customer service outlet. With
this we can now provide even better service and
quicker turnaround times than those already
currently enjoyed by our clients all over New
Zealand.”
The new lab’s location is ideal for Shamir and
our New Zealand customers, adds Egerton. “It
offers easy access to motorways and the airport,
as well as being only 10km from Auckland’s CBD,
all of which is important to be able to provide
first rate service and fast delivery times to
our New Zealand customers. By having a local
Shamir’s NZ team Veronica Petersen and Francois Cronje
office, we can centralise all ordering and logistic
services; including phone, email, fax and online
ordering systems. Same day fitting will also be
available.”
Shamir’s goal is to become the number one
local lens supplier in the New Zealand market,
says Egerton, and it’s hoping to achieve this by
providing great service, professional advice and
unique products offering a point of difference for
independent practitioners.
Joining Shamir’s New Zealand account and sales
manager, Francois Cronje, at the new Aucklandbased
lab, is Veronica Petersen, who previously
worked with Cronje at Gary Filer Optometrist’s.
Petersen will be managing the office and
supporting customers, says Cronje, adding he’s
proud of their combined 34 years in the optical
industry. “I believe Veronica and I are uniquely
qualified to handle the specific demands of
the optometric industry in New Zealand. Both
of us are registered dispensing opticians and
skilled spectacle technicians with many years
of fitting experience. We are confident we bring
a skillset to Shamir New Zealand ensuring very
high standards of expertise, product knowledge
and excellent customer service to every Shamir
client.” ▀
Visique tops for customer satisfaction
Jose George, Canstar general manager, presenting IOG’s Neil Human with the group’s Canstar Award for
customer satisfaction
Visique has won this year’s Canstar Blue Award for customer
satisfaction in the New Zealand optometrists’ category.
As Visique practices are part a cooperative of independent
optometrists, now called The Independent Optometry Group (see
February’s NZ Optics), not a chain, they are extremely proud of this result,
said Neil Human, chief executive of The Independent Optometry Group.
“This is a fantastic result and a strong endorsement of our practice
owners and their staff and the attention that they pay to servicing
their customers’ needs – the very reason we are now this year’s award
winners.” It also shows how Visique’s practice owners are succeeding in
what is a very competitive market, he added.
Launched in June 2011, Canstar Blue is a customer satisfaction
research and ratings business set up to help consumers make better
purchasing decisions. In New Zealand it surveyed 2,500 New Zealand
consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer
satisfaction. The outcomes reported are the results from customers who
have used a national chain of optometrists within the last three years –
in this case, 1,262 New Zealanders. Visique scored a maximum five stars
in every category, beating Specsavers and OPSM which were second and
third respectively. ▀
ESA expands
Drs Monika Pradhan and Hussain Patel in the new Manukau clinic
Eye Surgery Associates (ESA) has expanded its
operations in Auckland with a new location in
Manukau joining its two existing clinics on the
North Shore and in central Auckland.
“Our new Manukau location will provide greater
convenience for our South Auckland patients
and referrers,” said Eye Surgery Associates
ophthalmologist Dr Hussain Patel. Another driver
was more space and more clinic time for Dr Monika
Pradhan, who recently joined the practice, said Dr
Patel, adding that both himself and Dr Pradhan will
be working across all three clinics.
“Our overall goal is to provide improved coverage and
access to our ophthalmic services for a wider range
of patients and referrers within the Auckland region.”
Eye Surgery Associates is also looking to add one
more ophthalmologist to the team to complement Dr
Patel’s and Dr Pradhan’s specialist knowledge in retina,
glaucoma and cataract surgery.
The new Manukau operation opened in December
last year and is fully equipped with the latest
technologies including OCT imaging, visual field
analysers, corneal topography, optic disc and retinal
photography and lasers including YAG, SLT and retinal
and intravitreal injections, said Dr Patel. ▀
Education Series 2018
Theme - Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Everyday Practice
Seminars
are FREE!
Upcoming Seminar
Tuesday
22nd May
6.30pm - 8.45pm
Ellerslie Event Centre
Racecourse, 80 Ascot Ave
Ellerslie, Auckland
5.45pm - 6.30pm
Light Meal & Beverages
provided
Eye Institute’s Education Series continues to
offer an opportunity for the Optometry Profession
to gain exposure to the latest advances in
therapeutics, shared-care management and
surgical advances in New Zealand. You are invited
to join us at our May and August Seminars and
November Conferences for the 2018 year.
BOOK ONLINE NOW!
https://www.eyeinstitute.co.nz/optometry/
August Seminar
Tuesday
16 Aug 2018
6.30pm-8.45pm
Ellerslie Event Centre
Racecourse, 80 Ascot Ave
Ellerslie, Auckland
Optometry
Conference
Sunday
4 Nov 2018
8am-5pm
Waipuna Conference Centre
Mt Wellington, Auckland
Dispensing Optician
Conference
Sunday
4 Nov 2018
8am-5pm
Waipuna Conference Centre
Mt Wellington, Auckland
PLUS 1/2 Day
Workshops
Saturday
3 Nov 2018
1-5pm
Waipuna Conference Centre
Mt Wellington, Auckland
Qualifies for 2018
CPD Credits (including
Therapeutics)
BOOK ONLINE
NOW
Or register by
Phone 09 522 2125
Fax 09 522 5770
conference@eyeinstitute.co.nz
6 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

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NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
7

SPECIAL FEATURE: CCLS 2018
CCLS 2018: one special day
BY SUSANNE BRADLEY
March is here, which means it’s time for the Cornea and
Contact Lens Society (CCLS) of New Zealand’s annual
conference. This year, the shorter, one-day format is back,
with the event scheduled for Sunday 18 March at Mac’s Brewbar and
Function Centre on Wellington’s waterfront, just a few steps from Te
Papa.
Jagrut Lallu, CCLS’ new president who will be MC for the day, says
the biennial return to Wellington for the CCLS one-day conference
was welcomed by members.
“Great support from attendees
and sponsors alike shows this is
the right location. This year, we
again have excellent speakers
together with an interesting and
informative programme that
will hopefully help ensure high
attendance rates once again.”
CCLS NZ president, Jagrut Lallu
The programme
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and ophthalmologists as well as
one overseas guest. The keynote
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speakers are our own Professor Charles McGhee and Associate
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Professor McGhee, is chair of ophthalmology and head of the
Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Auckland. He’s
co-authored more than 300 scientific papers and is internationally
recognised within the field of corneal diseases. A consultant
ophthalmologist for 25 years, he has performed more than 1000
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Wellington Sunday 18 March 2018
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corneal transplants and has pioneered a number of techniques
including corneal stem cell transplants, and he has a longstanding
sub-specialty interest in cataract surgery and reconstruction of the
anterior segment of the eye following trauma. Professor McGhee
is giving three lectures at this year’s CCLS conference, covering the
assessment and treatment of the anterior segment; complex cornea
and anterior segment clinical cases; and keratoconus – the neverending
story. To find out more about how Professor McGhee got
into eye health, see NZ Optics’ March issue, last year.
A/Prof Jennifer Craig is head of the ocular surface laboratory at
the University of Auckland and vice chair of the Tear Film & Ocular
Surface Society’s (TFOS’s) second international workshop (DEWS II)
who’s work and research into dry eye is recognised internationally.
At this year’s event, she will share the key learnings from DEWS II
and their impact on dry eye diagnosis and management; explore
the predisposition of the Asian eye to dry eye disease; and discuss
how Manuka honey could help with blepharitis management. For
more about A/Prof Craig’s talk and how she began her journey in
eye health see p10.
During the morning, CCLS 2018 attendees will also hear from
Dr Ilva Rupenthal, head of the Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics
Unit at the University of Auckland, on semi-fluorinated alkanes;
and optometrists William Shew, who will discuss new insights on
meibomian cyst interventions, and Alex Petty who will share some
of his more complicated and fascinating cornea and contact lens
(CL) cases. In the lead up to lunch, Tony Alexander, chief economist
at the BNZ, will again impart some of his economic wisdom after
being re-invited to speak following rave reviews from members
who attended his talk in 2016.
After lunch, Kiwi ophthalmologist Dr Dean Corbett will share
his knowledge on extended depth of focus intraocular lenses for
use in post-radial keratotomy corneas; optometrist Emilie Langley
will tackle orthokeratology regression; Canadian guest speaker
Professor Heather Sheardown, chair in ophthalmic biomaterials at
the Department of Chemical Engineering of McMaster University
in Ontario will discuss surface modification of contact lenses (CLs)
for improved properties; and optometrist Alan Saks will present a
talk entitled Life, the universe and CLs.
The workshop is back
The inaugural CCLS one-day conference workshop was
oversubscribed in 2016 so it’s back this year, focusing on optical
coherence tomography (OCT). CCLS councillor and Hamilton-based
ophthalmologist Dr Chris Murphy is running the workshop which
will provide an overview of the uses and limitations of OCT in
glaucoma, medical retina and the anterior segment. For more, see
Dr Murphy’s overview on p10.
And a pub quiz
On the social side, new president Lallu says the committee wanted
to try something new. “Feedback received told us attendees
wanted an all-inclusive event as part of the registration fee.” So,
this year CCLS is offering an all-inclusive opportunity to connect
and network prior to the conference through a pub quiz and
crawl on the Saturday night for attendees and partners. The quiz
and crawl is organised by some of CCLS’s local Wellington council
members, just in time for St Patrick’s day. Don’t forget to sign up to
the quiz, included in the conference fee,when registering.
The details
The OTC workshop is an optional addition to the conference and
will be held at The Meeting Space, Level 2, 148 Cuba St (entrance
off Garrett St) on Saturday 17 March from 9am to 4pm. The
workshop has been awarded 5.67 CD and 0.33 general credits.
Again, spaces are limited, so delegates need to book in advance if
they want to go.
For the conference proper, registration opens at 7.30am on
Sunday 18 March. Breakfast will be served from 8am with the
president’s welcome at 8.30am. Lectures begin at 8.30am, lunch at
12.20pm followed by the AGM at 1.20pm with lectures resuming
at 2pm. The educational part of the day finishes at 5pm with a
well-earned cocktail function at Mac’s!
The CCLS Conference has been awarded 1.486 CD and 4.126
general credits. For more information and to register, visit:
http://www.contactlens.org.nz/ccls-1-day-conference-18thmarch-2018/
As always NZ Optics will be supporting the event, so we look
forward to seeing you there.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
8 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

6
months
shelf life after
opening
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
9

SPECIAL FEATURE: CCLS 2018
CCLS 2018: OCT workshop
BY DR CHRIS MURPHY*
The optical coherence tomography (OCT)
workshop will give an overview of the main
areas when OCT is useful in optometry
practice. It will help optometrists to become more
confident in diagnosis and differentiating pathology
from the normal range and offer suggestions on if,
when and how quickly to refer.
The first session starts with an overview of the
fundamentals of OCT technology, including the
advantages of swept-source OCT.
Dr Jesse Gale will then provide a review of
the role of OCT in glaucoma diagnosis and
management. There is debate about the role
of glaucoma imaging tests in the community
optometry setting. For example, by scanning
all customers will we successfully screen for
glaucoma and prevent blindness or will we
generate a tsunami of ‘worried well’ with yellow
and red segments on their print-outs? These
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hospital eye services. Dr Gale hopes to emphasise
the clinical settings where a glaucoma scan
is useful before referral, as well as discuss the
merits of different glaucoma imaging tests,
leaving time to share some cases to illustrate
how best to collaborate between optometry and
ophthalmology on borderline cases.
I will then discuss reviews where OCT is helpful
in the anterior segment and anterior chamber
angle assessment as well as new uses of Avastin
in the management of anterior segment
neovascularisation.
After lunch, local VR surgeon Dr Keith Small
will explain the use of OCT in diagnosing and
managing vitreoretinal cases with examples.
Ending the day, therapeutic optometrist Richard
Johnson and Auckland-based ophthalmologist
Dr Andrew Riley will discuss OCT from a medical
retinal point of view. They will cover a large
range of cases where the use of OCT has assisted
the diagnosis and management of patients
with retinal
pathology.
The main
focus will be
on common
conditions,
such as
diabetes and
age-related
macular
degeneration,
Dr Chris Murphy
but will also
include some
of the newly described pathologies that have
come to light in the last few years since highresolution
OCTs have been utilised clinically.
Delegates are welcome to bring along any
cases they might like to discuss or would like an
opinion on.
*Dr Chris Murphy is a Hamilton-based ophthalmologist and
CCLS councillor.
Meet the speakers…
This year’s CCLS one-day conference once again promises some very
interesting topics delivered by some great speakers specialised in
cornea and contact lenses (CLs). Ella Ewens asked a few of the key
speakers at this year’s event about what they were presenting and
why and how they came to be involved in eye health.
Associate Professor
Jennifer Craig
Vice-chair TFOS DEWS II, Department of
Ophthalmology, University of Auckland
What is your main focus at this year’s
CCLS conference?
It will come as no surprise that dry eye disease
will be my main focus at CCLS this year.
Following publication of the TFOS DEWS
II consensus report in July 2017, I’m aiming
to provide some insight into how the latest
global evidence on dry eye disease is going
to affect New Zealand practice. I’ll describe
how epidemiological and pathophysiological
evidence over the last decade has influenced
the revision of the definition and classification
of dry eye disease and explain how this can
be used to improve our understanding of
individual patients in clinical practice and help
set realistic expectations with respect to their
dry eye management.
Except in the most severe cases, dry eye
disease is an area ideally suited to optometric
management and I’m proud that we have
practitioners with the desire to keep abreast of
the latest developments in the field so that they
can continue to offer patients optimal care.
How did you get into eye health and dry
eye?
Eyes have always fascinated me and optometry
offered me a way to follow my passion for
science, eyes and caring for people. The
opportunity for a research elective during my
undergraduate years, with then registrar Dr.
Charles McGhee, was instrumental in sparking
my interest in hospital optometry and clinical
research. Clinical experience had highlighted
to me how common dry eye was and yet
how poorly we were able to manage it. My
introduction to Professor Alan Tomlinson who
became my PhD supervisor and long-time
mentor, further
convinced me
that dry eye
disease was an
area in desperate
need of further
research and in
which I wanted
to try to make a
difference.
What drives
you?
For me, it’s about
A/Prof Jennifer Craig
improving the
care we provide
for patients with dry eye and this requires
sound scientific evidence to back up our
clinical decisions. My passion is in designing
and executing clinical and laboratory studies
that help provide the scientific evidence that’s
needed to reliably answer clinical questions and
ultimately offer patients better solutions for
managing their dry eye disease.
Professor
Heather Sheardown
Chair of ophthalmic biomaterials and drug
delivery, Department of Chemical Engineering,
McMaster Unversity, Ontario, Canada
What’s the focus of your talk at CCLS
2018?
Contact lenses and surfaces, including the
interactions of lenses with the tear and
lipid layers and friction. We have done work
modifying the surface of lens materials in an
attempt to minimise deleterious effects and
these modifications will be described.
The dropout rate for CLs is unacceptably
high. In many cases, end-of-day dryness and
Device Technologies
Device Technologies is introducing
several innovative advancements from
Topcon at CCLS NZ 2018. 1) Trend analysis
for the Maestro OCT’s unique ‘wide
scan’ encompassing macula, optic disc
and ganglion cell reporting, providing
normative data analysis for all these
segments from one scan in each eye; 2)
Hood glaucoma report with projected
visual field overlays and 9x9mm OCTangiography
for the Topcon Triton OCT
– Topcon’s OCT-A differentiates itself
by being lightning quick, having true
optical tracking, giving detailed data
from the choroid, penetrating through
most media opacities and at the same
time being very user friendly; and 3) The
Topcon CA-800 topographer, which is
continuing to increase in popularity as it
offers great value with pupil independent
infrared placido topography as well as
meibography and tear film breakup time.
discomfort are cited as reasons for these dropouts.
We are trying to decrease this dropout rate
through the modification of lens materials to
improve comfort, which in itself is a somewhat
subjective parameter.
What are you most looking forward to at
this year’s CCLS conference?
I always look forward to hearing about new
research and because this meeting is quite remote
for me, I anticipate there will be work that is
completely new to me and that is sure to spark
some ideas.
How did you get into your specialist area
of optometry?
I actually trained as a chemical engineer. My
interest in optometry developed through my
interest in
materials and
surfaces for use in
the eye. Contact
lenses are natural
materials to
study. Academic
researchers rarely
go beyond the
lab bench, but
we have been
actively trying to
move some of our
technologies out
of the academic
Professor Heather Sheardown
environment.
Alex Petty
Bay of Plenty-based optometrist and speciality CL
specialist and writer
What is the focus of your talk?
I will be exploring some of the different clinical
appearances and causes for epitheliopathy with a
range of cases and conditions, from the acute to
chronic, benign to concerning.
So much of what we do as optometrists and CL
fitters relies on monitoring corneal health. Being
aware of the nuances of corneal disease and defect
is crucial to managing these patients. With some
of the new CL modalities that we are using these
days we are seeing signs on the cornea that were
not seen a decade ago, so knowing what is normal
and what is not becomes very important.
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10 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

What attracted you to speciality CLs?
I studied
optometry for a
range of reasons:
I had exposure
to the profession
from childhood
due to my myopia;
the desire for a
science-rich career
with freedom to
not be on call or
be overly stressed
at work; and being
able to deal with
and help people
Alex Petty
each day was a big
draw-card.
I have always been interested in specialty contact
lenses, including orthokeratology and keratoconus.
My interest in myopia control came about because
I know first hand the problems that can result (for
me, three retinal detachments!) when myopia is left
to its own devices in a kid. These fields are quickly
advancing, helped by some incredible technology
advances, so it’s very interesting to be part of.
What drives you?
Other than golf you mean? I really like the feeling
you get when you make a genuine difference in
someone’s life; a patient with a new lens they can
now see with or the management of a painful eye
condition, for example. Helping colleagues with
advice or experiences that enables in some small way
to help their own patients is also really rewarding.
Hopefully I can keep experiencing this
satisfaction in optometry for many years to come!
Emilie Langley
Auckland-based optometrist and CL specialist
What are you discussing at this year’s CCLS
conference?
I’m presenting
the results of an
orthokeratology
regression study
that final year
optometry
students have
been performing
for three
consecutive years
as their final year
research project.
I was one of the Emilie Langley
students in the
first year of the study, supervised by Grant Watters
and Dr Wanda Lam, and supported by Dr Phil
Turnbull and many others.
We are continually learning more and more
about ortho-k and… regression rates still need
further research as we know that some corneas
bounce back quicker than others from treatment,
yet it’s currently difficult to predict for who as
there are many factors involved.
How did you get into optometry and CLs?
I remember sitting in the St David’s Lecture Theatre
in Otago and putting my friends new, black plastic
Kate Sylvester low minus spectacles on and being
absolutely blown away that they improved my
vision. This simple act was a turning point. I
was diagnosed with myopia… My interest was
heightened when I took a neuro-physiology paper
in the third year of my biomedical science degree
where we learnt about how the senses work.
That got me hooked on the visual system and led
me to apply for optometry… and then to myopia
control and therefore, contact lenses. I then started
working with Mortimer Hirst Optometrists (with
Grant Watters) and was exposed to an array of
weird and wonderful contact lens fittings.
What drives you?
I have a continual drive to learn more. I treat
each of my clients as if I was them, in the chair.
By putting myself in their shoes ensures I always
do my best and treat them with the respect and
dignity they deserve.
SPECIALITY CL FORUM
A VIEW FROM THE OTHERSIDE
At the end of last year, I was fortunate
enough to receive the Cornea and Contact
Lens Society (CCLS) Scholarship and so
embarked on an educational trip to learn more
about the manufacturing of rigid lenses and
how they can be modified with Corneal Lens
Corporation (CLC) in Christchurch.
For many years, I have been meaning to make
a trip down to visit Graeme Curtis and his worldclass
CLC laboratory. In fact, Graeme was one of
the first people who taught me about specialty
lenses during a seminar at University! I recall
several past conversations with colleagues from
earlier generations lamenting the challenges they
faced fitting specialty lenses – the inconsistencies
between different orders, the limited materials
and parameters available, the delay in receiving
a lens. So, I know we really have it good in today’s
world, where we expect a complex, yet completely
accurate lens design to arrive within just a few days
of ordering. So the scholarship and the trip was
the perfect opportunity to learn more about what
goes on behind the scenes at CLC, to improve my
understanding of specialty lenses and, ultimately,
the job I can do for my patients.
A bit of history
CLC first started making lenses in Christchurch in
1971 when Graeme’s father, Ed Curtis was at the
helm, and has always prided itself on staying at
the forefront of CL manufacturing and technology.
In the 80s, the original City Crown equipment
was upgraded to modern DAC International lathe
machines, allowing more complex and accurate
lenses to be cut. Further upgrades continued
following the disaster of the 2012 earthquake,
which required CLC and its once-related Curtis
Vision optometry practice to relocate to a modern,
purpose built two-level laboratory in Wigram.
For me, one of the coolest aspects of the CLC/
Curtis Vision set-up is they have the facilities for a
complex corneal patient to fly to Christchurch, have
a customised-scleral contact lens fitted all in the
same day. Incredible!
The company has been ISO accredited since 1995
and, in more recent times, has upgraded its lathes
to the newest DAC ALM units. A fifth lathe will be
installed in June 2018 to keep up with demand (who
ever said rigid lenses were dead?). The ALM units are
amazing to watch: the speed and precision of how
a lens is cut before your eyes is highly impressive.
One wonders how lenses ever got made back in the
day with only hand lathes available! These multitool
lathes use robotic loading and laser technology
and can cut to sub-micron levels of accuracy;
vital when dealing with complex orthokeratology
design from fussy practitioners like yours truly.
To complement the lathes, various production
systems have been developed to ensure accuracy
by limiting the handling of lenses by technicians.
This includes auto blockers, attaching the button of
contact lens material to the mount that the lathe
connects to; water-soluble blocking, to reduce the
use of solvents on the lens surfaces; interferometers
for checking lens power and imperfections; and
polishing systems that run with bladder tools rather
than the cruder original methods.
Some new developments
Recently CLC added the modern surface treatment
system HydraPEG to its offerings to provide
improved wetting surfaces for rigid materials.
HydraPEG creates a 40nm, hydrophilic, 90%-water
polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer coating to the
surface of a lens to improve end-of-day comfort 1 ,
decrease lens fogging and improve wettability.
Associate Professor Patrick “Pat” Caroline from
the Pacific University College of Optometry and the
Department of Ophthalmology at Oregon’s Health
& Sciences University, showed that HydraPEG
works for soft lenses too, improving comfort scores
for a group of dry eye patients in Oasys lenses 2 .
Personally, I have found HydraPEG ideal for those
patients with tear-film or dry eye issues and also
BY ALEX PETTY*
CLC’s main production room with four DAC ALM lathes. The tubes to the ceiling carry the polymer dust/fragments up into a back room for disposal
those with moderate allergic eye disease,
and a dry anterior lens surface that can
result when those atopic keratoconics
wear their lenses during all waking hours
can be alleviated with this coating. For
those, like me, who are a fan of regular
extra strength cleaning treatments like
Progent be aware, however, that these
cannot be used with a HydraPEG lens – it
will strip the coating right off.
There were several aspects of my visit to
CLC that I found particularly enlightening
and interesting. The first was the number
of steps that are involved in preparing
even a relatively simple RGP lens. Perhaps
I was foolishly naive but I had an idea
that once I had hit order in my lens
design software, all that would be
required would be for someone at CLC
to hit the big green ‘GO’ button and
The effect of HydraPEG on soft contact lens comfort in a dry eye cohort
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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bottle to improve ease-of-use, offering the blue tip technology designed to improve accuracy of
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March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
11

SPECIAL FEATURE: CCLS 2018
The process of tinting custom soft lenses. The vials on the back ledge are comparison lenses for matching particularly challenging patients
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
the lathe would spit out my lens, ready to be sent
up to my practice. Not so!
Contact lens manufacture is a complex process
with a number of crucial steps, each with a fine
margin for error. CLC employ 22 staff and a good
number of these are specialists at certain areas of
the lens manufacturing process, from the initial
lens design and programming of the parameters
into the DAC programme, all the way to final edging
and quality control. Seeing this in action gives me
a new respect and appreciation for the quality of
the finished product that ultimately we stake our
reputations on as contact lens fitters. Also, did you
know that soft lenses are cut from a rigid button
and only expand into their correct size and shape
once hydrated? Fascinating stuff!
Secondly, was watching the process of custom
tinting soft lenses. These low volume but highly
beneficial lenses are used by practitioners around
the country for a range of purposes including glare
reduction for patients with iris trauma, cosmetic
improvement for blind eyes with corneal opacity or
scarring and simple handling tints for aphakic babies.
The dye is applied to the completed clear soft
lens at various diameters and positions with a
special circular well-device to prevent bleeding of
the tint. Each colour and lens material has a special
recipe specifying how long the dye should be in
contact with the lens for the desired appearance.
This skill is something you can’t pick up from a
textbook and learn. The technicians creating these
lenses are as close as you can get to artists in the
contact lens world!
The lighter side of lens work
Graeme Curtis (top left) and the CLC team about to embark on an adrenaline filled ride after a busy 2017
A weekend away wouldn’t be complete without a
bit of fun. Graeme was kind enough to invite me
out for his team’s Christmas party: jet-boating up
the spectacular Waimakariri river (the birthplace of
the modern jet boat) in superb 30°C+ Canterbury
heat. Needless to say, the cooling spray from the
360° Hamilton turns were most welcome!
A huge thank you must go out to Graeme, Alan
and the rest of CLC team for being so welcoming
and giving up their time and expertise to teach me
a few things. It was clear from my visit that CLC go
to great lengths to support our profession and to
help our patients. Cheers guys!
And also thanks to the CCLS NZ committee for
deeming me worthy of the scholarship! It is great
that we have such a collegial group of interprofession
anterior eye people here in New Zealand
and I’m looking forward to catching up with you all
at the CCLS NZ one-day conference in March.
References
1. Walker M, Redfern R. Scleral lens surface coating improves
vision and comfort. Poster presented at the 8th International
Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), Sept 2016,
Montpellier, France.
2. Caroline P, Lampa M, Kinoshita B, Walker M, Andre M, Kojima
R, Zheng F. Hydra-PEG: A solution to contact lens discomfort,
Poster presented at 2015 GSLS conference, Las Vegas.
About the author:
*Alex Petty is a New Zealand optometrist based at Bay Eye
Care in Tauranga, with a particular interest and knowledge in
speciality contact lenses, ortho-k and myopia control. Alex will
be giving a talk about some of his more interesting cases at the
CCLS NZ one-day conference on 18 March in Wellington (see
p8-10, for more).
OptiMed
Visit OptiMed NZ at CCLS 2018 and see
what goodies Craig has on display! Front
and centre will be the REVO OCT by
Optopol, a world leading machine which
will give you quick, crisp images, now with
added features including optical biometry
and angiography. Don’t fret if you’re after
a product and it’s not on our stand, just
ask Craig or get in contact with OptiMed
NZ (see the OIG or ad on p13 for details).
With an integral event like CCLS you know
there will be some great deals to be had,
so come on down and see what we have
to offer!
Designs For Vision
Designs For Vision is looking forward to
an exciting 2018 with some new products
expected to deliver great results for
patients and providers. Dry eye treatment
will continue to be a strong growth area
and there is already a lot of interest
in the Eye-Light intense pulsed light
(IPL) system. Its gel-free, low-running
cost technology is unique in the field
and complements existing treatment
options. In the ophthalmic surgical area,
Rayner is rolling out more additions to its
RayOne preloaded IOL range including the
remarkable new trifocal lens, and Hoya
now has the Vivinex Toric IOL range.
A step-by-step guide to making a rigid lens
l The lens order is received and all
parameters, including front surface
curvatures and edge profiles, are
programmed in to the lathe software.
l The uncut lens button (the cylinder
of rigid lens material) is prepared
for cutting by firstly being precisely
attached onto the mount that the
lathe attaches to, otherwise known as
blocking.
l The posterior lens surface, including
the base curve, is cut first. The DAC ALM
lathe can rotate the lens at speeds up to
10,000RPM during cutting.
l The back surface is then polished
using special automated abrasive water
bladders to ensure even polishing and
no sharp surfaces.
l An inspection of the back surface is
made. If everything is satisfactory the
block is transferred to the other surface.
l The front surface is cut and any
laser engravings or axis markings are
accurately applied.
l The front surface is polished, six lenses
at a time. Different polishing machines
exist for corneal lenses and larger sclerals.
l The lens is removed from the block
and ultrasound cleaned.
l Centre thickness and power is
verified. If required, small changes to
power can be made with a manual
alteration tool.
l Image quality is then inspected with
aberrometry.
l Final edging and adjustments are
then done manually to finish the lens, if
required.
l After a short soak in wetting solution,
the lenses have a final inspection
before being passed along for plasma or
HydraPEG coating.
l Finally, the appropriate labels are
generated and the completed lens is
sent to customer services for shipping.
12 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

A site for sore eyes
CQ Hotel in Wellington has become New Zealand’s first hotel to be awarded a
‘Be. Accessible’ rating for the way it caters for physically, visually and audiblyimpaired
people. Jai Breitnauer checked it out.
The building housing Wellington’s Comfort and
Quality Hotel, or CQ Hotel, has a long history
of lending a helping hand. A character-packed
structure, in the heart of the capital’s vibrant Cuba
Street, the site was originally owned by Major James
Paul and his philanthropist daughter Annette, who
worked tirelessly with the Salvation Army to house
displaced women. They donated the site for the
building to the Paulina Resque Home in 1894, which
later became a Salvation Army ‘People’s Palace’, a safe
and alcohol-free hostel for travellers.
In 1990, the building was acquired by Port Nic
Properties, which gave it a full refurb, bringing it up
to earthquake safety standards. Further work was
then undertaken in 2005, when the company joined
the Choice Hotels chain to turn it into the world
class hotel and conference centre it is today. It’s ‘Be.
Accessible’ journey, however, began just a couple of
years ago when forward-thinking general manager,
Oliver Lacoua, felt CQ could take its mantra of quality
and comfort one step further and build on the site’s
philanthropic past.
The hotel is now completely fitted out for both
able-bodied guests and those with physical, auditory
and visual challenges to make their stay easier and
more comfortable. As well as a lower check-in desk
and accessible car park, there are nine rooms with
extra space and accessible ensuites. The hotel also
offers iBeacons, which enables mobile apps (both iOS
and Android) to understand their user’s position on
a micro-local scale and deliver contextual content to
them based on exactly where they are. The iBeacons
work with BlindSquare, a popular accessible GPS-app,
now being promoted by Wellington City Council, that
was specifically developed for the blind and visually
impaired to describe their environment, announce
points of interest and other things, such as shops and
street intersections (see box).
The hotel’s menu is currently being adapted to braille
and it’s working on introducing braille information
cards. For audibly-impaired guests, key staff have also
been trained in sign language. Staff have also had
special training to help customers with additional
needs in cases of an emergency, such as an earthquake.
The lifts go right to the car parking level, the conference
facilities are all on the ground floor and the public
areas are all fully accessible.
Although Lacoua has now moved on to pastures new,
the CQ is continuing its commitment to providing a
good quality service to people with disabilities and are
working on expanding the services they offer.
A comfortable, quiet and pleasant place to stay, in a
great location with exceptionally helpful staff, who go
that extra mile for people with disabilities, I couldn’t
recommend it more.
BlindSquare: the seeing app
BlindSquare is a new Wellington-based project that
is aimed at customers and visitors who are blind
or have low vision or a print disability. Using the
BlindSquare Event iPhone navigation app and Kontakt.
io beacons, the service helps visually impaired people
in Wellington explore the city with independence.
As app-users pass by shops and businesses that are
‘BlindSquare enabled’, the app provides a spoken
description of the business, including its name, what
goods or services it provides and the shop layout. The
app also provides users with other information such
as the names of the roads they are walking along, or
where the bus stops are. It does this by communicating
with the various beacons installed around the city and
at participating businesses.
For more information visit https://wellington.govt.nz/
services/community-and-culture/accessibility-services/
blindsquare-ibeacons
Wellington’s CQ Hotel now fully-equipped to help visually-impaired patrons
BOOK REVIEW
Ryan’s Retina, sixth edition
By Drs Andrew P. Schachat, Charles P. Wilkinson, David R. Hinton,
SriniVas R. Sadda and Peter Wiedemann
REVIEWED BY DR MONIKA PRADHAN*
Ryan’s Retina is recognised internationally as one
of the most comprehensive resources for the study
of retinal diseases and hence I approached this
textbook with excitement and eager anticipation.
True to its reputation, it did not disappoint and I
was soon engrossed in its crisp new pages.
Since Dr Stephen Ryan first published it in
1989, the authors have tried to produce new
editions every five years to keep up with the
rapid advancements in medical diagnosis and
treatment. This sixth edition has aimed to add
contemporary information with new chapters in
each section of the book while removing the more
dated aspects that have now become obsolete.
With 160 chapters over three volumes and 2681
pages, this is definitely not light bedtime reading.
However, as the authors propose, it encompasses
all aspects of retinal disorders, including retinal
imaging and diagnostics, basic science and
translation to therapy, medical retina and uveitis,
surgical retina and tumors of the retina, choroid
and vitreous. Over 300 retinal experts, from all
over the world, have contributed as authors. In
addition, there is a very handy eBook to entice
digital readers that can be accessed on multiple
devices and has additional online material
together with 40 videos.
There are beautiful illustrations and clinical
photographs included throughout the text,
complementing the subject matter. The imaging
section has been updated with the latest
diagnostic techniques including autofluorescence
imaging, OCT angiography, wide-field imaging
and even intraoperative OCT. The medical retina
volume is replete with the usual suspects such
as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic
retinopathy and retinal vascular diseases, but
also has some very interesting chapters on
rarer entities, such as drug toxicity, pregnancyrelated
retinal pathology and traumatic
chorioretinopathies. The surgical retina
chapters are
comprehensive,
highlighting
various
challenges
encountered
during
vitreoretinal surgery
and successful
strategies to manage them
effectively. While the
majority of the surgical
videos are of high quality and accompanied by
audio narration. I particularly found the videos
of transscleral resection of choroidal melanoma,
removal of a large intraocular glass foreign body
and implantation of an Argus II array in a patient
with rod-cone dystrophy quite fascinating.
My only minor criticism of this publication
would be that the uveitis section is slightly
lacking with the omission of a major entity
namely Behçets disease. Manifestations of newer
viral afflictions such as Ebola and Dengue are
also missing. In addition, a chapter on recent
developments in immunomodulatory treatments
would have been quite useful. However, it can be
argued that these topics would be more in the
domain of an exclusive uveitis text.
In summary, the sixth edition of Ryan’s Retina
is an excellent reference text for medical and
surgical retina specialists, trainees undertaking
retinal subspecialty fellowships as well as any
ophthalmologist wanting to quickly update their
knowledge on a particular retinal pathology. It
should certainly occupy a prime position in all
institutional ophthalmology libraries.
*Dr Monika Pradhan is a consultant ophthalmologist at
Greenlane Clinical Centre and the Manukau Superclinic
in Auckland, New Zealand, specialising in medical retina
and vitreoretinal surgery. She also practices at Eye Surgery
Associates in Auckland.
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
13

Focus
on Business
Health and safety update -
What you need to do
An optometrist or ophthalmologist’s
practice is a relatively low-risk business,
however, you have a duty to ensure
you can demonstrate that you have taken the
necessary steps to understand what the risks to
workers’ health and safety (H&S) are, and you
have a plan in place to manage this.
Implementing a HSMS
A requirement under the Health and Safety
at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) is to have a H&S
Management System (HSMS) in place. An
effective HSMS results from organisational
leadership and commitment. Everyone has a
duty to work safely, but you still need to manage
and coordinate the overall health and safety
programme of the organisation.
A HSMS is the framework for doing this and
needs to include the following key elements:
• Safety leadership and commitment – setting
out how you value safety, expectations and
accountability. This is the H&S policy which
needs to be signed by the owner/CEO and
displayed for all workers to see
• Risk and hazard management – your practice’s
process for hazard identification, risk assessment
and management of actual and potential
hazards. A risk register should be completed
detailing all the practice’s risks and potential
hazards and how they are being controlled
• Emergency procedures – a record of the
planning, training and testing (drills) for
potential emergencies that may arise
• Information, training and supervision – how
you support your employees to work safely. This
includes staff inductions, training registers and
documented, safe-work procedures
• Incident and accident reporting – how you
report and investigate incidents and accidents to
identify causes of harm and implement actions
to prevent similar events
• Injury management – the practice’s
documented processes for ensuring injured
persons are properly cared for
• Worker engagement and participation – how
you have involved your employees who are
exposed to the risks in managing those risks.
Includes appointing an effective H&S Committee
• Performance and measurement – to
demonstrate you know how your safety system
is performing and how your practice’s risks are
being managed
It is not necessary to invest in a specific HSMS
software application as the same results can be
achieved using Microsoft Word or Excel.
Hazard and risk management
The most critical element is effective hazard
and risk management. This is about identifying
hazards that have the potential to cause harm,
so are “risks” to your employees or visitors, how
you’ve managed to eliminate them or, at least,
what steps you’ve taken to reduce the risks. The
key stages in hazard and risk management are:
1. Identification of hazards
2. Assess the hazards’ risks
3. How the hazards’ risks are being controlled
4. Understanding and documenting the residual
risks of the hazards identified
5. Monitoring hazards and controls
6. Reviewing hazards and controls
Identifying hazards
The first step is to identify hazards. A simple
approach to this is a method called STEP: Site –
where you work; Task – what you do and how
you do it; Equipment – what you use or are
exposed to; and PPE, what protective equipment
or clothing is worn.
The most common hazards are:
• Manual handling – lifting objects, twisting
• Slips, trips and falls – bad housekeeping or a
poorly kept practice environment
• Falling objects – items falling from storage
racks etc.
• Cuts from equipment used or glass
BY LIAM DENTON*
• Breathing in dust, eg. when using grinding or
polishing equipment
• Eye injuries – particles from machine use
which get caught in the eye
• Fatigue – from working long hours
• Bullying / stress – ineffective employee
management or reporting structures
It is essential to engage your employees in the
process of identifying and managing hazards
and to encourage them to discuss any discomfort
they may experience when undertaking their
duties or carrying out their work.
Assessing the risks
After the hazards have been identified, you need
to assess each hazard to find out what risk it
may pose to workers. This means assessing the
probability (chance) and consequences (impact)
via a Risk Matrix.
Controlling the hazard risk
Once the hazards have been identified and their
risks assessed, you must decide which control
measures are most appropriate. The hierarchy of
controls is as follows:
1. Eliminate the hazard
2. Minimise the risk by:
a. Substituting the hazard with one less
harmful
b. Isolating the hazard from workers
c. Engineering controls such as guards, timelocks
etc.
3. If the risk is still present, then apply
administration controls such as:
a. Signage
b. Training / supervision
c. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
d. Inspections
4. If the risk remains then instigate the use of
personal protective equipment (PPE) eg. eye
protection, face masks, gloves etc.
Monitoring and review
Establish a H&S Committee that includes
employees and meets regularly (at least
quarterly) to review/investigate incidents, new
hazards, determine where controls are effective
and any other H&S matters.
Employees who work from home
Your practice also has a responsibility to ensure
that work done at home is done in a safe manner.
If the work being done is primarily on a computer,
then there should be a workspace, setup
appropriately for this to be done, reflecting the
same standard as if the employee was at work.
However, the practice’s responsibility doesn’t
extend beyond the employee’s home workspace
or to other activities carried out in the home.
Summary
While our working practices have changed in
many ways, it is still absolutely the case that the
responsibility for managing risk rests with those
who create the risk. Good H&S goes hand-inhand
with good business and organisational
performance and building a good H&S culture
in any organisation requires strong leadership.
Finally, workforce engagement and involvement
is essential to succeed in embedding H&S in the
fabric of an organisation.
For more on PPE eyewear see p18 and for a
lighter look at safety see Chalkeyes presents on
p22
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
*Liam Denton is a principal
at Safety Associates (www.
safetyassociates.co.nz) and a
member of the NZ Institute of
Safety Management. To get in
touch on any matters relating
to H&S call Liam on 0275 684
216 or email him at, liam@
safetyassociates.co.nz
AI and ophthalmology
BY DR SHENG CHIONG HONG*
From driverless cars to robot surgery, it’s clear
this is the dawn of the age of machines, and
medicine is becoming a primary focus for this
artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
In 2011, IBM (International Business Machines
Corp.) introduced IBM Watson Health, to
complement its first artificial question-answering
supercomputer Watson, combining AI, or machine
learning, and sophisticated analytical software.
Watson Health’s processing abilities encompass
a comprehensive package of cognitive healthcare
solutions utilising big health data, machine
learning and cloud analytics to provide what’s
now commonly called “precision medicine” –
the customisation of healthcare, with medical
decisions, treatments, practices and/or products
tailored to an individual patient.
Since then the number of companies and
researchers globally who participate in healthcare
machine learning has soared tremendously.
But, despite the rapid development and positive
publicity, this new smart health tech is still being
met with a degree of criticism and scepticism
among healthcare practitioners as there is very little
good quality, evidence-based results data available.
This is partly due to the lack of peer-reviewed
published evidence and deep learning (machine
creators’ attempts to mimic the thinking part of our
brains to produce ‘real’ AI) being labelled as “black
box” systems, ie. either they’re too complicated to
understand or consisting of proprietary algorithms
manufacturers refuse to share or explain.
AI and diabetic retinopathy detection
In 2016, Gulshan et al published a landmark paper
in the field of clinical artificial intelligence 1 . The
study, which was funded by Alphabet (Google’s
parent company), involved the development of a
deep learning algorithm for the detection of diabetic
retinopathy (DR) in retinal fundus photographs.
It used a clinical data set totalling 128,175 retinal
images, which were graded three to seven times for
diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular oedema and
image quality by a panel of 54 ophthalmologists and
senior ophthalmology residents.
The research team used Inception-v3 architecture
as their deep learning neural network. This was
“trained” to make predictions as to whether the
DR in the image was mild, moderate, severe or
proliferative DR. The resultant algorithm was then
validated with two separate data sets (EyePACS-1
and Messidor-2). Using the first operating cut
point with high specificity, the EyePACS-1 yielded
a sensitivity of 90.3% and specificity of 98.1%.
For Messidor-2, the sensitivity was 87% and the
specificity was 98.5%. Using a second operating
point with high sensitivity in the development
set for EyePACS-1, the sensitivity was 97.5% and
specificity was 93.4% and for Messidor-2, the
sensitivity was 96.1% and specificity was 93.9%.
Thus, the authors concluded the algorithm based
on deep machine learning had high sensitivity and
specificity for detecting referable DR.
The positive findings from this Google-funded
study have led to a major partnership being
formed between Verily (the life sciences division of
Google) and Nikon. The plan is to combine Nikon’s
Optos wide-field retinal imaging technology with
Verily’s machine-learning technology to develop
the next generation of affordable retinal cameras
incorporating diagnostic AI, and thus to be able to
diagnose DR and other retinal diseases far earlier
than is currently possible.
Google’s artificial intelligence is far from magic
or new, however. The concept of machine learning,
and more specifically deep learning, has been
around for over 30 years. But it’s only in the last
decade that computing power has actually been
up to the task, following the introduction of
powerful graphics processing units (GPUs).
Also Google is not alone in its focus on AI as the
way of the future, with other companies such as
Microsoft, Nvidia, IBM and Amazon introducing
GPUs into the cloud to enable better machine
learning.
In New Zealand, Dr Nishan Ramachandran and his
team evaluated a deep learning diabetic screening
system, Visiona Intelligent, with diabetic retinal
photos acquired from the Otago diabetic screening
database (485 photos) 2 . The Visiona Intelligent
system was developed by Visiona Medtech in Hong
Kong and was “trained” with a dataset of more
than 100,000 fundus photographs, with more than
30% graded as severe enough to be referred to
an ophthalmologist. The Visiona system was also
used to evaluate the Messidor database. Visiona’s
ability to detect referable DR was (area under curve)
0.901 for the Otago database and 0.98 for the
Messidor database, so the results were comparable
to the system developed by Google. However, the
AI – the next major technological disruption for ophthalmology and
optometry
system is not capable of more specific tasks such as
detecting other common ocular pathologies such as
vessel-occlusive diseases, macular degeneration or
glaucoma.
The use of convolutional neural networks
(CNN) in machine learning has been grabbing the
headlines globally. The idea of CNNs come from
experiments on cats’ visual cortexes, where it was
discovered that lower level neurons in the cortex
detect lower level features, while higher level
neurons in the cortex find higher level features.
This is how humans also classify images, by
learning different features through example.
At present, most machine learning is still
supervised learning, where we give a machine
labelled data, but it’s expected a time will come
when unsupervised learning will supersede
supervised learning, allowing machines to teach
themselves through experience.
AI and other eye diseases
Fundal photograph auto-diagnosis is not the only
domain where deep learning can tackle areas
efficiently. Several investigators have published
promising results with AI in other areas such as agerelated
macular degeneration AMD) and glaucoma.
Burlina et al published an abstract on the use of
deep learning for recognition of age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) 3 and presented on it at the 13th
International Symposium on Biomedical-Imaging in
Prague in 2016. In this study the AI neural network
was tested using over 5600 images from the US
National Institutes of Health Age-Related Eye Disease
Study (AREDS) dataset with preliminary results for
accuracy ranging between 92% and 95%.
Another deep learning and AMD study by the
ophthalmology department at the University of
Washington’s School of Medicine extracted 2.6
million OCT images from American electronic
medical records and used a total of 80,839 images
(41,074 from AMD and 39,765 from normal
patients) for training 4 . Again, investigators
reported a high accuracy of 93.45%, with a
sensitivity of 83.82% and a specificity of 96.40%.
An interesting and eye-catching system called
ALADDIN (automatic feature learning for glaucoma
detection based on deep learning) was developed
by a team from Singapore 5 . Led by Professor Tien
Yin Wong, the system was designed with a deep
learning framework designed to generate a multilayer
neural network of both linear and non-linear
transformations of the data to yield more abstract
and useful representations. The system was tested
extensively on the ORIGA and SCES datasets
with results showing area under curve (AUC)
of the receiver operating characteristic curve in
glaucoma detection of 0.838 and 0.898 in the two
databases, leading the authors to conclude that
the system performs better than present state-ofthe-art
algorithms and can be used for glaucoma
detection and diagnosis.
Asaoka et al published a paper on the use of deep
learning for detecting pre-perimetric glaucoma
with standard automated perimetry 6 . A total of 171
pre-perimetric glaucoma visual fields were obtained
and tested against 108 healthy visual fields. The
authors compared the results of deep feed-forward
neural network (FNN) with older machine learning
classifiers, such as random forests (RF), gradient
boosting, support vector machine (SVM) and neural
network (NN). The authors reported a 92.5% of AUC
value for deep FNN and concluded that the deep
learning training technique can distinguished preperimetric
glaucoma visual fields from health visual
fields with very high accuracy.
Another glaucoma detection system based on a
deep learning framework called Glaucoma-Deep
was published by Qairsar Abbas 7 . A total of 1200
retinal images were selected from both public
and private datasets (600 normal and 600 with
glaucoma). The author reported a high accuracy
of 99% with sensitivity of 84.5% and specificity of
98.01%. So far this is the only reported system with
the greatest performance in detecting glaucoma
based purely on retinal images.
Potential applications of deep learning
There are no limits to the types of conditions and
diagnoses that deep learning techniques can be
14 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

applied to. The same technology can be applied
to a variety of conditions such as retinopathy of
prematurity, retinitis pigmentosa, keratoconus
(corneal topography), vessel-occlusive diseases and
others. It can also be added to existing ophthalmic
systems, such as retinal cameras, corneal
topographers and OCT scanners.
The use of deep learning is also not limited to
image classification. It started off with numerical
analysis and is extremely useful in the analysis of
big data. From a numerical standpoint, optimising
biometry for cataract surgery is well within its
capability. Deep learning also has the potential to
outperform all existing methods of determining
optimal intra-ocular lens power and can be applied
to other predictive tasks, such as estimating the
individual risk of cataract surgery, progression of
disease or prognosis.
Another breakthrough in the use of deep
convolutional neural networks for image superresolution
is SRGAN, a generative adversarial
network (GAN) for image super-resolution (SR) 8 .
A highly challenging task of estimating a highresolution
image from its low-resolution counterpart
is referred to as super-resolution. For example,
researchers may have been given a dataset of clinical
images with lower resolution due to constrains such
as storage size and internet bandwidth. With SRGAN,
these images can be digitally optimised making
them hard to distinguish from the original RAW files.
SRGAN may also have a role in telemedicine, where
clinical images are usually compressed for digital
transfer to optimise speed.
For numerical and big data analysis, IBM’s Watson
offers a range of solutions on the cloud including
a capability for image classification, while Neural
Designer (Artificial Intelligence Techniques Ltd,
Spain), a desktop application, offers an advanced
analytics platform for dealing with big data without
programming or building block diagrams, though
has no image classification capability.
Public retinal image databases
There is no doubt that an important requirement for
deep learning is high quality data and a lot of it. The
accuracy of a deep neural network depends on three
major factors: the quality of the data, the quantity of
the data, and the types of training implemented.
Health technology and AI is becoming the new
gold rush, and good quality data can be more
valuable than gold. Fortunately, for beginners
who would like to start experimenting with deep
learning, there is now a large number of high
quality datasets available publicly (see Table 1).
New Zealand-Based Deep Learning Platform – MedicMind
It can be difficult for clinical
researchers to make use of deep
learning in their research since
conventional deep learning
frameworks such as Tensorflow,
Caffe, Theano and Torch
require advanced knowledge of
programming languages like C++
and Python. This would usually mean
the services of a software engineer,
or programmer with experience
in one of the above deep learning
frameworks, is needed who can be
expensive and hard to find. MedicMind, however,
offers a solution for clinical researchers with no
prior knowledge of programming or coding. It is
a free-to-use web-based system using Google’s
deep mind framework Tensorflow with the best
References
1. Gulshan v, Peng L, Coram M, et al. Development and Validation
of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Diabetic
Retinopathy in Retinal Fundus Photographs. JAMA. 2016; 316
(22): 2402-2410. Available from https://jamanetwork.com/
journals/jama/fullarticle/2588763
2. Ramachandran N, Hong SC, Sime MJ, Wilson G. Diabetic
Name Description Available from (website)
ORIGA
650 images acquired through the Singapore Malay Eye Study (SiMES), http://imed.nimte.ac.cn/Origa-650.html
includes 168 glaucomatous and 482 non-glaucoma images
High-resoltuon
fundus (HRF) image
database
15 images of healthy patients, 15 images of DR patients and 15 images of
glaucomatous patients
https://www5.cs.fau.de/research/data/fundus-images/
DRIVE
Messidor
40 images: 33 normal and seven with signs of mild/early diabetic
retinopathy
1200 retinal images graded for normal, DR and risk of diabetic macular
oedema
https://www.isi.uu.nl/Research/Databases/DRIVE/
download.php
http://www.adcis.net/en/Download-Third-Party/
Messidor.html
Messidor-2 An extension of the Messidor database, containing 1748 retinal images http://latim.univ-brest.fr/indexfce0.html
DIARETDB0 130 retinal images: 20 normal and 110 with signs of diabetic retinopathy http://www.it.lut.fi/project/imageret/diaretdb0/
STARE
400 retinal images with a large variety of diagnoses: emboli, retinal http://cecas.clemson.edu/~ahoover/stare/
vessel occlusive diseases, DR, hypertensive retinopathy and choroidal
neovascularisation
DIARETDB1
89 retinal images: 84 with at least mild non-proliferative signs of DR and http://www.it.lut.fi/project/imageret/diaretdb1/
five normal
EyePacs DR 35,126 retinal images from diabetic screening programmes https://www.kaggle.com/c/diabetic-retinopathydetection/data
Table 1. Publicly available retinal image databases
MedicMind is a web-based platform
for image classification using
Tensorflow deep learning framework
practice convolutional network,
Inception V-3. The user interface
has been designed to be as intuitive
as possible with a simple drag and
drop approach for importing image
datasets. Researchers can easily
develop state-of-the-art, deep
neural networks with the platform
with rich statistical analysis such
as specificity, sensitivity and ROC
curves. Statistics can also be easily
exported for use in research and
the deep neural network can be
shared and exported as an external web-based
app for external use, so a DR screening system
can be trained and developed for resource-limited
regions with minimal cost and time. MedicMind is
available from http://www.medicmind.tech/ ▀
Retinopathy Grading Using Deep Neural Network. Clinical and
Experimental Ophthalmology. 2017. doi:10.1111/ceo 13056.
Available from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/
ceo.13056/abstract
3. Burlina P, Freund D E, Joshi N, et al. Detection of age-related
macular degeneration via deep learning. 2016 IEEE 13th
International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI). 2016.
Access available from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/
document/7493240/?reload=true
4. Lee CS, Baughman DM, Lee AY. Deep Learning Is Effective for
Classifying Normal versus Age-related Macular Degeneration
OCT Images. Ophthalmology Retina. 2017; 1(4) : 322 – 327.
Available from http://www.ophthalmologyretina.org/article/
S2468-6530(16)30174-9/pdf
5. Chen X, Xu Y, Yan S et al. Automatic Feature Learning for
Glaucoma Detection Based on Deep Learning. International
Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer
Assisted Intervention. 2015. pp 669 – 677. Available from
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-24574-4_80
6. Asaoka R, Murata H, Araie M. Detecting Preperimetric Glaucoma
with Standard Automatic Perimetry Using a Deep Learning
Classifier. Ophthalmology. 2016. 123(9): 1974-1980. Available
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27395766
7. Abbas Q. Glaucoma-Deep : Detection of Glaucoma Eye Disease
on Retinal Fundus Images using Deep Learning. International
Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications. 2017;
8(6). Available from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fbc2/7038b
9c111dad2851397047c6230ece79c23.pdf
8. Ledig C, Theis L, Huszar F et al. Photo-Realistic Single Image
Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Network.
ARXIV. arXiv:1609.04802 Available from https://arxiv.org/
abs/1609.04802
About the author
*Dr Sheng Chiong Hong (better known
as Hong) is an ophthalmology registrar
at Dunedin Hospital and co-founder and
CEO of social eye care enterprise oDocs
Eye Care and medical technology firms
Vise Medic and Sober-Eye AV.
Rethink glaucoma management
The power of simplicity 1
Reference: 1. Allergan XEN directions for use.
The XEN ® Gel Implant is intended to reduce intraocular pressure in patients with primary open angle glaucoma where previous medical treatments have failed.
Always refer to full instructions before use. Adverse events should be reported to your local Allergan office, Australia 1800 252 224 or New Zealand 0800 659 912.
XEN ® is a registered trademark of AqueSys, Inc., an Allergan affiliate. Trademark of Allergan, Inc. ©2017 Allergan. All rights reserved. Allergan Australia Pty Ltd, 810 Pacific Highway,
Gordon NSW 2072. ABN 85 000 612 831. Allergan New Zealand Limited, Auckland. NZBN 9429 0321 20171. ANZ/0016/2017e. DA1731CB. Date of Preparation: October 2017.
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
15

for optometrists and eye care professionals
with
Professors Charles
McGhee & Dipika Patel
Series Editors
Ophthalmic drug development
BY DR ILVA RUPENTHAL*
Developing new drugs for the treatment of
ocular diseases can be a time-consuming
and costly undertaking. The trip from
laboratory to market can take anywhere between
10 to 20 years and will cost around US$1 billion.
Fig 1 outlines a breakdown of the 2013 United
States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Investigational New Drug Application (IND) filing
fees, estimated costs for each FDA approval phase
and the likelihood of advancement between
phases. As can be seen, most of the money is
spent during the drug discovery and pre-clinical
phases, with only five out of initially 5,000-10,000
screened compounds advancing into clinical trials,
of which only one may eventually be approved.
The initial discovery and development phase can
take anywhere between three to six years while
the majority of time is taken up by clinical trials
(six to seven years), before submitting a New
Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA (Fig 2). Overall,
the drug development process can be divided into
five steps 1 .
suitable molecules. Discoveries can also be made
when an existing treatment shows unexpected
effects. For example, patients on bimatoprost
(Lumigan) eye drops, a prostaglandin analogue
used in the treatment of open-angle glaucoma
and approved by the FDA in 2001, experienced
growth of longer, thicker and darker eye lashes
resulting in the approval of Latisse for cosmetic
purposes in 2008. Repurposing of an already
existing drug with proven safety is also generally
much faster and less costly.
While thousands of compounds may be potential
candidates for drug development, only a small
number actually proceed to preclinical studies.
Thus, once a promising candidate has been
identified, further experiments are performed
to elucidate the drug pharmacokinetics, the
exact mechanism of action, the best dose and
route for administration as well as any potential
adverse effects. Only if there is no toxicity and the
candidate shows clear advantages over current
drugs on the market, ie. a different mechanism of
action, less adverse effects or less frequent dosing,
should it proceed into preclinical studies.
Fig 1. Estimated non-capitalised costs for new drug development and advancement between FDA approval phases 2
(cell culture) and in vivo (animal) studies. Such
studies must be performed under good laboratory
practice (GLP) guidelines, setting minimum
requirements for personnel, equipment,
protocols, operating procedures, reports and
quality assurance. Pre-clinical studies are
generally small with often only six replicates per
treatment group. However, they must still provide
sufficient detail on dosing and toxicity before the
candidate can move into clinical trials.
One of the greatest challenges for translation
of a drug from the laboratory bench into humans
remains the poor correlation of pre-clinical
data with clinical trial results often due to the
different anatomy and physiology of most animal
eyes. Moreover, the majority of animal disease
models are acute and very homogenous while
the human condition is often chronic and can
vary significantly between patients. It is therefore
no surprise that a number of molecules having
shown great efficacy in animal studies end up
failing in clinical trials.
Step 3 – Clinical research
Drug is tested in humans to prove safety and
efficacy
While pre-clinical research can answer basic
questions about a drug’s safety and efficacy,
it is not a substitute for studying the drug’s
interactions with the human body. However,
before being allowed to start clinical trials, an
IND has to be submitted, including animal study
and toxicity data, manufacturing information,
clinical trial design, data from any prior human
research and information about the investigator.
The FDA then has 30 days to review and respond
to the IND submission. Clinical trials are designed
to answer specific research questions related to
the new drug and a number of critical aspects
such as patient selection criteria, participant
numbers, study duration, data to be collected and
how these will be analysed, need to be carefully
considered. Typically, clinical trials follow a series
from early, small-scale, Phase I studies to latestage,
large scale, Phase III studies followed by
even larger Phase IV trials after market approval
(Table 1).
impossible to have complete information about the
drug’s safety at the time of approval. Despite the
rigorous steps taken during the drug development
process, limitations exist. Therefore, the true picture
of a product’s safety generally evolves over months
and even years after marketing. The FDA reviews
any problem reports and can decide to add cautions
to the usage information or even withdraw the
product in case of more serious issues.
Generic drugs, new drug delivery systems
and natural health products
Newly approved drugs are generally patent
protected which means only the sponsor has
the right to market the drug. However, once
the patent expires – typically 20 years from
the earliest application filing date – other
drug manufacturers can develop a generic
version, which must have the same dosage
form, strength, safety, quality, performance
and intended use. If all of these are adhered to,
generic drug manufacturers only have to perform
bioequivalence studies instead of conducting
lengthy and costly clinical trials.
Already approved drugs may also be combined
with a new delivery system such as a sustained
release system, as is the case for the Ozurdex
dexamethasone implant. However, although
safety and efficacy of the incorporated drug have
already been demonstrated in numerous clinical
trials, the combination product is considered a
new entity and an additional IND has to be filed
before conducting further clinical trials. These
may be less extensive, but still mean many years
of development and additional costs, thus only
combination products that show clear advantages
over already approved formulations should be
further investigated.
In comparison to many other countries, natural
health products are currently unregulated in New
Zealand. While the Government and the Green
Party announced plans to develop a regulatory
scheme for natural health products to reduce risks
associated with unsafe ingredients, uncontrolled
health claims and poor manufacturing in 2009,
the Natural Health Products Bill has not been
reinstated by the new government so far.
I
Fig 2. Drug research and development process (IND: Investigational New Drug Application; NDA: New Drug Application; BLA: Biologics License
Application) 3 Table 1. Clinical trial phase overview 1
Step 1 – Discovery and development
Research for a new drug begins in the laboratory
Novel drugs are often discovered after new
insights into a disease process have been gained
allowing the researcher to design or screen for
Step 2 – Preclinical research
Drug undergoes laboratory and animal testing
Before advancing to clinical trials, researchers
must confirm there is no potential for the new
molecule to cause serious harm using in vitro
New OCT algorithm
A
new
technique for identifying and
diagnosing damage to the human retina
has been awarded ‘Best Student Paper’ at
the Bioimaging 2018 conference in Portugal.
Doctoral candidate Bashir Dodo, from Brunel
University London’s Department of Computer
Science, demonstrated a new algorithm
for optical coherence tomography (OCT)
equipment which
can automatically
segment images of
the retina into seven
distinct layers.
Whilst
ophthalmologists
are currently able
to identify the
layers manually
from OCT images,
Bashir Dodo
Bashir’s algorithm automatically segments
images of the retina, allowing specialists to
spot abnormalities quicker and better track the
progress of medication, he said. He hopes the
new technique will improve accuracy and speed
of diagnosis to help save sight by identifying
problems earlier. “Automatically segmenting
the layers could provide critical information
for abnormality detection by comparing them
to the average population and monitoring the
progress of disease against previous scans.”
II
III
IV
Step 4 – FDA review
Thorough examination of all submitted data
If pre-clinical and clinical research has shown a
drug is safe and effective for its intended use,
an NDA is submitted to the FDA, whose review
team thoroughly examines all the submitted
data before making a decision. The NDA has
to contain everything about the drug, from
preclinical data to Phase III trial results, as well
as information required for marketing such as
the proposed labelling and directions of use. If
the application is deemed complete during the
initial screening, the FDA has six to 10 months
to make a decision on whether to approve the
drug. In most cases, however, remaining issues
such as addressing specific questions based on
existing data or providing additional data, need
to be addressed before a drug can be approved. A
recent example in the ophthalmic field includes
the rejection of Dextenza (Ocular Therapeutix),
an intracanalicular dexamethasone insert
intended for the treatment of ocular pain and
inflammation following ophthalmic surgery, due
to deficiencies in manufacturing processes and
analytical testing. However, the company aims
to re-file the NDA in 2018 after addressing the
raised concerns.
Step 5 – Post-market safety monitoring
FDA monitoring of drug safety once available to
the public
Although clinical trials provide important
information on a drug’s efficacy and safety, it is
Final remarks
Looking at FDA approval numbers between 2012
and 2017 (584 in total), ophthalmic products only
made up a very small percentage (

Meet the … research charity
chairman
Cure Kids has invested millions of dollars in child health research over the past 45
years, including many projects relating to eye health, so we sent Jai Breitnauer to
meet executive chairman Roy Austin to find out what keeps this charity giving.
Most of the media seemed to be celebrating
John Key’s knighthood in last year’s Queen’s
Birthday Honours list, but among the
usual politicians and political party donators were
a number of worthy names, not least Roy Austin. A
quiet, unassuming financier and chairman of the
independent children’s medical research funding
organisation Cure Kids, Austin was awarded the
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
(CNZM) for services to children’s health and the
community.
“I’m humbled by the honour but, in my view, this
is recognition for the teams I’ve worked with,” he
said, when I met him in downtown Auckland for an
early-morning coffee. “I have enormous admiration
for all those who have contributed to children’s
health research. The staff, the board members,
the researchers and professors, the corporates and
philanthropists who back us, the mums and dads and
the kids themselves. The kids are the real heroes here.”
Austin has been involved with Cure Kids since 1994,
chairman since 1996 and executive chairman since
2006, but admits he’s been involved in community
projects most of his adult life.
“I’ve always been heavily involved in local projects.
My children went to the same schools I went to – my
grandchildren are there now. I sat on the boards and
helped raise money for the local area.”
Austin was born in Christchurch but moved to
Auckland’s Eastern suburbs at age six. Apart from a short
period living in Berlin, he has lived in Kohimarama for
most of his life.
As well as taking an active part in his kids’ school
community, he was also involved in the Rotary Club of
Remuera and was part of the team supporting paraathlete
neuroscientist, Dr William Tan, who was paralysed
by polio at age two, on his infamous North Island
wheelchair marathon to raise money and awareness for
diabetes research.
“My elder daughter had been diagnosed with Type 1
diabetes, so it was important to me personally,” explains
Austin. “It was a great experience. The Rotary Club
eventually raised over a million dollars. So, when I was
asked to join the board of the National Children’s Health
Research Foundation in 1994, I didn’t think twice.”
Embracing change
Originally founded by Rotary in 1971, today the
Foundation is better known as Cure Kids, a name change
implemented by Austin and other board members in
2006. Austin admits he had been quietly instigating
other changes in the organisation since he took over as
chairman in 1996. When he joined the board, he says,
he felt there had to be a better way to fundraise than to
simply rely on public donations.
“We set up four paediatric health chairs at three
universities: one in Otago, one in Christchurch and two
in Auckland.” This was done in partnership with the
universities, explains Austin. “Similar to an endowment
policy, a lump sum provided by Cure Kids was invested
to provide a steady income for research in the future. It
made sense for the universities to match this funding as
it secured an annual investment into research, and the
brilliant academics could focus on their work instead of
worrying about being funded the next year.”
Despite this success, public donations still couldn’t keep
up with demand for research grants in other areas and
Austin realised more change was needed.
“Leverage, leverage, leverage. All my thinking was
directed by that,” he says. “For every dollar we got, I asked
how could we double it for research? I realised we had
a key asset that no one had looked into and that was
intellectual property (IP).”
In the early-1990s, the National Children’s Health
Research Foundation had undertaken a little-known piece
of research that identified the A1 type of beta casein
predominantly found in cow’s milk and found it may be
Cure Kids executive chairman Roy Austin CNZM
a risk factor for heart disease and was linked to insulin
dependent diabetes in children. Less common A2 milk did
not carry these apparent risks.
“A well-known businessman approached us to sell
that IP to him,” says Austin. “The sale eventually raised a
significant amount for Cure Kids – millions of dollars – and
changed our thinking around fundraising.”
Cure Kids entered into IP partnership agreements
with the universities undertaking Cure Kids investment
research, allowing the organisation to leverage its value to
fund further research.
The business of research
When the government established the New Zealand Seed
Co-investment Fund in 2006 (SCIF), Cure Kids applied to
become a partner, creating a seed co-investment capital
fund worth $8 million under the umbrella of Cure Kids
Ventures and funded by the A2 milk IP sale. To date, the
fund has invested in eight different companies focused on
child health research potential breakthroughs from asthma
medication compliance to growing a child’s own skin cells
for grafts.
This strategy was not without criticism.
“People asked me, ‘is it really the place of a charity to
invest in business?’” says Austin. “But this model enables
us to access new sources of commercial funding for
investment via financial partners. Investment is not a dirty
word. You are still investing into child health research,
and under a corporate structure there is greater access to
investment funds.”
Under Austin’s leadership, Cure Kids has become one of
the largest funders of child health research in New Zealand.
In the optics field in 2016, the Cure Kids Innovation Seed
Fund invested in Professor Steven Dakin’s research into
autism spectrum disorder and eye movements at the
School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of
Auckland. Professor Dakin also received two seed grants in
2014 for his work around amblyopia.
The real focus is always the children; the kids who suffer
from the many conditions Cure Kids-funded research is
aiming to help, says Austin. “These children remind us
constantly of the important work we are funding and their
strength keeps us going. I just feel so blessed to have been
involved for the last 23 years. You see some of these kids
and you think, ‘wow’.
They deserve a healthy
life and it’s our job to
make it happen.” ▀
Focus on
Eye Research
Glaucoma and IOP, Xen and
nocturnal blood pressure
EFFICACY, SAFETY AND RISK FACTORS
FOR FAILURE OF XEN GEL MICROSTENT
IMPLANTATION VERSUS STANDALONE
TRABECULECTOMY
Schlenker MB, Gulamhusein H, Hengerer
IC et al
Ophthalmology 2017;124:1579-1588
The Xen gel stent is a new procedure that
has recently become available in New
Zealand and is considered an alternative
option to trabeculectomy. The purpose
of this study was to evaluate the efficacy,
safety and risk factors for failure of Xen
versus trabeculectomy. An international
multicentre retrospective interventional
cohort study was performed. Patients had
open angle glaucoma and uncontrolled IOP
despite maximum medical therapy, and no
previous surgery.
There were 354 eyes of 293 patients
included in the study. The primary outcome
measure was the failure rate between
the two groups – defined as an IOP of 17 mmHg without glaucoma
medication at least one month after
surgery. The study also looked at ‘qualified
success’ defined as an IOP between 6 and
21 mmHg with medication.
No significant difference in failure rate
between the two procedures was identified
(Hazards ratio 1.2, 95% CI 0.7-2.0). This was
also the case for qualified success (HR 1.3,
CI 0.6-2.8). The time to 25% failure was
also not significantly different between
the groups. Diabetes was the only factor
significantly associated with failure, while
Caucasian ethnicity was associated with
a decreased risk of failure. Complications
were mostly transient, occuring in 9% of
Xen and 16% of trab patients. Post op.
interventions such as bleb needling were
common, occuring in 43% of Xen and 31%
of trab patients.
Comment: The proposed advantages of
Xen include reduced surgical time, reduced
risk of complications and more rapid
visual recovery. This study suggests both
procedures are similar in their efficacy over
the duration of this study and the safety
profile is also similar although there was
a slightly lower rate of complications for
Xen. Further randomised clinical trials
are, however, needed as well as studies
to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Xen
versus trabeculectomy.
For more about Xen in practice see the
December issue of NZ Optics.
GLAUCOMATOUS OPTIC NEUROPATHY
ASSOCIATED WITH NOCTURNAL DIP IN
BLOOD PRESSURE
Melgarejo JD, Lee HJ, Petitto M, et al
Ophthalmology 2018 (in press)
The purpose of this study was to determine
if noctural blood pressure (BP) is associated
with an increased risk of glaucoma. An
observational cross-sectional study was
performed involving a subset of participants
from the Maracaibo Aging Study. These
participants had to be at least 40 years of
age, and had measurements including OCT,
visual field (VF) testing, IOP 20% compared to daytime BP)
in night time systolic and diastolic BP was
identified as the significant risk factor for
glaucomatous damage (odds ratio 19.8 and
5.5 respectively).
Hence the results of this study suggest that
the link between nocturnal BP and GON is
due to extreme dipping in BP rather than
low nocturnal BP levels alone.
Comment: The results of this study support
the hypothesis that significant nocturnal
dips in BP are a risk factor for glaucoma.
Hence individuals at risk of nocturnal dips
in BP do need to be assessed and monitored
for glaucoma. Timing of antihypertensive
intake to avoid nocturnal dips would also
be advised. Patients already diagnosed with
normal-tension glaucoma and who are
progressing, may need to undergo 24-hour
BP monitoring to determine if nocturnal
dips in BP is a contributing factor.
VARIATION IN IOP AND THE RISK OF
DEVELOPING OAG: THE LOS ANGELES
LATINO EYE STUDY
Jiang X, Torres M, Varma R
American Journal of Ophthalmology 2018
(in Press)
The purpose of this study was to determine
whether measures of intraocular pressure
(IOP) variation are independently
associated with the risk of developing
open angle glaucoma (OAG). This was part
of a population-based, longitudinal study
involving 3666 individuals with no history
of OAG at baseline and followed up four
years later.
Maximum IOP, standard deviation (SD)
of IOP, range of IOP and mean IOP were
derived from participants after taking
several measurements at multiple visits.
OAG diagnosis was based on the consensus
of experts who had access to all clinical
examination data (including stereoscopic
fundus images and visual field testing).
Multivariate logistic regression analysis was
also performed.
The incidence of OAG occurred in 73 study
participants over the four years. The three
measures of IOP variation (maximum IOP,
SD and range of IOP) were all identified to
be independently associated with the risk of
developing OAG. This was still the case when
participants were separated into those with
a mean IOP of less than 15 mmHg and those
with 15 mmHg or higher. Mean IOP was
associated with OAG risk only in those with
higher IOPs and not in those with lower IOPs.
Maximum IOP was identified to be the most
significant predictor of OAG.
Comment: This study suggests that
variations in IOP and in particular
maximum IOP are damaging to the optic
nerve and are independent risk factors
for glaucoma. This highlights the value of
measuring IOP variation (with day phasing
or the water drinking test) as part of the
work up of glaucoma suspects. This may
also be useful in patients with glaucoma
progression as it is likely IOP variation also
plays a role here. ▀
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
*Dr Hussain Patel specialises in glaucoma and cataract
surgery and is a consultant ophthalmologist at
Greenlane Clinical Centre, Auckland District Health
Board and a
senior lecturer in
ophthalmology at
the University of
Auckland. He also
works in private
practice at Eye
Surgery Associates,
Auckland, and
Hamilton Eye
Clinic.
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
17

Myths, mysteries and eye protection
BY ANNETTE HOSKIN*
If you had to choose to keep one of your five
senses, which one would it be? A recent survey
found most people indicated their vision was
the most valuable of their senses. Despite this,
eye injuries are still a common occurrence with
more than 55 million people suffering a potentially
vision threatening eye injury every year. Yet 90%
of these injuries are preventable with the right
eye protection. Eye injuries represent a significant
burden not only to the individual, but also to
industry and the community.
A review from Waikato Hospital (Pandita,
2012) found young males at work or outdoors
had the highest risk of eye injuries. Work-related
equipment was found to be a major contributor
including lawn moving, farm fencing, hammering,
chain sawing, tree pruning and grinding. While
sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite were
responsible for several eye injuries in the study.
Both are commonly used chemicals in oil refining,
hydraulic fracturing, water treatment, metal
processing and in cleaning agents such as oven
and drain cleaner.
Eye injuries at work
Eye injuries in the workplace come at a high
cost, not only for workers but also the employer,
the community and the injured person’s family.
Workplace-related injuries are a common cause
of lost days at work, reduced productivity and
medical and workers’ compensation costs.
Many occupations are particularly high risk for
eye injuries, including mining, manufacturing,
construction, agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Injuries commonly occur when operating
mechanical equipment which can generate
foreign bodies traveling at high speed that become
embedded in the eye. Chemical splashes and spills
as well as radiation sources are also common
hazards.
But work’s not the only problem
An increasing number of eye injuries occur at
home and on the weekends while playing sports
or doing DIY. Everyone needs to ensure they are
protected from hazards around the home, such
as cleaning chemicals and high-speed particles
from machinery. It’s also important to ensure
children are protected from these hazards – don’t
let children near machinery such as whipper
snippers and lawnmowers, for example, because
of the potential for stones and other sharp objects
to be thrown up. Sports with bats and balls such
as tennis, squash and cricket are commonly
associated with eye injuries and could be
prevented by the right eye protection.
What type of eye protection is best?
Different environments and tasks require different
types of personal protective equipment (PPE)
and eye protection is no exception. Ensuring eye
protection meets the individual needs of each
wearer is essential. Not surprisingly, eye injuries
can still occur if people are wearing the wrong type
or fit of eye protection. Choice is critical to ensure
adequate eye protection and optimal vision to
suit the needs of the individual in their activities.
2018
SAVE THE DATE
EDITION 2018
28 TH SEPTEMBER-1 ST OCTOBER
18 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018
silmoparis.com
Optometrists and optical
dispensers can play a key
role in advising on the best
type of eye protection.
In this part of the world,
eye protection must meet
the Australian New Zealand
Standard AS/NZS1337.1,
and for most hazards,
medium-impact protection
is a good choice for all
round protection. People
requiring a prescription
for good vision can also
purchase the right type of
eye protection, with eye
protection made specific
to their prescription and
meeting the prescription
standard (AS/NZS1337.6).
Employees should be
shown how to fit and
use their PPE correctly as
well. Table 1. is an excerpt
from AS/NZS1336 that
provides a summary of
some eye hazards and the
appropriate eye protection
choices*. Where mediumimpact
protection is
specified, eye protectors
will incorporate lateral
protection into the frame
or lenses or permanently attached side shields. Fit
and coverage is critical and should be checked to
ensure adequate level of protection from hazards.
Good vision for safety
For patients requiring spectacle correction, many
options are available. The best option for vision, fit,
comfort and coverage is custom-made prescription
eye protection that complies with AS1337.6.
Vision plays a critical role in every part of our lives.
Studies have shown people with uncorrected or
reduced vision are more than 60% more likely
to have an occupational injury. With the aging
workforce, it is important to ensure their distance
and near visual needs are met with the best
prescription eye protection.
Contact lenses can be worn in most
circumstances when accompanied by the
appropriate eye protection, but should never
be considered as a form of eye protection. In
some industrial situations, such as when dust or
harmful liquids or gases are present, there may
be additional consequences if eye protection fails
when contact lenses are worn.
Do I need certified eye protection?
Certified eye protection provides the best
guarantee of protection. Certified products are
regularly tested for optical, transmittance and
impact qualities with manufacturing of the
frames, lenses and complete products regularly
audited to ensure protective characteristics and
quality are maintained.
Can I wear my regular specs or sunnies?
Ordinary sunglasses or regular spectacles are
not the correct or recommended
eyewear in places where hazards
exist, not just because they don’t
protect your eyes but also because of
the potential added hazard from the
lenses breaking. Eye protection can,
however, also provide protection from
ultraviolet (UV), so sunglasses can’t
be eye protectors but eye protectors
can be sunglasses.
The importance of UV
protection
With some of the highest rates of sun
cancer in the world, when spending
long hours in the New Zealand sun,
protection from UV light is critical.
Exposure to the sun’s UV rays has
been linked to cataracts, macular
degeneration, pinguecula, pterygia
and photokeratitis. Outdoors workers
should be encouraged to slip, slop,
slap and slide on a pair of eye
protection goggles, which incorporate
UV and glare protection.
What you can do!
Optometrists, ophthalmologists,
orthoptists and dispensers play
an important role in preventing
eye injuries. By understanding the
potential hazards their patients
may be exposed to, both at work
The right eye protection for work and life is critical to reducing eye injuries
and during recreation and leisure time, they can
prescribe the right level of eye protection. When
dispensing eye protection, it is critical to ensure
the frame and lens provide adequate protection
and the gaps between the frame and the face are
minimised. A comfortable and secure fit will help
ensure protection and compliance with the eye
protection programme.
Activity or Process Hazard Possible methods
of control
Manual chipping,
hammering, riveting
Machine cutting,
grinding of metals
Flying fragments, low
velocity, low mass
Small particles with
medium to high
velocity
Regular eye examinations provide the perfect
opportunity to assess the adequateness of eye
protection. Individuals should be encouraged to
bring all their glasses when attending an eye exam
so practitioners can inspect their eye protection
as well as their regular spectacles. With age and
accidental damage, eye protectors can deteriorate.
Air-born chemicals and commonly used substances
such as sunscreen, can damage the frame and
lenses. It is generally recommended that eye
protectors be replaced every two years unless
evaluated as satisfactory for continued use.
Eye protection represents a great opportunity
to increase your primary health care role with
patients and work more closely with industry to
promote eye injury prevention. When discussing
patients visual needs, it’s a great opening to
understand the hazards they may be exposed to at
work, during their leisure time and at home, and
promote the need for correct eye protection.
*To purchase a copy of the full standard, please go
to http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/
Fixed or mobile
screens
Fixed or mobile
screens, dust
extractors
Suitable eye protection
Low-impact eye protection
Medium-impact eye
protectors, etched with an
“I” or “F”. High-impact face
shields, etched with a “V”
Outdoor workers Ultraviolet light Shade structures Tinted or outdoor untinted,
etched with “O”
Horticulture and
gardening, including
lawn mowing, wiper
snipper’s, edger’s
NB. Both user and
spectators are at risk
Chemical processes
eg. spray painting
Chemical processes
eg. cleaning solutions
incorporating alkali
Medical and
veterinary hazards
Laser based surgical
and cosmetic
procedures e.g. laser
hair removal
Non-ionizing radiation
eg. welding, furnace
work
Flying fragments, high
velocity, low mass.
Sunglare
Guards on equipment
Medium-impact eye
protectors, etched with an
“I” or “F”.
High-impact face shields,
etched with a “V”. Tinted or
outdoor untinted, etched
with “O”
Gases, vapours Exhaust systems Gas-resistant goggles,
etched with “G”
Liquid splashes Splashguards Splash resistant goggles,
etched with “C”. Face
shields (used in addition to
goggles)
Biological splash,
droplet infection, direct
contamination
Optical and thermal
hazards
Non-ionizing radiation
Table 1. A summary of eye hazards and appropriate eye protection
Administrative
controls and physical
barriers
Physical barriers
Welding screens
complying with AS/
NZS3597
Splash resistant (indirectly
vented) goggles, etched
with “C”. Face shields (used
in addition to goggles)
Refer to AS1337.4 (10) and
AS1337.5(11)
Refer to AS/NZS1338 .1(12)
and AS/NZS1338.2(13) or
AS/NZS1338.3(14)
About the author
*Annette Hoskin is an optometrist,
commercial scientist and researcher
based in Perth, with a special interest
in safety innovation and compliance
standards for eyewear. She’s Optometry
Australia’s representative on Standard
Australia’s eye protection committee
and sits on the International
Organisation for Standardization
Annette Hoskin
(ISO) committees TC94 and 172. She is
working towards a PhD on the incidence
and epidemiology of eye injury prevention with the Save Sight
Institute and the Lions Eye Institute at the University of Western
Australia and is research and development manager with Shamir
Australia. She was also recently awarded a NHMRC Public Health
Dora Lush Postgraduate Scholarship to further her work in 2018.

Cutting it in today’s optical retail world
BY JUANITA NEVILLE-TE RITO*
As both retailers and customers, I think many
of us recognise there has been a significant
upheaval in the world of retail over the past
decade.
Retail is cut-throat. Our mobile-first shoppers can
access anything with a swipe, click or Google to
help guide their decisions and choices. So, retail is
no longer one-dimensional. It’s now comprised of
a whole ecosystem of virtual, digital, physical and
social expressions about your offerings.
Amongst all this noise and chaos, today’s
consumers do not buy just products and services
anymore. Their purchase decisions now revolve far
more around buying into an idea and an experience.
Shoppers can be irrational and unpredictable,
but they do crave rich, seamless, engaging and
frictionless experiences. They want to touch, feel,
taste, smell and interact with what they are buying
or who they are buying from. They want to engage,
and be engaged, at a personal level.
Optical retailing is a category which, in
some quarters, has lost its mojo. But in others,
evolving optical retailers are cleverly adapting
their businesses to connect with their shopper’s
hearts, imaginations and their wallets. They have
embraced today’s retail trends, maximizing their
customers’ total retail experience, embracing social
community, providing enriched experiences and
clever personalisation tactics, all backed up by the
latest technology and data.
Here’s a few examples of those doing it well to
illustrate what I mean.
Kite: an eyewear boutique
London’s Kite store has changed the way we look
for eyewear and the typical experience of going to
the optometrists. Born from both a love for fashion
and eye care, and the desire to create a new breed
of optometrists that delivers the best of both,
Kite’s focus is on making a trip to the optometrist’s
fun and pleasurable. As one retail magazine put it,
more akin to shopping for new shoes, than visiting
a healthcare provider.
Kite has designed a cool, colourful boutique
that fuses fashion, personal feel, good service and
expert eye care into one in-store experience, that
is both relaxed and professional. Staff project a
friendly, non-pressure vibe. Walking through the
doors, you feel less like a customer and more like a
friend coming to hang out.
The Kite kiosk is a multi-touch display which
allows you to take #specselfies with your favourite
Kite eyewear on and instantly share these with
your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram to see what they think. It’s just as
refreshing as the carrot juice they offer on arrival.
Different frame styles have been put into
sections and all have their own unique postcard
with their name and a brief description of the
glasses, size and extensive number of colours
available. Wave that postcard in front of Kite’s
frame stylist and they will know exactly what
you want. Plus, all the styles are displayed in both
optical and sunglass versions.
Kite: appealing to younger consumers
Consumer trends for 2018
BY SUSANNE BRADLEY
Despite a strengthening global economy
and consumer expenditure expected
to grow at its strongest rate since
2011, shifting consumer attitudes and
behaviours, together with improved mobile
technology and internet access, will continue
to cause disruption for retail businesses in
2018, says global market intelligence agency
Euromonitor International.
Its recently released report, the Top 10
Global Consumer Trends for 2018, identifies
sharing and renting, not ownership, as a
key trend, while ‘hashtag’ activism has led to
unprecedent consumer power forcing businesses to
re-think their branding and marketing strategies.
Sharing services, particularly, are expected to
soar in 2018, says report author Alison Angus,
Euromonitor’s head of lifestyles. One of the many
examples of this is the still relatively new pay-as
you-wear designer outfit rental service, Style Trial,
offered by one London Westfield shopping centre.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, anyone living in or
visiting Auckland this summer would have been
hard pressed not to notice the new, privately-run
Onzo bike sharing trial.
The rise of augmented reality (AR), blending the
digital world with the real world around us, is also
expected to go mainstream in 2018, increasingly
affecting how consumers seek and shop for
products. AR technology, now available on newer
smartphones, allows consumers to virtually try
products before buying online or in-store. And
this is happening already, says Angus, naming the
Sephora AR app, which lets people virtually test
beauty products, and the Dulux Visualiser app,
allowing you to see what your painted walls could
Onzo bikes demonstrating our growing love of sharing
AR blending the real and digital world
look like, as examples.
With AR, online shoppers will have a more
realistic view of the item they are researching and
may, consequently, be more likely to complete
the purchase online, she says. She expects return
rates for online businesses which offer AR tools
to reduce as a result. Consumers will also actively
begin to look for brands which have AR apps,
she adds, so they can experience products, like
eyewear better from the comfort of their own
living rooms, sharing what they find and gaining
feedback from their peers online.
Another trend gaining in popularity, according
to Angus, is on-demand solutions for our hectic
and mobile lifestyles, with the take up of those
solutions driven by our increasing desire to
cut costs, save time and live more freely, while
attempting to be as eco-friendly as possible.
Our love of personalisation is continuing to
push customisation to new levels. Companies
like Converse and Nike, for example, now invite
consumers to take part in the creative process.
Understanding and thus communicating the
journey of a product is also a growing trend so
consumers are more likely to trust the brand
and be more comfortable with the end result.
While a new wave of companies aims to provide
consumers with genetic findings related to their
general health, fitness and nutrition.
Euromonitor’s report doesn’t specifically advise
what retailers should be doing to be successful in
today’s demanding market but, reading between
the lines, embracing technology, having a multichannel
retail environment and giving consumers
the opportunity to connect with your brand,
and perhaps even influence the creative design
process, should set you on the right path. ▀
This is a game-changing
experience creating a
destination that draws
people in, encourages them
to linger longer and have fun
with the products.
Warby Parker: the total
retail experience
Total retail is retail that
is delivered nimbly,
seamlessly and holistically.
An ecosystem delivering
frictionless shopping
experiences across many
touchpoints. It is an
elegant and engaging retail
approach that makes a lot of
money, often by employing
an in-store experience built around the mobile
and digitally-connected consumer. This panders
to the tech-savvy’s consumer’s need to research
online and purchase in-store, or “touch and feel”
the merchandise in the store and then purchase
online later.
Warby Parker, embraces the total retail concept
elegantly. It is a distinctive technology-based
lifestyle brand that is becoming a major disruptor
in the eyewear category. By designing and
manufacturing their own frames and selling them
directly to consumers, they’re able to charge as
little as $95 per frame. A fraction of what a similar
pair of glasses would cost at a competitor’s store,
especially as the price includes prescription lenses,
shipping and a donation to a not-for-profit.
What makes Warby Parker stores remarkable is
they break many of the traditional retail rules. The
company sees its stores as giant advertisements
to connect the Warby Parker brand with shoppers.
This experiential hub is working, with the third best
sales per square metre recorded internationally,
lagging only behind Apple and Tiffany!
At a Warby Parker store, you are greeted as you
cross the threshold. Their staff recognise that if
there isn’t a warm welcome, there may never be a
customer journey. Warby Parker stores also have
a “mirrored layout,” where every frame displayed
on the left wall is also displayed on the right. This
sacrifices close to 50% of the store’s prime space but
keeps customers from having to jostle with each
other to look at or try on a particular pair of frames.
Toyshades: toying with you
Founded in 2013, Toyshades offers a stylish
simplicity to eyewear retailing and a new and
innovative approach to product design and
pricing. The company’s aim is “to create affordable
Toyshades: a simple, direct approach
For more
personalised
eye care, talk to
Eye Surgery
Associates
SERVICES INCLUDE:
• Cataract surgery specialists
• Glaucoma
• Medical & Surgical Retina
• Acute & General Ophthalmology
Clinics on the North Shore,
Central and South Auckland
Warby Parker: an elegant approach
Phone 0800 750 750 or Fax 09 282 4148
info@eyesurgeryassociates.co.nz
www.eyesurgeryassociates.co.nz
Eye Surgery Associates are a Southern Cross Health Society Affiliated Provider
eyewear that is fashion-forward without the heavy
price tag”. Its distribution model includes not only
online, but concession stores in the likes of popular
fashion retailer Topshop.
By making the price accessible, Toyshades is
making plano glasses a fashion accessory. You
wouldn’t walk into an optometrists and think,
‘today, I’m going to try on a pair of clear lens
glasses even though I have perfect vision’. But in
Topshop, it’s a no-brainer: you put them on, you
look good, and they’re just £20.
For those who do actually require prescription
lenses in their new glasses, the BYOP (bring-yourown-prescription)
service costs £40, and Toyshades
claims it can have frames ready in just one hour.
Setting the bar higher
Smart, slick, international competitors are landing
on our shores in droves and online shopping, social
media, shopper savviness and the proliferation of
choice means the bar has never been higher. And
guess what? It is still going up.
The retailers explored in this article are great
examples that you don’t have to have a one-sizefits-all
approach. By understanding your customer
better, ensuring the user experience is seamless
and having an authenticity and truth to your own
business story, will make all the difference.
Here are three things to explore in your own
business to help evolve it into a compelling and
relevant offer for your customers and potential
customers:
1) Be uncomplicated – Have a clear proposition
and tell that story: Why should I choose you over
every other retailer that operates in your category?
2) Be distinctive – What makes you so special?
If I can buy it somewhere else for cheaper, what
else do you offer that means I should choose you
(eg. curation, depth of range, best array of quality,
more colours, exclusives, service)
3) Get personal – Truly understand that a
customer likes to feel individual and important.
Treat them with respect and have a two-way
conversation. Stop talking at them, instead talk
with them.
Our shopper’s world is shifting and changing
at a pace that it never has before. With so much
information and options being thrown at them, it
will be the experiences that you leave them with
which will make them come back again and again.
You know that feeling. You’ve had it yourself. ▀
* Juanita Neville-Te Rito is founder of The Retail Collective
Dr Hussain Patel
Ophthalmologist
MBChB, MD, FRANZCO
Dr Monika Pradhan
Ophthalmologist
MS, DOMS, FCPS, MRCOphth
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
19

Style-Eyes
Change it up: the art of
display
Fashion update
Translucent is the flavour of the month this month, alongside vibrantly coloured
metals in the new season collections. Here’s our pick of the new releases:
Face á Face
This season’s Face á Face collection is inspired by the colour
palettes of Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse with vibrant greens,
blues and reds. A new modern and feminine shape featured here
is Boccawalk 2, combining matt finishes and transparencies to
create an attractive look.
Face á Face’s Lewit concept, originally inspired by jewellery, offers
a new square shape in 100% stainless steel, as shown by Lewit 3
pictured here. Gold features in the outer frame contrasting with
cherry red, plum, flashy blue or sky blue. Distributed by MSO for
Eyes Right Optical.
BY CYNTHIA PIZZINI-MARTIN*
Are you wondering why your inventory is
not moving as fast as you like? Do you
need suggestions on how to improve your
sell through? Now is the perfect time of year
to revamp your displays in order to bring your
inventory back to life.
The displaying of eyewear collections is one of
the most important and, very often, the most
overlooked part of optical retailing. With this
in mind, here are a few methods I’ve used over
the years to make current frame selections more
attractive to customers.
Shift and move
The easiest way to make your displays look fresh
from season to season is to shuffle your entire
assortment. Have you always displayed that
collection in the same corner? Change it up!
Your repeat customers will get the feeling that
you have a new assortment without you having
to spend any money at all. This process is easy
and will change the mood and look of your store
instantly.
Organise by colour, dark and light
Most frames are available in a variety of colors.
It will make your display look much more
organised if you group the collection by style
and then by colour. All frames of the same model
should be displayed together. This makes it much
easier for the customer and the salesperson to
easily identify which colours are offered in that
particular model.
A good tip is to display your merchandise, your
frames, from dark to light or light to dark. This
is visually appealing to the eye and keeps your
display looking clean and organised.
Separate optical from sun
Some optical retailers choose to display optical
frames and sunglasses together by designer. The
best way to accomplish a cohesive display would
be to make sure you place all the optical frames
on one shelf and display sunglass offerings on
a different shelf. If you are using frame boards,
display the optical frames (according to model
and then colour) on one row and the sunglasses
on a different row.
Change up window displays
Your shop front shows potential shoppers what
you are all about. What you display should make
people want to come inside for a closer look, to
automatically warm to you and your practice.
Try something different that is eye catching and
interesting. Create a display that showcases
the trend for the season. For example, for early
2018 you could showcase eyewear with mirrored
lenses in a variety of colours. The pop of colour in
the lenses will attract the eye and the frames can
convey what the popular style is at the moment
(aviator, round shapes, etc.). Remember a great
display is only great the first time the customer
sees it. It’s not so great when they see it again
and again, for months at a time. Change your
window display frequently and make sure your
windows are always kept clean and orderly.
Window displays are the first impression you
make to the public.
Go shopping
Is there a collection that no longer sells like it
used to? What are you waiting for? Phase it out
and replace it with a fresh new brand that you’ve
never tried before. Now is the time to bring in
that collection that your customers keep asking
for. Make plans to visit a good optical fair for new
collection and display inspiration.
Prop it up
Using fun props
to display frames
brings character
to any collection.
Anything can be
used to display
your eyewear.
Try stacking a few books and then placing a
few frames on top. You can also invest in a few
custom display stands that will really showcase
those special pieces from your special collections.
Showcase those add-ons
Make fun displays to showcase those eyewear
holders and lens cleaning kits that are usually
overlooked. Create a display on your sales counter
to remind your staff and the customer that these
extras are available. Promoting and selling these
extras will add precious dollars to your bottom line.
Keep it clean
Nothing is worse than trying on a pair of glasses
with dirty and/or scratched demo lenses. Take
a walk around your shop and do a check for
scratched or damaged demo lenses. If any of the
lenses are in really bad shape, consider making
the investment and replacing with new scratch
free plano lenses.
Have fun with these suggestions. Look at
it as a way to team build and have your staff
come together to complete the task. It will get
everyone’s creativity flowing. The sales staff
will be re-energized about the items they sell
everyday and the extra effort will translate into
revenue in no time. ▀
*Cynthia Pizzini-Martin
is a retired luxury
eyewear executive
residing in South East
Asia, who enjoys writing
about all things optical
and helping small
businesses become
bigger business with
one on one consulting.
For more, visit www.
cpmretailconsulting.com
Xavier Garcia
Stars and their Eyes…
Brian McKeever
Brian McKeever, a Canadian cross-country
skier and 10-time paralympic games
gold medalist lives with the progressive
macular condition, Stargardt’s disease.
McKeever was diagnosed when he was 18
and remembers clearly the day he found out.
“The optometrist said, ‘It’s really strange, I
can’t get your eyes any better with lenses’. I
knew exactly what it was because my Dad and
Aunt both have Stargardts.I was referred to
an ophthalmologist and we did some blood
tests and realised I was a carrier for the same
dominant gene.”
McKeever, who became the first Canadian
athlete to be chosen for both the Paralymic
and Olympic teams in 2010, says those first
few weeks post-diagnosis were rough. “There was
a period of grieving and then I quickly realised I
could look at my Dad and Aunt as examples. He
was a teacher at an elementary school for more
than 30 years. Okay, he doesn’t drive, he rides his
FLEYE
FLEYE Copenhagen unveiled its new Spring/
Summer 2018 Signature Collection at MIDO and the
second part of its smørrebrød campaign dedicated to
Scandinavian food culture, using the imaginative colours,
textures, and layerings found in a classic Danish smørrebrød.
Distributed by Tracey Dobson
Morel – Koali
Tom Ford
Xavier Garcia launched its new acetate “Minimalist” male and
female collection at Mido. The new collection features
architectural and minimalist modern shapes in
translucent single warm and cool popping colours.
Model Elodie, pictured here, is available in a range of
different colours and offers a strong yet feminine look
with its rounded square design. Distributed by Cardinal Eyewear.
The Tom Ford eyewear collection includes a huge range of
styles for both men and women, including the classic, thick
and chunky round eye for men available in dark havana,
featured here, as well as several other colours. For those
wanting a lighter frame, the unisex transparent crystal grey
frame in acetate with nose bridge and temples in metal, is
still noticeably Tom Ford, but with a twist. Distributed by
Healy Optical Group.
DVF by Diane von Furstenberg
DVF by Diane von Furstenberg is a new
brand joining the VSP Australia stable
from February. Diane von Furstenberg
founded her famous lifestyle brand in
1972, which is now celebrated for its bold,
colourful prints. The new eyewear collection DVF,
with slight cat eye models DVF5097 and DVF5098 shown here, offers optical
frames and sunglasses with beautiful and bold silhouettes in translucent
colours creating a layered look. Distributed by VSP Australia.
Morel Lunettes’ house brand
Koali has launched new model,
Natice, a thin, light frame made
entirely of stainless steel. The front
is enhanced by a stainless-steel shell extending slightly over the top to
add a touch of originality. To make the frame ever lighter, the front and
the shells are joined together with a nylon frame when the glasses are
assembled. Natice is available in four shapes, sized M to L, and each
shape is available in five colours. The shells are available in several
different colours and styles. Distributed by MSO for Eyes Right Optical.
For contact details for frame distributors, please see your 2018 OIG,
also online at: http://www.nzoptics.co.nz/suppliers ▀
bike everywhere, but it wasn’t as big of a deal as
the initial knee-jerk reaction may have seemed.”
At the time of going to press, Brian McKeever was
targeting further success at his fifth Paralympic
Winter Games in Pyeongchang. ▀
20 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

Celebrating loyalty and friendship
Long-serving Elegance in Eyewear and Euro Optics
team members, Gary Edgar and Christian Mair,
were celebrated recently on one balmy evening in
the Viaduct in Auckland. Between them Edgar, territory
manager, and Mair, operations manager, have clocked up
an impressive 45 years of service, with Edgar celebrating
25 years and Mair, 20.
“We are very grateful to have Christian and Gary as part
of our team for so many years,” says company managing
director Carl Doherty. “They are very hard working, dedicated
and loyal with a vast amount of knowledge. It has been and
continues to be a pleasure to work with them.”
Edgar points out that those celebrating this milestone
(see picture), including Euro Optics’ now retired founders,
Carl’s parents Annette and Regan Doherty, have
contributed an impressive, combined 150 years of service
to the New Zealand and Australian optical industry. “The
Doherty family are great to work for, I guess we are now
on terms like Aunty Annette, Regano and Carlos,” he
laughs. ▀
NZOSS: Future sight
BY NICK LEE, NZOSS PRESIDENT
Hello dear readers and welcome to my first column for NZOSS,
the New Zealand Optometry Student Society for 2018. It
almost seems redundant to wish you a Happy New Year now
that two months have passed, but to our readers starting back at
University in February, Happy New Year. Hopefully you’ve had a good
relaxing break.
The NZOSS executive committee: William Tang, Menaga Manokaran, Alice Jackson, Andrew Kim, Gemma Ji,
Marna Claassen, Aimee Aitken, Nick Lee, Simran Kaur Virk, Katarina Marcijasz and Nileesha Parbhu
Celebrating long service: Carl Doherty, Annette and Regan Doherty, Gary Edgar, Christian Mair and Brent Doherty
Since its inception in 2013, NZOSS has grown in leaps and bounds
and is growing more and more each year. Serving as a networking
platform for the next generation of optometrists both within the
university and out into the wider community, NZOSS is very excited to
continue this role and we have an exciting calendar of events in the
works for this year.
We are continuing our roster of the usual favourites, such as
Orientation Camp, pub crawls and the annual Eye Ball, but are
also planning more sporting and cultural activities, more
networking community-based events and more seminars
from leaders in our industry.
Each year, a new executive team is announced. This
year we are very fortunate to have many returning
executives, plus a smattering of new faces to help build
upon our previous experiences. With our eyes focused
on the future, our main goals this year are to promote
and boost the connections between our members, other
health professionals on campus and, of course, the wider
optometric community.
The year ahead is already shaping up to be a good one and
we will endeavour to keep you regularly updated with the
happenings from
NZOSS. If you have
any suggestions,
ideas or wish to
contact us about
any upcoming event
opportunities, please
contact us on nzoss.
uoa@gmail.com
Till next time. ▀
Essilor expands NZ team
Essilor has added four new people to its New
Zealand team and is hoping to add a fifth in
the next couple of months, following what
it said has been a successful year for its Platinum
Partner practices.
New Zealand-qualified dispensing optician Amit
Chaudhary and Mike Manolas, who completed
a Diploma in Optometry in South Africa and has
also worked in dispensing roles in New Zealand,
have both joined Essilor NZ in its Auckland
headquarters to assist with customer service,
training and other initiatives offered to Platinum
Partners. While Brigit Healey, previously with
Essilor’s specialist Australian safety company PSG
Eyewear, has joined the team to support Essilor’s
growth in the safety market and be the New
Zealand-based safety contact for all PSG enquiries.
Essilor has also expanded its lab team to cope
with the company’s growth last year, said Chris
Aldous, Essilor NZ territory manager, adding
Jaakko Suhonen, who previously worked for Essilor
Finland as a specialist rimless fitter.
“Finally, we are looking to employ an additional
territory manager to enable closer contact
with our customers around the country. We are
working with our customers and industry figures
to attract the best candidates for this new role,”
said Aldous.
“Adding to the expertise and strength of our
current support team ensures we can deliver on
the new planned service projects as well as new
product launches planned for 2018. All in all, we
are looking forward to growing our support to
independent practices in meeting their goals.” ▀
ENROL NOW…
OptomEdge
signs Jayex
Health tech company Jayex Healthcare has signed an
exclusive worldwide ‘Solution Provider Agreement’ with
OptomEdge, the optometry division of the Queenslandbased
marketing and technology services provider, Valued
Patient Group,
and preferred
online marketing
support supplier
for Kiwi-based
independent
optometry
network Eyepro.
Both
Australian-based
companies have
identified a
strong need for
practice-focused
communication
technology in
conjunction
with effective
marketing
campaigns, said the companies in a joint statement.
The agreement focuses on Jayex’s Appointuit online
appointment booking service and its integrated SMS and email
communication platform. “Optometry practices will now be able
to benefit from pre-populated email newsletter content, which
saves significant time and ensures that practices have a reliable
way to keep in touch with patients between visits,” said the
companies. “The collaboration between Jayex and OptomEdge
is designed to give patients greater access to quality healthcare
content and for practices to achieve greater efficiencies in
converting awareness into appointments by delivering a patient
experience which can be tailored to each practice.”
“Appointuit’s platform of customisable appointment booking
widgets and email newsletter deployment is better than
anything else than we’ve seen on the market, which allows
practices to maintain their branding and overall patient
experience,” added Robert Springer, OptomEdge’s technical
director. “The addition of real-time online appointments to our
services portfolio allows us to achieve full ROI-tracking across
marketing programmes to show practices exactly where to focus
to achieve their goals.” ▀
…and become a fully-accredited and trained
Dispensing Optician in New Zealand
HLT47815 – Certificate IV
in Optical Dispensing is now
open for 2018 enrolments.
Workshop conveniently located
in Glenfield, Auckland
The expanded and expanding Essilor NZ team
Enquiries and Enrolments www.acod.edu.au
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
21

MORE CLASSIFIEDS ON PAGE 24
NZ SALES
AGENT
Optique Line NZ is seeking an enthusiastic, self-motivated sales
agent to service our existing client base as well as seeking new
opportunities to grow our market share in New Zealand.
Our longstanding agent is retiring from the industry in a full-time
capacity, so this presents a unique opportunity to continue the
company legacy already established.
Industry experience is required, whether as a sales representative,
or from a dispensing background. Our preference is to be based on
the North Island.
Our extensive portfolio of brands includes Stepper Eyewear and
Convertibles, which are well respected and established in the New
Zealand market.
We support our brands with marketing, as well as a first class
customer service team.
Generous commissions payable.
If you wish to be part of a progressive company, please forward
your CV to employment@optiqueline.com.au
SNOWVISION
CHARITABLE TRUST
2018 SCHOLARSHIPS
The Trustees of the Snowvision Charitable Trust announce
the offer of two scholarships – one for a New Zealand
optometrist and one for a final year student completing
the BOptom – to undertake a period of four weeks
clinical study at the State College of Optometry, State
University of New York (SUNY), New York. The successful
applicants will be expected to spend a minimum of 40
hours per week in the Optometry Department pursuing
clinical studies as approved by the Trustees.
The scholarship is for a maximum of NZ$7,000 and covers one
return advance purchase economy airfare from Auckland to
New York and the tuition fees at SUNY. Assistance in finding
accommodation will be given if needed.
The conditions of the scholarship include:
The optometrist must be in full-time practice in New
Zealand and must practise optometry full-time in New
Zealand for two years following their return from SUNY.
The student must practise optometry in New Zealand
for two years at the completion of their degree.
The holders must provide a written report of their time at
SUNY to the Trustees within two months of their return.
The holders must be prepared to give a brief (five
minute) report to the Snowvision Down Under
conference in August, 2020 in Queenstown.
The holders must agree to their report, either in whole
or in part, being published in NZ Optics magazine and
elsewhere at the discretion of the Trustees.
Requests for application forms should be sent to:
Snowvision Charitable Trust
PO Box 222, Mosgiel
Email: hcaithness@xtra.co.nz
Applications will close on May 31, 2018. The decision of
the Trustees will be final and in the event of there being
no satisfactory applicant, no scholarship will be awarded.
Hamish Caithness
Trustee
David Robinson
Trustee
To advertise in NZ Optics’
classified pages contact:
Susanne Bradley at susanne@nzoptics.co.nz
You can see my house from here
I hate heights. Briefly, as a young man, I had no fear of them. I
would happily get onto the roof, trailing cable from my valve radio
and attach it to the TV aerial so I could pick up Radio Hauraki from
Feilding in the daytime. The TV went out just as Dad was settling
in after a hard day’s farming to watch the cricket. The screen
just went dead. There might have been smoke. There would be
no TV for anyone until the repairman came. The teenage me
slipped outside, swiftly retrieved the cable and skulked off to my
room to resume brooding about the terrible world full of terrible
people.
By the time I was 25, I had escaped death in cars, on motorbikes,
on mountains and in most of Wellington’s public bars. My brain
was as fully formed as it was ever going to get and I was no longer
so bold; more conscious of what you could do to your neck if you
came off a roof.
So here I am, decades later, spending the best days of this
magnificent summer painting our high roof and, whenever I stop to
reflect on what I’m doing, hating it. I am doing this because it very
much needs to be painted and the days when you could just get
some brave young guy to whip up there and get it done are gone.
This is a good thing, I have to concede. Those looser days are gone.
Even though those high-living guys are naturals up there, modern
safety practices are there for those moments when a natural loses
his footing. You can’t say those moments don’t happen.
Last time, last house, I found a painter in the classifieds. His
name was Hussein. He was from Iraq, and you never met a more
obliging guy. Sure, he could do it, he said, like it was the simplest
thing in the world. Up he went, all over the roof, quick and agile as
a monkey.
Once he got started, I realised that although he knew his way
around a roof, his experience possibly came more from evading
snipers than rolling on semi-gloss. But he was at home up there,
and that made him the guy for the job. I went down to my office
and he set about his work. In bare feet.
Everything was good for a couple of hours but then grey clouds
begin to roll over and soon it was spitting a little. Under his bare
feet, the old finish on the roof had deteriorated and had a dusty
surface. Dots of rain began to fall making the surface even harder
to work on.
“No trouble,” he said, “I keep working.” A few minutes later,
I heard one hell of a crash. Hussein had come off the roof.
Fortunately, there was a garden. Nothing broken, but he was
thoroughly shaken. He went off to the doctor who said it was just
bad bruising and he’d be fine, but he strongly recommended the
patient stay off roofs. I thought to myself: that went a lot better
than it might have.
As much as I admire the high-wire skills of those guys, I don’t doubt
Chalkeyes presents…
Slack Times
By David Slack*
VSP partners Right Eye
Large, US-based optics, eye health
and eyewear group, VSP Global has
partnered with eye-tracking technology
firm Right Eye to expand new vision testing
solutions for optometry.
Announcing the investment last year,
the companies said the partnership will
explore the expansion of cutting-edge vision
care solutions designed to strengthen the
relationship between patients and their
practitioners.
Right Eye is a health technology company
that uses eye tracking and gaming as
innovative vision tests for assessing eye
sight, concussion and other brain and head
injuries and reading and learning disorders.
The game-based vision tests require users to
sit and follow graphics on a screen and range
from tracking a dot around or identifying
and blowing up aliens invading the Earth.
Right Eye claims the resulting report,
generated within minutes of a patient
finishing a test, gives optometrists an
objective, measurable way to view the quality
OPSM’s 100 new grads
Luxottica’s OPSM and Australian-based sister company Laubman
& Pank have employed 100 optometry graduates to fill positions
across Australia and New Zealand, doubling the number
employed in 2017.
Peter Murphy, Luxottica’s director of eyecare and community, said the
increased intake was in response to greater demand from stores across
Australia and New Zealand. “OPSM (provides) optometry services early
mornings, weekends and evenings on late shopping nights, which has
resulted in an increase need for optometrists.”
“We offer graduates internal mobility to experience different working
environments. Those who accept placements in a regional or remote
area for six months or more are guaranteed a position back in their
home city at the end of the tenure if that’s what they want to do. This
has made them more receptive to moving.”
Luxottica’s 2018 graduate optometrists were introduced to the
company and each other at a celebratory Sydney harbour cruise in
January. ▀
that workplaces need to be
safe. I also admire our
ACC system that takes
care of your personal
injury by accident without
asking who was to blame
and tying everyone up in court
for years. I also like that we have evolved a
system, as we surely needed, to ensure that
with ACC removing the jeopardy of your
being sued for being unsafe, we have a
system that ensures workplaces are safe.
There is no more damning indictment of
the consequences of putting revenue and
profits above safety than the story told in Rebecca Macfie’s account
of the Pike River disaster, Tragedy at Pike River Mine.
But here I stand on kitset scaffolding I bought from Trademe in
order to get myself up high enough to paint the house myself. I
don’t especially like it, but it’s not safe or right to ask someone to
do it without proper protection. But – and at last we arrive at my
point – have you seen the cost of getting your house bundled up in
scaffolding these days? Have you heard how long you have to wait
for it?
A market that doesn’t seem to be functioning the way they
taught us it would in high school economics has driven me up a
wobbling metal tower. You talk about this and you hear a repeating
complaint: I have to paint my house, but you can’t get a ladder up
there, and have you seen the cost of scaffolding these days?
What this means, at least for now, is that a decent chunk of
Auckland’s property stock is not getting the maintenance it needs.
Heaven only knows what will happen if those buildings begin to leak.
For a more serious look at today’s Health
and Safety requirements, see Focus on
Business on p14.
*David Slack is an author, radio and TV commentator
and speechwriter. He established the website speeches.
com, and has published several books including
‘Bullshit, Backlash and Bleeding Hearts’, exploring
Treaty of Waitangi issues, and ‘Bullrush’, a social
history of the popular children’s game.
of a patient’s visual speed and accuracy, visual
processing, depth perception, dry eye and
more. The software can also track the success
of remedies such as vision therapy, said Jon
Schuller, senior public relations specialist at
VSP Global.
“VSP Global supports technological
advancements that increase the value and
utilisation of vision benefits, extends access
and strengthens the tie between a patient
and their optometrist… to help deliver a
more enhanced patient experience.” ▀
Some of the 2018 OPSM new Australasian graduate intake on the introductory
Sydney Harbour cruise
22 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018

PUT DOWN YOUR
ROOTS IN REGIONAL NZ
PERMANENT ROLES IN YOUR CHOICE OF REGIONAL LOCATION
Multiple opportunities available across both the North and South Islands to suit your career aspirations
Specsavers’ growing New Zealand store network offers a variety of roles catering
to different development needs and are available for optometrists at all stages of
their career.
Joining one of our regional New Zealand stores provides an ideal opportunity to
firmly establish yourself within a community while progressing your clinical skills.
You will be equipped with the latest ophthalmic equipment and presented with
a range of interesting conditions across a high-volume patient base – all with the
support of an experienced dispensing and pre-testing team, the mentorship of the
store partners, and access to an exemplary professional development program.
Or if you’re ready to move into practice ownership, our regional New Zealand stores
present an attractive business venture. With average annual sales running at $2.4
million per store, and Support Office training and assistance available every step of
the way, there’s no better time to uncover the leader within you.
Ask us about the opportunities we have waiting for you – contact Chris Rickard
on 027 579 5499 or via chris.rickard@specsavers.com
VIEW ALL THE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE ON SPECTRUM-ANZ.COM
Voted by New Zealanders
Reader’s Digest
Quality Service
Award
2017
Best Talent
Development
Program
2017
Best Customer
Service in NZ
Optometry
2017
Millward Brown
Research
No.1 for eye tests
2016
Excellence in
Marketing
Award
2016
Retail
Store Design
Award
2016
Retail
Employer
of the Year
2015
Overall
National
Supreme Winner
2015
Franchise
Innovation
Award
2015
NZ Franchise
System of
the Year
2014
Retail
Innovator
of the Year
2014
March 2018
NEW ZEALAND OPTICS
23

MORE CLASSIFIEDS ON PAGE 22
OPTOMETRIST WANTED
We have an opportunity for a
therapeutically qualified optometrist to
become part of the Total Eyecare group.
You need to be competent in full-scope optometry as our private
practices embrace all aspects of clinical work, including diabetic
retinal screening. An interest in customised rigid contact lens
fitting would be an advantage. The practices are well equipped
with anterior and posterior cameras, topography, automated Zeiss
visual fields and Cirrus HD-OCT.
You’ll have the support of an experienced team and opportunities
for professional development.
We are looking for someone who is motivated, with a good sense
of humour and works well as part of a team. Enjoy the cafes,
culture and and sporting events that the Wellington region
uniquely offers.
Please send your CV to greg@totaleyecare.co.nz
All enquiries will be treated in confidence.
BAILEY NELSON ALBANY
Here at Bailey Nelson, we see things a little
differently. We believe eye care doesn’t have to
be boring, and that’s why it’s our mission to have passionate and
caring Optometrists who ensure all patients enjoy an experience
worth remembering. Our eye tests are tailored for each individual
so everyone walks away feeling and looking different.
Bailey Nelson is opening a new store in Albany, Auckland.
If you want to further yourself as a leader and business contributor,
all while delivering amazing eye care then get in touch.
https://baileynelson.co.nz/pages/careers
OPTOMETRIST
REQUIRED
Optik Eyecare Pukekohe is looking for a TPA qualified optometrist
to join our team on a nine month fixed contract to cover maternity
leave.
We are an independent optometry practice in Pukekohe, South
Auckland providing excellent eye care in our purpose built
building.Our practice is clinically orientated, with a strong support
team, and has excellent technology, including an OCT.
You will be part of an Optometrist team of three. It’s a full-time
position but part-time could be considered for the right applicant.
We expect this contract to start mid June 2018.
In the first instance please forward your CV to Laurraine at
admin@optik.co.nz
For all your optical and ophthalmic needs
nzowa.org.nz
OPTOMETRIST
NEW PLYMOUTH
We are looking for an experience TPA qualified, full-time
Optometrist to join our team at Browning & (Matthews), New
Plymouth. This is a busy, well equipped practice with a great
support team.
Please contact Michelle Diez on 027 246 7499 or email
michelle.diez@matthews.co.nz
OPTOMETRY PRACTICE MANAGER
An excellent opportunity has arisen for a Practice Manager
responsible for three independent practices in Wanganui. You
will be a valued member of a company providing a professional
optometry service covering the full-range of specialist eye care
and eyewear to accommodate all budgets, selected to suit each of
the three practices’ patient base.
The position offers fantastic long-term career prospects, personal
development and training opportunities. Our client offers a
perfect, pressure-free, working environment and atmosphere
coupled with the opportunity to work alongside experienced
optical professionals.
The core values of this business are to deliver an outstanding
personalised experience, guarantee excellence in all they do and
make sure this is delivered by people with extraordinary team spirit.
Working hours 8am-5.30pm Monday to Friday and occasional
weekends (closed Sundays and Bank Holidays).
Testing time 30 – 45 minutes.
Key Benefits
• Very competitive salary
• Great work life balance (closed Sundays and Bank Holidays)
• Clinical practices providing specialist services; specialist contact
lenses, dry eye, low vision, direct cataract and paediatric referrals
• Highly-established clientele creating a less sales driven and
pressure free environment
• Good staff rapport generates a very social working atmosphere
• Excellent long term career prospects
• Four weeks annual plus bank holidays
To talk to us in confidence about this opportunity, please contact
Stuart Allan at OpticsNZ on (03) 5466 996, 027 436 9091 or
stu@opticsnz.co.nz
Applications (CV and cover letter) for this position are invited (via
the above email or via post, PO Box 1300, Nelson) prior to 5pm
Monday 19 March 2018.
DREAM OF
TRAVELLING
Have you ever wanted to travel NZ? Do you like
flexibility and crave variety? OPSM New Zealand is
looking to expand its relief team with a combination
of area and regional floats. As a float you will be
exposed to lots of different patients and locations
across New Zealand. We are looking for Optometrists
who share our passion, and want to join our customer
focussed teams in making a difference to how people
see the world.
We are looking for optometry floats in these
key locations:
• GREATER WELLINGTON AREA
• AUCKLAND & WAIKATO AREA
• NATIONAL (NZ WIDE) REGION
Alternatively OPSM NZ is also on the lookout for locums
willing to service the Wellington, Bay of Plenty and
Waikato regions.
JOIN OUR TEAM
If interested in joining our fun loving team, please contact
Jonathan Payne
Jonathan.Payne@opsm.co.nz or call 021 195 3549
OPSM.CO.NZ/CAREERS
READY FOR
A CHANGE?
When you join OPSM, you work within a team who are
committed to providing the best possible eyecare solution
with exceptional customer service. You will work with world
class technology and have many opportunities for professional
development. You can also make a real difference in the
way people see the world by participating in our OneSight
outreach program. OPSM New Zealand is looking for
passionate Optometrists to join the team in these locations:
THAMES
Located on the doorstep of the Coromandel, Thames is
a gateway to outdoor adventures and fantastic beaches.
An opportunity has arisen for a full time optometrist to
join an amazing team in our community based store with
interesting and appreciative clientele. Only 1 hour outside
of South Auckland, Thames is close enough to enjoy the
big city, without the traffic or house prices!
MT MAUNGANUI
Why visit this holiday hot spot when you can live there!
Our brand new Mt Maunganui store is looking for a fresh
optometrist eager to grow with the store. Located only 800
meters from the beach, with relaxed easy going clientele.
If you are seeking for a great mix of work and play,
whether its surfing or just relaxing at the beach –
“The Mount” is the ultimate summer destination.
LOWER HUTT
A rare vacancy has arisen in our much sort after Lower
Hutt practice. We are currently looking to expand our
energetic and vibrant team. Only 15 minutes from the
capital, Lower Hutt is close enough to enjoy the sport,
culture and cuisine that central Wellington has to offer.
JOIN OUR TEAM
If you are interested to find out more about joining the
team, contact Jonathan Payne for a confidential chat.
jonathan.payne@opsm.co.nz or call 021 195 3549
OPSM.CO.NZ/CAREERS
Thinking of selling your practice - we have buyers
Considering buying - we’ll give you all the options
OpticsNZ specialises in optometry practice sales,
we've helped dozens of Optometrists buy and sell their practices
For more information contact Stuart Allan on: 03 546 6996
027 436 9091 stu@opticsnz.co.nz www.opticsnz.co.nz
• Locum Service
• Recruitment Services
• Practice Brokering
• Business Consultants
24 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS March 2018