 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(September 2023) |
| Type | Optometry services, research, education |
|---|---|
| Established | 1940 |
| CEO | Pete Haydon |
| Location | , , |
| Website | aco.org.au |
The Australian College of Optometry (ACO) is an Australian non-profit working to improve the eye health and well-being of various Australian communities. Established in 1940, the ACO's goal is to deliver public health optometry, vision research and professional education. [1]
ACO’s mission is to improve the eye health and wellbeing of communities through providing practical clinical optometry services, undertaking research and providing education for optometrists. [2]
The ACO is governed by a council, that acts as the governing body to set the strategic direction of the organization. ACO councillors are elected by current ACO members to serve for a period of two years, alongside several skills-based appointments. [3]
The organisation is as of October 2021 [update] led by CEO Pete Haydon. [4]
The ACO delivers clinical care to communities across Victoria and South Australia by providing routine and advanced eye care services. The clinical team also works in collaboration with hospitals and community clinics.[ citation needed ]
As of 2021 [update] ACO's largest clinic is based in Carlton, Victoria. This clinic has more than 25 consulting rooms and is equipped with advanced equipment. A mobile outreach eye care program complements a network of nine clinics across the two states. Services offered at the ACO include paediatric, contact lens, low vision and disability, ocular diseases, outreach and Aboriginal services, and visual functions. [5]
Providing eye care to disadvantaged communities is a central part of the ACO's work. Since 1985, the ACO has managed and administered the Victorian Eyecare Service (VES), which was established and funded by the Victorian Government to deliver an integrated, coordinated public health eye care program. [6] People are eligible for VES benefits if they are permanent residents of Victoria and either hold a concession card, are children in foster care, or identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person.[ citation needed ]
ACO's Outreach services began in 1998 for patients with disabilities, and has since expanded to provide clinical services for the aged, Indigenous communities, refugees and asylum seekers, children from disadvantaged schools, people experiencing homelessness and other high-risk groups.[ citation needed ]
The ACO continues to work towards closing the gap for vision in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It has provided comprehensive eye care services at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy in Melbourne for over 20 years. It also works in partnership with several Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations across Victoria, as well as in the border regions of NSW and SA, to provide eye care services through the Visiting Optometry Scheme. Funded by the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria, this scheme facilitates accessibility to eye care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities living in remote locations. [7]
The ACO is involved in the Provision of Eye Health Equipment and Training Project, an Australian Government Department of Health-funded initiative. It works as part of a consortium to roll out retinal cameras and slit lamps, as well as training primary health clinics across Australia to improve eye health outcomes of First Nations people. The consortium members include Brien Holden Foundation, Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia, Centre for Eye Health and Optometry Australia. [8] [9]
The National Vision Research Institute (NVRI) is the research arm of the ACO, which undertakes internationally-recognised research to help understand the complexities of vision and its disorders. Its principal goal is to conduct research that work towards preservation of sight and the prevention of blindness. Professor Michael Ibbotson has been leading the research team as the Director of the NVRI and Professor at the University of Melbourne since 2011.[ citation needed ]
Established in 1972, with bequests from the optometry community and generous donations from the Schultz Laubman Schultz Endowment Fund Trust, the NVRI is committed to understanding vision disorders and explaining how the brain processes vision. It conducts basic science, clinical and translational research while also supervising PhD students in partnership with universities.[ citation needed ]
NVRI's research priorities including neurotechnology, with a strong focus on the development of prosthetic vision devices (or bionic eyes) in partnership with Bionic Vision Australian (BVA) to restore vision in people with retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, clinical optometry and public health, to improve the understanding of vision science, vision care and treatment.[ citation needed ]
In 1976, NVRI garnered international recognition when researchers Ian Bailey and Jan Lovie developed the Bailey-Lovie LogMAR visual acuity charts (Logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution). The chart is widely in use by ophthalmologists, orthoptists, optometrists, and vision scientists world over to estimate visual acuity. [10]
Over the years NVRI has acquired a high profile for publishing output in top ranking scientific and medical journals and presenting at international conferences. This has been crucial in attracting several grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC), including BVA, and other philanthropic grants. In 2014, the NVRI was announced as a node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, placing it in a research network among Australia's top six research universities. [11]
Since its inception, the ACO has continued to build on its commitment to education. The organisation is a pioneer in continuing professional development opportunities for practicing optometrists as well as helping train and build a foundation for the next generation of optometrists. [12]
Developed by experts in their fields, the ACO provides unique, innovative, and specialised education across a broad range of clinical areas. Advanced education programs have been developed to support optometrists to upskill to provide the best patient care. This is delivered through certificate courses, webinars, clinical workshops, conferences to meet the current and future needs of the wider optometry profession. [13] [14] The ACO has a long history in training optometry students across Australia. The clinical teaching program provides regular placements to students from Deakin University, the University of Melbourne, UNSW Sydney and Flinders University.[ citation needed ]
Optometry is a specialized health care profession that involves examining the eyes and related structures for defects or abnormalities. Optometrists are health care professionals who typically provide comprehensive eye care.
The State University of New York College of Optometry is a public school of optometry in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and was established in 1971 as result of a legislative mandate of New York. It is located in midtown Manhattan in what was originally the Aeolian Building, which was built in 1912 for the Aeolian Company, a piano manufacturer. It is a center for research on vision and the only school of optometry in New York.
The Southern College of Optometry is a privately owned educational institution located in Memphis, Tennessee. It specializes in optometry and offers a comprehensive program in this field.
Vision therapy (VT), or behavioral optometry, is an umbrella term for alternative medicine treatments using eye exercises, based around the pseudoscientific claim that vision problems are the true underlying cause of learning difficulties, particularly in children. Vision therapy has not been shown to be effective using scientific studies, except for helping with convergence insufficiency. Most claims—for example that the therapy can address neurological, educational, and spatial difficulties—lack supporting evidence. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Academy of Ophthalmology support the use of vision therapy.
An optometrist is an individual who provides a service related to the eyes or vision. It is any healthcare worker involved in eye care, from one with a small amount of post-secondary training to practitioners with a doctoral level of education.
The Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) is a private optometry college in Chicago, Illinois. Graduating approximately 160 optometrists a year, it is the largest optometry college in the United States and the oldest continually operating educational facility dedicated solely to the teaching of optometrists. The college complex incorporates more than 366,000 square feet (34,000 m2) including an on-site eye care clinic, electronically enhanced lecture center, library, computerized clinical learning equipment, cafeteria, fitness center, and living facilities.
The School of Optometry and Vision Science is one of the professional schools at the University of Waterloo. It is a school within the university's Faculty of Science and is the larger of the two optometry schools in Canada. The School is the only English speaking Optometry School in the country; the Francophone Université de Montréal program operates in Quebec.
Marshall B. Ketchum University is a private university focused on graduate programs in healthcare and located in Fullerton, California. MBKU expanded from the Southern California College of Optometry which was founded in 1904. The university was officially established as a multidisciplinary university with the addition of School of PA Studies in 2011 and College of Pharmacy in 2013. Along with Hope International University, the campus bookends the north and south sides of the Cal State Fullerton campus respectively.
The Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley is an optometry school at the University of California, Berkeley. It offers a graduate-level, four-year professional program leading to the Doctor of Optometry degree (OD), and a one-year, ACOE-accredited residency program in clinical optometry specialties. It is also the home department for the multidisciplinary Vision Science Group at UC Berkeley, whose graduate students earn either MS or PhD degrees.
VSP Vision Care (VSP) is a vision care health insurance company operating in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It is a doctor-governed company divided into five businesses: “eye care insurance, high-quality eyewear, lens and lens enhancements, ophthalmic technology, and connected experiences to strengthen the relationship between patients and their eye doctors.” It has about 80 million members worldwide and is the largest vision insurance company in the United States.
Newton K. (Uyesugi) Wesley was an optometrist and an early pioneer of the contact lens. Wesley was a partner with George Jessen in the development and advancement of contact lens. Together they founded the Wesley-Jessen Corporation as well as the National Eye Research Foundation. Wesley-Jessen was acquired by Schering Plough in 1980 then and CIBA Vision by 2001.
The eye care system in Ghana can be said to be one in its infant or growing stages. Today there are less than 300 eye care professionals taking care of the eye needs of over 23 million Ghanaians.
Optometry is a relatively new field in eye care in Ghana.
A logMAR chart is a chart consisting of rows of letters that is used by ophthalmologists, orthoptists, optometrists, and vision scientists to estimate visual acuity. The chart was developed at the National Vision Research Institute of Australia in 1976, and is designed to enable a more accurate estimate of acuity than do other charts. For this reason, the LogMAR chart is recommended, particularly in a research setting.
Teleophthalmology is a branch of telemedicine that delivers eye care through digital medical equipment and telecommunications technology. Today, applications of teleophthalmology encompass access to eye specialists for patients in remote areas, ophthalmic disease screening, diagnosis and monitoring; as well as distant learning.
Konrad Pesudovs is an Australian optometrist and outcomes researcher in ophthalmology; recognised as the leading optometrist researcher worldwide in terms of H-Index and total citations. He is SHARP Professor of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales (2020-). He was the Foundation Chair of Optometry and Vision Science at Flinders University from 2009 to 2017.
Jan E. Lovie-Kitchin is an Australian optometrist, former professor at Queensland University of Technology and founder of the university's Vision Rehabilitation Centre. She was the co-developer of the Bailey-Lovie visual acuity chart.
Susan A. Cotter is a professor of optometry at the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO) at Marshall B. Ketchum University where she teaches in the classroom and clinic, works with the residents, and conducts clinical researches. Her scientific work is related to related to clinical management strategies for strabismus, amblyopia, non-strabismic binocular vision disorders, and childhood refractive error.
The Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI) is an Australian nonprofit non-governmental organization with an international focus on eye care research and vision care delivery. Formerly the Institute for Eye Research, in 2010, it was renamed in recognition of co-founder and optometrist Professor Brien Holden OAM, a 1997 recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to eye care research.
Bachelor of Optometry is a four-year degree programme in the field of Optometry, awarded upon graduation from an optometry school under a recognised university. Its curriculum is designed to impart knowledge related to eye and it's connected organs, the correction of refractive errors, and the treatment and management of eye diseases. This degree comprises four years of education including one year of clinical internship at a tertiary eye care center. This degree is the minimum required qualification to be called as an optometrist, and to practice optometry in several countries of the world.
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