Industry renowned ophthalmologists headline at this year’s PAC
Over the years PAC has attracted industry-renowned expert speakers continuing to innovate with its agenda and session delivery, and 2023 is no exception with its line-up of ophthalmologists delivering key sessions.
The main track has Professor Anthony King, Chairman of Glaucoma UK, talk about what needs to change to prevent more sight loss due to glaucoma from an ophthalmologist’s perspective.
We know that it is estimated that more than 700,000 people in the UK have glaucoma and approximately half of them don’t know they have it.
In the ‘Current challenges and future prospects for glaucoma care’ lecture Professor King will describe the immense pressure ophthalmology services are experiencing due to an increase in demand. He will explain why he is concerned about the long waiting times and delayed follow up patients are experiencing, particularly for patients with or at risk of developing glaucoma. He will share his views on pathway improvements needed and describe the vital work Glaucoma UK does to end preventable glaucoma sight loss.
Also in the line up is Professor Roshini Sanders, who has one of the largest cohorts of glaucoma patients in the southeast of Scotland. Professor Sanders was Chair and founder member of the Scottish Glaucoma Club in 2004 and ran the Scottish Glaucoma Symposium from 1999 to 2020. She is also Ophthalmology Advisor to NHS Education and is Ophthalmology Research Lead at the Chief Scientist Office, Edinburgh. Together with Dr Cindy Ogundo who undertook both her medical and ophthalmology training at University of Nairobi and who has led the set-up of a successful diabetic retinopathy screening programme in Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi and who plans to set up a glaucoma service in the same hospital, will deliver the ‘Glaucoma shared care in practice and LASIK learnings’ lecture.
This lecture explores how in June 2020 an entire glaucoma service was placed on a glaucoma database in southeast Scotland with 2500 patients triaged to three levels. Level one was managed within the annual GOS examination, level two was managed with shared care and level three remained in the Hospital Eye Service (HES). This lecture shares the 24-month audit data from the redesigned service. The second half of the session will present two LASIK cases where glaucoma was late to diagnosis in both community and the HES.
Nigel Kirkpatrick, a consultant ophthalmologist in Gloucestershire NHS and private practice for more than 15 years and who is Clinical Director of Newmedica, will be leading the peer review ‘Post cataract care in the domiciliary setting’.
In this peer review, Nigel will be focusing on the emergence of EOS in the domiciliary setting by examining the provision of post-operative cataract homecare. Discussions will cover a number of real-life cases from the Specsavers domiciliary post-operative cataract pilot with Newmedica.
To view the agenda and register go to: PAC 2023 – Optics programme.
Registration is open to Specsavers employed clinicians and external practitioners so book early to secure a place on the sessions you want.