Medicine & Health Optometry & Vision Science

Optometry Clinic update

Rupert Myers North Wing

Staff

We are delighted to formally recognise Lily Ho as Deputy Director of Clinical Teaching this year. Lily has been an indispensable member of the clinic for some time. She leads much of the education-focused training to support teaching in our clinic, undertakes major course convening responsibilities, manages casual staff and generally is involved in all aspects of the clinic operations. We welcomed Valentina Roman in December 2025 as a dispenser to work with our Stage 4 and 5 students and we are very much enjoying her energy in the clinic. 

We have enticed Dan Pua back part-time to support our new operations at the Health Translation Hub and our clinic operations, and we are very pleased to have him back. Many of our education-focused optometrists took on higher level duties as course convenors and continued to teach into the earlier years in 2025 and have done a magnificent job, making a huge contribution to the vertical integration of teaching within our program. 

Health Translation Hub

2025 has been a year of planning for the new venture, the Eye Health Clinic at the Health Translation Hub. Our first clinics, seeing stable glaucoma patients from the Centre for Eye Health glaucoma management clinic, will start for three days a week in the first week of January 2026. We are looking forward to starting clinics in this new space and developing other initiatives in 2026. Congratulations to Kat Pakarinen, Dale Larden and Tracy Kane for their enormous work to get the clinic operational. Thanks also to Ereeny Mikhail for getting the manuals and procedures documented. 

Refurbishment of Bay 1 and Office Space

In December we were delighted to unveil the newly refurbished Bay 1, now featuring six modern consulting rooms designed to enhance patient care and comfort.  Our team was equally excited to see the UNSW Optometry Clinic’s open-plan office transformed into a refreshed workspace that fosters collaboration and efficiency.

Short Courses

The Dry Eye Disease: Diagnosis and Management short course ran twice in 2025, facilitated by Isabelle Jalbert and Regine Chapman-Davies. We were fortunate to be joined by several alumni as panellists, thank you Jim Kokkinakis and Mark Koscek, plus Murat Dogru and thanks also to Jason Holland, an amazing dry eye guru. Practitioners both nationally and internationally participated in this very interactive program and gave very positive feedback for the teaching approach, panellists and content. 

The Advanced Paediatric Eye Care short course was successfully delivered twice in 2025 under the exceptional leadership of Amanda Lea.  Many thanks to our key presenter and visiting academic Ann Webber for shared her deep and invaluable insights and to our dedicated panellists Nicole Carter, Dr Elias Kehdi and Dr Linda Zheng for their ongoing support throughout the year.

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Saudi Society of Optometry (SSO) for our short courses.  Our APEC short course in collaboration with SSO will launch in January.  This exciting initiative showcases UNSW Sydney’s commitment to advancing global progress in eye care by championing evidence-based practice through the world-class education our academics are known for.

Awards and Recognition

Many congratulations to Rebecca Dang for the award of her PhD on Multifocal Contact Lenses for Myopia, supervised by Isabelle Jalbert and Pauline Kang. This is a massive achievement – well done Dr Dang.  You have made a great contribution to the evidence in orthokeratology contact lens wear and ongoing benefits to our patients and students. 
From left to right: Kathleen Watt, Isabelle Jalbert, Rebecca Dang & Pauline Kang

Our congrats also to Eihab Eltantawy on receiving the 2025 UNSW School of Optometry & Vision Science Staff Award for Innovation.  This recognition highlights Eihab’s outstanding contributions in the field of complex contact lens fittings.  His work has introduced new techniques that enhance clinical practice and improve patient outcomes. 

Several of our staff received education grants to support education research and development, including the following:

  • Amir Hali: Grant supported participation in the Moorfield’s Eye Hospital Education Series: Data Science for Clinicians 
  • Nikki Delaveris: Grant supported attendance and presentation at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in Boston 
  • Amanda Lea: Grant supported research on the student experience in the multidisciplinary paediatric clinic 
  • Elizabeth Wong: Grant supported undertaking Optometry Australia Credentialled Advanced Practitioner in Glaucoma (OACAP-G) 

Conference Presentations 

  • Rebecca Dang, Pauline Kang and Kath Watt at the Orthokeratology Society of Oceania in Royal Pines, Queensland. 
  • Nikki Delaveris at the American Academy of Optometry Annual Meeting, Boston, MA 
  • Rebecca Dang at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT 
  • Amanda Lea at the Asia Pacific Paediatric Ophthalmology Society, Brisbane, Queensland 

CPD Presentations and Papers

  • Hali A, Larocca E, Stapleton F. Beyond the Glow: Navigating the Risks and Contraindications of IPL for Dry Eye. Optometry Connection 2025. 
  • Lea A, Dang R. The myth of eye tracking problems causing reading problems. Optometry Connections 2025 
  • Regine Chapman-Davies and Isabelle Jalbert. IPL and Radiofrequency treatment of dry eye disease, WAVE Conference, Western Australia 2025 
  • Regine Chapman-Davies delivered a lecture and a live demonstration of IPL and radio frequency and meibomian gland expression to a live audience and >500 attendees online 
  • We also were very successful in 2025 with many publications from our clinic staff.  Please see appendix for full list.

Innovations in Teaching and Clinical Practice 

In complex contact lens fittings, Eihab Eltantawy has implemented the new WAVE contact lens design platform to design freeform rigid contact lenses. This is a very exciting development for our patients and students to rapidly and effectively fit irregular corneas. 

Visitors 

During 2025 we welcomed students from Hong Kong Polytechnic as part of their overseas preceptorship for final year students.

Outreach and Engagement 

Clinic staff have been very active in 2025 in outreach activities and some highlights include: 

  • STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) Champions program involving Rebecca Dang and Judy Nam. This program engages with school students, community and broadly public communication and education, combined with a career development program including science communication.  
  • Amanda Lea and Rebecca Dang spoke at the NextSense teacher conference about evidence based paediatric eye care and prepared a publication for the teacher’s professional publication. https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/eye-spy-a-struggling-student-what-vision-might-be-telling-you 
  • Lisa Feng presented about low vision at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT 
  • Amir Hali and Kathleen Watt delivered Indigenous Medicine and Health Pre-program practicals. 
  • Regine Chapman-Davies delivered a lecture on minimising the risk of iatrogenic dry eye disease to plastic surgeons and a live demonstration of IPL and radio frequency  
  • Elizabeth Wong was invited to speak at the SOVS alumni event on clinical cases where Sightscore might be useful for management of glaucoma/glaucoma suspect patients

We proudly congratulate the Class of 2025 as they embark on their careers as optometrists.  Our sincere thanks to our patients for their trust in allowing us to care for their vision.  As we move into 2026, we look forward to strengthening partnerships with our collaborators, industry partners, alumni and supporters to advance eye care and innovation together. 

Appendix A

Selected publications
  • Baral P, Kumaran SE, Stapleton F, Khong JJ, Carnt N, Wolffsohn JS, Pesudovs K. Understanding the quality-of-life impacts of ocular surface disease. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2025 Aug 5:102482. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2025.102482. 
  • Baral P, Kumaran S, Stapleton F, Pesudovs K. A systematic review assessing the quality of patient reported outcome measures in ocular surface disease. Ocul Surf. 2025 Jan; 35:31-56. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2024.11.011. Epub 2024 Dec 2. PMID: 39631454. 
  • Basim F, Ishaq A, Macyczko JR, Goddard E, Honson V, Kim J, Jameson KA, Webster MA. Achromatic loci in normal and anomalous trichromats. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2025 May 1;42(5):B245-B255. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.546890.  
  • Chan KE, Lau BSR, Lim BXH, Du R, Giannaccare G, Tong L, Stapleton F, Lim CHL. Low-level light therapy and intense pulse light therapy in meibomian gland dysfunction. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2025 Apr;48(2):102344. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2024.102344. 
  • Chapman-Davies A, Chapman-Davies R. Rare presentation of peripapillary staphyloma with normal visual acuity. Clin Exp Optom. 2025 Jan;108(1):103-105. doi: 10.1080/08164622.2024.2341834. 
  • Chidi-Egboka NC, Fan L, Qureshi M, Samarawickrama C, Stapleton F, Trinh T, Markoulli M, Chan E, Chen JY, Holland J, Watson SL. Evidence on the Use of Topical Ciclosporin for Ocular Surface Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis-Response. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2025 Aug;53(6):730-731. doi: 10.1111/ceo.14558.  
  • Chiavaroli N, Backhouse S, Cochrane A, Jalbert I, Phillips G, Schmid KL. Promoting best practice in assessment - a professional development initiative for optometry programs. Clin Exp Optom. 2025 May 26:1-6. doi: 10.1080/08164622.2025.2505561. 
  • Dang RM, Jalbert I, Hui A, Kang P. Measuring Treatment Adherence in Myopia Control: Current Practices and Future Directions. Ophthalmol Sci. 2025 doi: 10.1016/j.xops.2025.100949.  
  • Dang R, Hui A, Jalbert I, Kho D, Vi M, Briggs N, Kang P. MultifocAL COntact Lenses for Myopia (MALCOLM) control in Australian children: a study protocol for a double-blind, contralateral eye, non-inferiority, randomised controlled clinical trial. BMJ Open. 2025 doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086173.  
  • Downie LE, Craig JP, Stapleton F, Tan J, Jones LW, Ng A, Hinds M, Bosworth C, Alster Y. Efficacy and safety of AZR-MD-001 selenium sulfide ophthalmic ointment in adults with meibomian gland dysfunction over six months of treatment: A Phase 2, vehicle-controlled, randomized extension trial. Ocul Surf. 2025 Jan; 35:15-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2024.11.008 
  • Eltantawy E. Assessing scleral toricity induced lens flexure and contact disparity using anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2025 Jun;48(3):102386. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2025.102386. 
  • Flaherty M, Bhate M, Lea AK, Gole GA. Coloured filters and lenses for reading discomfort and difficulty: an Australian and New Zealand perspective. Clin Exp Optom 2025;1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164622.2025.2526082
  • Hesam-Shariati N, Alexander L, Stapleton F, Newton-John T, Lin CT, Zahara P, Chen KY, Restrepo S, Skinner IW, McAuley JH, Moseley GL, Jensen MP, Gustin SM. The effect of an EEG neurofeedback intervention for corneal neuropathic pain: A single-case experimental design with multiple baselines. J Pain. 2025 Jul; 32:105394. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2025.105394 
  • Huang-Lung J, Rai A, Duong A, Balakrishnan A, Khan A, Husudo J, Gyawali R, Nazarian J, Ford B, Rhee J, Jalbert I, Keay L. 'Whatever the GP says, is what I'll do'-A qualitative study of patient perspectives in accessing primary eye care for type 2 diabetes. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2025 Jan;45(1):67-76. doi: 10.1111/opo.13398. 
  • Iqbal F, Papas EB, Stapleton F, Alghamdi WM, Ruan A, Darvesh K, Nguyen L, Tan J. Predicting contact lens discomfort from meibomian gland morphology and function. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2025 Dec;48(6):102480. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2025.102480. 
  • Jagadeesh D, Lin MC, Stapleton F, He J, Ying GS, Asbell P. Impact of definition of meibomian gland dysfunction on the frequency of MGD in dry eye disease from the DREAM© study. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2025 Oct;48(5):102416. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2025.102416. 
  • Janarthanan SD, Ballae Ganeshrao S, Watt K, Hazarika M, Ve RS, H VP, Radhakrishnan A. Comparison of visual functions among early and late onset myopia. Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21791. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-06778-0.  
  • Jones L, Craig JP, Markoulli M, Karpecki P, Akpek EK, Basu S, Bitton E, Chen W, Dhaliwal DK, Dogru M, Gomes JAP, Koehler M, Mehta JS, Perez VL, Stapleton F, Sullivan DA, Tauber J, Tong L, Travé-Huarte S, Wolffsohn JS; TFOS Collaborator Group. TFOS DEWS III: Management and Therapy. Am J Ophthalmol. 2025 Nov; 279:289-386. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2025.05.039. 
  • Kandel H, Stapleton F AO, Downie LE, Chidi-Egboka NC, MIngo-Botin D, Arnalich-Montiel F, Rauz S, Recchioni A, Sitaula S, Markoulli M, Daien V, Babeau F, Geerling G, Craig JP, Watson SL OAM. The impact of dry eye disease on patient-reported quality of life: A Save Sight Dry Eye Registry study. Ocul Surf. 2025 Jul; 37:11-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2025.02.005.  
  • Lee JRJ, Yee TH, Levitz D, Lim BXH, Mehta JS, Stapleton F, Lim CHL. A Review of Contact Lens Regulations in the Asia Pacific Region. Eye Contact Lens. 2025 Mar 1;51(3):e149-e156. doi: 10.1097/ICL.0000000000001150. 
  • Ly A, Herse S, Williams MA, Stapleton F. Artificial intelligence for age-related macular degeneration diagnosis in Australia: A Novel Qualitative Interview Study. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2025 Sep;45(6):1282-1292. doi: 10.1111/opo.13542.  
  • Samuels AB, Keay LJ, Faasse KE, Carnt NA. Development of a text message intervention designed to promote safe contact lens wear. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2025 Sep;45(6):1261-1269. doi: 10.1111/opo.13538. 
  • Schmid KL, Backhouse S, Harduwar K, Jalbert I. Antimicrobial stewardship and education in optometry. Clin Exp Optom. 2025 Apr;108(3):302-309. doi: 10.1080/08164622.2024.2394101. Epub 2024 Aug 28. PMID: 39197169. 
  • Stapleton F, Argüeso P, Asbell P, Azar D, Bosworth C, Chen W, Ciolino JB, Craig JP, Gallar J, Galor A, Gomes JAP, Jalbert I, Jie Y, Jones L, Konomi K, Liu Y, Merayo-Lloves J, Oliveira FR, Perez VL, Rocha EM, Sullivan BD, Sullivan DA, Vehof J, Vitale S, Willcox M, Wolffsohn JS, Dogru M. TFOS DEWS III: Digest. Am J Ophthalmol. 2025 Nov;279:451-553. 
  • Stapleton F, Hinds M, Tan J, Jones L, Chalmers R, Bosworth C, Alster Y. AZR-MD-001 0.5% selenium sulfide ophthalmic ointment for the treatment of contact lens discomfort: A vehicle-controlled, randomized, clinical trial. Ocul Surf. 2025 Oct;38:431-439. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2024.12.009. 
  • Stapleton F, Jia T, DePuy V, Bosworth C, Gleeson M, Tan J. The effect of a biweekly novel selenium sulfide-containing topical treatment in symptomatic contact lens wearers: An exploratory study. Ocul Surf. 2025 Apr;36:190-197. doi: 10.1016/j.jtos.2025.01.015.  
  • Wolffsohn JS, Benítez-Del-Castillo JM, Loya-Garcia D, Inomata T, Iyer G, Liang L, Pult H, Sabater AL, Starr CE, Vehof J, Wang MTM, Chen W, Craig JP, Dogru M, Perez VL, Stapleton F, Sullivan DA, Jones L; + TFOS collaborator group. TFOS DEWS III: Diagnostic Methodology. Am J Ophthalmol. 2025 Nov;279:387-450. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2025.05.033 
  • Yeo SLS, Samuels A, Keay L, Faasse K, Carnt N. Impact of user-generated YouTube videos on knowledge and beliefs in contact lens wearers. Clin Exp Optom. 2025 Nov 26:1-10. doi: 10.1080/08164622.2025.2589386. 
  • Yoshioka N, Honson V, Mani R, Oberstein S, Watt K, Maseedupally V. Performance of ChatGPT on optometry and vision science exam questions. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2025 Sep;45(6):1376-1388. doi: 10.1111/opo.13544. 
  • Zhang Z, Zeng L, Gu D, Wang B, Kang P, Watt K, Zhou J, Zhou X, Chen Z, Yang D, Chen C, Wang X, Zhou X, Chen Z. Spectacle Lenses With Highly Aspherical Lenslets for Slowing Axial Elongation and Refractive Change in Low-Hyperopic Chinese Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Ophthalmol. 2025 Jan;269:60-68. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2024.08.020