Fellow of the World College of Refractive Surgery and Vision Sciences WCRSVS

Woke up on the January 21st 2023 to this unexpected honour - incredibly grateful to the Refractive Surgical Alliance and Drs Arthur Cummings, Guy Kezirian and Francesco Carones for the very kind nomination to be Board Certified in Refractive Surgery and become an inaugural Fellow of the World College of Refractive Surgery and Visual Sciences.

I remember attending my first AUSCRS ever as a junior resident, led by then president Professor Graham Barrett . At that point I was completely naive to refractive surgery as there wasn't any exposure to it in the public training system. From that led to seeing my first refractive surgeries ever in Paris with Professor Damien Gatinel , followed by my first forays into refractive surgery in Toronto, Canada under the expert supervision of Professor David Rootman and the TLC team of superstar staff, optometrists, technicians and admin. How I miss those faces .

Since then, I have been fortunate to have met and worked alongside some incredible mentors, some listed above and many others, who have been instrumental to developing this side of my skillset alongside my love for cornea, complex anterior segment and ocular surface surgery.

It's been a truly wonderful world of learning, teaching and innovation alongside a group of passionate, supportive, ethical and kind individuals whose mission is to establish a standard of qualifications and quality of care in Refractive Surgery and address preventable blindness for social impact globally and I hope to continue contributing in some small way to these goals.

Finally, thank you to all of my supportive staff who allow me to undertake this work from my (relatively new) home in Sydney, Australia - we will have our work cut out for us

If you’d like to learn more about the World College of Refractive Surgery and Vision Sciences, have a little read of this taken from their website which you may peruse here: www.wcrsvs.org.

“The World College of Refractive Surgery and Visual Sciences (WCRS) was founded to represent Refractive Surgery as a standalone ophthalmic specialty.

The WCRS functions both as a Specialty Board and an Umbrella Organization supporting both education, training, and credentialing in Refractive Surgery as well as helping add value to ophthalmic organizations, courses, programs, and selected residency programs for the promotion, and expansion of refractive surgery on a global level.

The benefit for refractive surgeons is to enhance their career and qualifications by enriching their knowledge and skills while providing a required standard of credentials that will be recognized by patients, peers, and the general public.

The World College of Refractive Surgery & Visual Sciences (WCRS) is structured as a Public Benefit Corporation working with our independent, affiliated, charitable Visual Freedom Foundation (VFF) for social impact. Our mission will be directed towards addressing the leading global causes of preventable blindness for disadvantaged populations worldwide. According to the World Health Organization over 90% of global preventable blindness is from unaddressed refractive error and cataract.”