UKZN Academic Appointed to World Council for Optometry Committee

BY: .

UKZN’s Academic Leader for Optometry, Ms Vanessa Moodley, has been appointed to the Legislation, Regulation and Standards Committee of the World Council for Optometry. 

The appointment was made at the inaugural World Optometry Congress held in Medellin, Colombia, where Moodley delivered a paper titled: “Social Accountability: Key Element in Accreditation of Optometry Education Programmes”. 

Moodley’s paper, which emanated from her PhD work on quality assurance and social accountability in optometric education, was selected as one of four Best Scientific Presentations.

The paper attracted significant interest from academic leaders from various institutions globally who were at the conference. ‘Most institutions in optometry are yet to institute accreditation systems and academic leaders requested assistance with incorporating social accountability policies and processes into their respective education programmes,’ Moodley said.

Commenting on her appointment to the WCO committee, Moodley said: ‘Having served as Chairperson of the Professional Board for Optometry and Dispensing Opticians in South Africa and as a Council member on the HPCSA for more than ten years, I feel confident I will be able to make a positive contribution to this WCO committee towards fulfilling their mandate to inform and contribute to the development of policy and legal frameworks for eye and vision care globally.’

The profession of Optometry in South Africa has recently increased the scope of practice and made major progress in increasing its public sector footprint.  The public will soon have access to improved public eye care services, thanks to a first-of-its-kind ocular therapeutics programme for optometrists – championed by Moodley – currently being conducted for a cohort of 135 optometrists from across the country at UKZN in partnership with the State University of New York.

Previously, only those trained as ophthalmologists – specialists in medical and surgical eye problems – could prescribe ocular therapeutic drugs to patients in South Africa.

‘The profession has reached a significant milestone with the Health Professions Council of South Africa setting up a new register for optometrists to be trained in ocular therapeutics,’ said Moodley.

The Discipline of Optometry at UKZN is one of four optometry education and training programmes in the country and continues to align itself to a transforming profession by being more socially accountable.  It has offered Bachelor of Optometry, Master of Optometry and Doctor of Optometry programmes since its establishment in in 1980.

UKZNdaba Online