June 6 and 7, 2008
2 hours of Optometric or Assistant CE
Once again, we are proud to present the Distinguished Dr. Emerson Woodruff and Dr. Clair Bobier Awards Lectures. These lectures are awarded each year to honour Dr. Emerson Woodruff and Dr. Clair Bobier. All optometrists, optometric assistants, staff and interested people are welcome to join us for these very special events.
The lectures are free of charge to all. However, we ask that, if you are not already registered for the annual CE program, you register with Elizabeth. Each is an additional hour of CE. The first, the Woodruff Lecture, is held on Friday June 6 at 4:45 pm. The second, the Bobier Lecture in Vision Science, is held on Saturday June 7 at 4:45 pm.
Both lectures are held at the School in lecture hall 347 in conjunction with our annual CE weekend. Directions to the School can be found on our directions page. These are annual lectures so please check back next year for the next awarded series.
Bobier Lecture
On Friday June 8th at 4:45 P.M., the 18th annual Dr. Clair Bobier Lecture in Vision will be presented to honour Dr. Clair Bobier’s immense contributions to the Optometric profession.
Dr. Graham Strong
Optometric co-management of partially cured ophthalmic patients
Ontario is poised to become the next Canadian province to expand the legislated scope of optometric practice to a level that is more commensurate with the established expertise of the profession and the needs of the people it serves. A logical concern is that expanding the scope of practice in this direction will entail compensatory constrictions in other traditional service areas, such as in the provision of low vision services. Any such depletion will have a significant impact on the visual welfare of the growing number of Canadian baby boomers who are becoming more at risk for vision loss from a myriad of age-associated vision conditions. Optometrists will have a significant role to play in the direct provision of therapeutic treatment services to these people and in the co-management of treatment services provided by other health professionals. It is an important to realize that a significant proportion of sight-limiting eye diseases can be treated, but not cured. Many people will be left with some degree of persisting vision loss that may limit their ability to perform common seeing tasks, such as reading the newspaper, recognizing faces across a room, driving a car, or watching a movie. Modest low vision interventions are well within the capability of community-based optometrists, and they have been shown to have a robust and significant impact on the visual functioning of these people, and consequently on their quality of life. A recent challenge facing contemporary low vision practitioners is the need to integrate video-based assistive technologies into traditional assessment protocols that were designed around optical device technologies. Optometrists must ensure that essential low vision services are made available to their patients, either by providing them directly or by referring to colleagues who have the requisite interest, resources, and capabilities. These secondary referrals for low vision services are as essential to optometric patients as the primary referrals for the medical or surgical interventions that partially cured them.
Professor Graham Strong is a former Director and Associate Dean of Science for Optometry at the University of Waterloo. He has worked in the field of low vision for the past thirty-seven years. He is the current Director of the Centre for Sight Enhancement (CSE), a position he's held since 1987. The CSE is an internationally acclaimed low vision service and research facility, and the only low vision service in Canada to be accredited by the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC). Strong has been involved in the inception, development, and subsequent expansions of the Vision Aids Section of the Assistive Devices Program in Ontario since its inception in 1982. He is also active in local, national and international low vision research forums. His primary research activities are in the fields of low vision rehabilitation and consumer-focused assistive technology development. Strong is leader of the Vision Research Team for the Ontario Rehabilitation Technology Research Consortium (ORTC), a position he's held since its inception in 1992. He is also an Adjunct Research Scientist with the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI). The common element in Dr. Strong's research, development, and clinical activities is his methodical adherence to an analytical approach to solve functional problems related to vision tasks and assistive device interventions. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a structured methodology and mathematical tool that is used to identify and quantify consumer requirements and to translate them into key device intervention parameters. Although these Analytical Problem Solving (APS) and QFD approaches are traditionally used to solve manufacturing and technical problems, they have proven to be equally effective in the analysis and resolution of situational incompatibilities between visual function (impairment) and visual abilities (disability). With significant contributions from various industry partners, this research culminated in the development and commercialization of a procession of award-winning vision rehabilitation products. In recognition of these achievements, Strong's laboratory received a Computerworld Smithsonian Award and he was inducted as a Computerworld Smithsonian Laureate in 1999. He is frequently consulted to design custom device interventions for unusual and challenging disability presentations. In addition, Strong is a court-recognized Forensic Optometrist who has been consulted in numerous homicide investigations and prosecutions. He also serves as a consultant in various vision-related aspects of competition and tactical shooting.
Please join us afterwards for a wine & cheese reception.
Woodruff Lecture
On Saturday June 9th at 4:45 P.M., the 13th annual lecture to honour Dr. Emerson Woodruff and his significant contributions to the School of Optometry will be presented.
Dr. C. Ross Ethier
The Biomechanics of Glaucoma
The eye is a fascinating organ from a biomechanical viewpoint. Among other remarkable features, it is a self-pressurized thick-walled shell containing: a dedicated fluid production and drainage system, sophisticated vascular autoregulation for one of the most metabolically active tissues in the body (the retina) and fragile neural tissue exposed to forces imposed by much tougher connective tissues.
We will consider ocular biomechanics in the context of glaucoma, the second most common cause of blindness. The mechanism of retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma is not well understood, nor is the fundamental cause of the elevated IOP characteristic of this disease.
In this presentation we will describe the biomechanics of the optic nerve tissues, with particular focus on the lamina cribrosa. We will then describe studies that have identified the main biomechanical factors influencing retinal ganglion cell dysfunction in the optic nerve head region of the glaucomatous eye. We present several testable hypotheses about how scleral biomechanical properties could influence the mechanical insult experienced by optic nerve head astrocytes in glaucoma.
Ross Ethier is the Director of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. Professor Ethier joined the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1986 after receiving his B.Sc. degree in Engineering Mathematics from Queen's University, an M.Math degree from the University of Waterloo and his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Along with his many cross-appointments, he remains the Chair of the Biomedical option within the Division of Engineering Science.
Professor Ethier has been recognized many times over the course of his career for both his research and teaching achievements. In 1997, he was awarded the prestigious E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship from NSERC. He received the von Humbolt Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1999 and currently holds the Canada Research Chair in Computational Technology. In addition, he was awarded the Departmental Teaching Award in Mechanical Engineering on two occasions, in 1993 and 1995, and was the recipient of the Faculty Teaching Award in 2005.
Professor Ethier's research interests include biomechanics of molecules, cells and whole organs; numerical and experimental studies of blood flow in large arteries, study of the hemodynamic basis of arterial disease; outflow of aqueous humour within the eye, as related to the problem of glaucoma; mechanical and cellular response of optic nerve tissues to intraocular pressure in glaucoma.
