Mark Nevin has not long been in the top job at Optometry Australia (OA), but already he sounds like a man who has found his way home. Appointed Chief Executive Officer of the peak body for optometrists early this year, he came to the role via an unusually wide arc – one that began behind a slit lamp and passed through European policy chambers, radiology and radiation oncology, and federal government consulting before completing its loop back to eye care.

That breadth, he said, is precisely what drew him to the position.

“It feels like I’m coming home in many ways,” Mr Nevin told mivision. “So many people globally have reached out – people from the UK, Ireland, Europe, even the US – and it’s been wonderful. There are fantastic people in this industry, and they’re very, very generous with their time and their knowledge.”

Mr Nevin trained and registered as an optometrist in Ireland and the United Kingdom, spending 10 years in frontline practice across hospital settings, independent and corporate practices, and domiciliary eye care – including extensive work visiting aged care facilities to deliver mobile eye examinations. It was meaningful work, he said, but he was drawn to the national policy that sits above the clinic: funding, workforce reform, and national advocacy.

MOVING INTO NATIONAL POLICY

Rather than simply pivot careers, he took the longer route. While continuing to work as a locum optometrist, Mr Nevin completed an undergraduate degree in economics in Birmingham and then a Master’s in European politics in London, followed by research work for a European think tank examining reform proposals for European Union funding structures.

“My CV landed on the desk of one of CEOs for the peak bodies for optometry in the UK. He called me in for a coffee and said, ‘Here’s a job we have in mind for you’,” Mr Nevin recalled. He went on to spend four years working on optometry policy and strategy across the UK, Republic of Ireland, and at a European level – a period he described as “deeply rewarding”.

A move to Australia followed when his Melbourne-born partner prompted the couple to leave London and explore a new chapter. Mr Nevin transitioned into health policy for radiology and radiation oncology, spending seven years at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) – including a period as interim CEO through the full complexity of the COVID-19 years. He subsequently moved into consulting, working with federal and state governments on health system reform and the adoption of new technologies. Stints at the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, in the cancer sector, and in disability services rounded out a portfolio career that, viewed in totality, maps almost precisely onto the challenges facing optometry.

A PROFESSION AT A CROSSROADS

Mr Nevin is clear-eyed about the challenges that await him. Optometry Australia’s membership delivers eye health services to around 11 million Australians annually, but the profession faces genuine structural questions about sustainability, workforce distribution, and its standing within the broader health system. He is also stepping into an organisation navigating a significant governance transition.

On workforce, he described a picture that will be familiar to anyone who has been paying attention. Metropolitan settings are contending with an oversupply of optometrists, while regional and rural Australia continue to face shortfalls in access to eye care. At the same time, many early-career optometrists find themselves unable to exercise the full scope of a five-year university qualification in day-to-day practice.

“We’ve got a superb and highly skilled workforce delivering very high-quality services in the community. But we do have issues around funding, sustainability, and a complex workforce dynamic,” he said. “This is going to require a lot of engagement with our individual optometrists, conversations across the sector, and working together on a coherent package of measures that tackles both the demand and supply side of the labour market.”

While not prescribing solutions yet – he is very deliberately in listening mode – he flagged that financial levers such as rural loadings, as used elsewhere in healthcare, may form part of the picture. More significantly, he believes the profession’s oversupply in urban settings could become an asset rather than a liability as projections of significant shortages in doctors and nurses across Australia intensify toward 2030.

“Optometrists are really well placed to be part of that broader solution across the health care system, providing more accessible care in the community and in hospital settings,” he said. “I think we’ve been an underutilised part of the healthcare system, and I really want to reposition our role as a key primary eye care provider.”

DEEPENING THE VALUE PROPOSITION

On the question of value for members, Mr Nevin pointed to several fronts. Subspecialisation – following the trajectory of medicine and nursing – is one area the profession needs to support more actively, whether in paediatrics, glaucoma management, or hospital-based optometry. Ensuring that Medicare funding fairly reflects the services optometrists are qualified to deliver, without requiring practitioners to cross-subsidise from other revenue streams, is another.

Having worked with the Institute of Digital Health and engaged with the topic for more than a decade, he is also excited about the prospect of fully integrating digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) into optometry. He sees interoperability – the seamless sharing of clinical data across GP practices, ophthalmology, and hospital settings – as foundational work that OA should actively pursue alongside federal government initiatives already underway.

“If you’ve got digital systems and connectivity on a national scale, it opens the door to a whole new range of care-enhancing opportunities,” he said. The potential of smart glasses, smart contact lenses, and AI-assisted diagnostics all feature in his thinking, though he is careful to insist that the ‘so what’ for optometrists and patients must be clearly articulated before pursuing technology for its own sake.

THE FEDERATION QUESTION

Perhaps the most immediate structural challenge on Mr Nevin’s desk is the ongoing conversation about the future of OA’s federation with its state and territory divisions. Three divisions have already integrated operationally with the national body, and productive conversations are continuing across the remaining divisions. Mr Nevin is circumspect but constructive.

“We have to think about ensuring that we’re future proofing our organisation and our structure, so we’ve got a professional association that’s adding the most value for our members,” he said. “We’re meeting very regularly, and we’ve committed to keeping our members and the sector updated. Member engagement is at the core of that.”

That emphasis on member engagement is, in fact, the thread that runs through everything Mr Nevin described. Having spent years working across medical colleges, government, consumer bodies, and industry associations, he understands that effective advocacy is only as strong as the relationships that underpin it – internal and external alike.

“Even with some stakeholders, where you have a difference of views and perspective, you should still be having a conversation around where the evidence is, and how you balance quality of care with accessibility and out-of-pocket costs for consumers,” he said. “That stakeholder engagement piece is really critical and fundamental.”

To begin meeting members face-to-face, Mr Nevin said he is looking forward to attending optometry conferences and events over the coming months.