THE OPHTHALMIC JOURNAL

I love this issue. We have a fabulous variety of stories that will get you thinking from both personal and clinical perspectives.

For starters, psychologist Dr Jo Mitchell delves into impostor syndrome – it turns out that 70–80% of professionals report experiencing impostor syndrome at some point during their careers, and it’s mostly the high achievers with strong academic and professional records that do. Dr Mitchell makes the point that self-doubt is not all bad; in fact some healthy doubt is good – it keeps us on our toes. However, how do you know when that self-doubt has gone too far? Read her article to find out.

Andrew Christiansen – an optometrist undertaking his PhD in ethics and optometry – takes us on a mind-bending journey into the ethics of time and eye care. The old adage ‘time means money’ shouldn’t apply to eye care, where the primary duty is to preserve a patient’s health and wellbeing. But, of course, the reality is that practices need to be viable and people need reasonable remuneration. So how do we flex to optimise time management?

Time and resource constraints were the focus of a multinational review of surgical and procedure-based ophthalmology across five countries, co-authored by Professor Andrew Chang AM. Our lead news story delves into the findings and innovative solutions being implemented to tackle increasing demand.

Elsewhere in the issue, we look at dry eye disease, now one of the most common presentations in Australian optometry practice. Shaina Zheng provides her advice on managing mild dry eye, Dr Ben Ashby provides tips and tricks learned from the continued rollout of advanced therapies across the Specsavers network, and Rahul Kwatra delves into management of autoimmune dry eye.

We also explore aspects of cataract surgery with Dr Ben LaHood discussing factors that can make cataract surgery complex, Dr Alex Ioannidis explaining neuroadaptation post-surgery, and Dr Chris Raj reminding us of the importance of the patient consent process – something that may not be taken seriously enough by patients and practitioners alike.

Enjoy this issue.