I have really enjoyed the first few months of this year, with several events and conferences providing opportunities to catch up with old friends and reflect on how fortunate I am to work in such a fantastic industry.

Most recently, I was in Fremantle for Optometry Western Australia’s WAVE conference. If you haven’t been there, you must! Fremantle is a small, historic town and due to its size, pretty much everyone who attends the conference in person stays onsite. That makes the event both clinically valuable and fun: wherever you go, you bump into someone you know.

The other fantastic event I attended was Women with Vision. While the majority of optometrists these days are women, most practice owners are men. This is changing, of course, but it takes time. Women with Vision was pitched as a festival: a celebration of ideas and achievements, and a ‘safe’ place in which women could share stories. The energy on the day was incredible, and it extended well beyond with ongoing connections, both face-to-face and via social media.

May is Macula Month, Macular Disease Foundation Australia’s (MDFA’s) annual awareness campaign that aims to educate and bring people into your practices to have their vision checked for macular disease. Now in its 25th year, MDFA has made massive inroads into community awareness of, and support for, people living with macular disease. The Foundation has also supported researchers in their efforts to find cures for macular diseases, including neovascular age-related macular degeneration, dry AMD, and its more advanced form, geographic atrophy. But it’s not only AMD that MDFA is focused on. This national organisation supports research into, and patients with, diabetic eye disease, inherited retinal diseases like Stargardt and Best disease, and other macular conditions.

If you haven’t been to the website, visit mdfoundation.com.au to discover the resources available, and be sure to get behind Macula Month this year. And don’t forget to read this issue of mivision, which is loaded with great articles exploring the latest advances in macular disease diagnosis and treatment.

Enjoy!

MELANIE KELL EDITOR

In the spirit of reconciliation, mivision acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. As a bi-national publication, we acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua and Treaty of Waitangi partners in Aotearoa New Zealand.