Leading names to deliver key BCLA addresses

This year’s BCLA Medal address will be presented by Professor James Wolffsohn, while Dr Orla Murphy will present the Irving Fatt memorial lecture.

The eagerly awaited presentations will be delivered later this year and will follow significant lectures from Professor Lyndon Jones and Nicole Carnt at the last BCLA Clinical Conference in 2019.
Luke Stevens-Burt, chief executive of the BCLA, said: “The eye care profession is fortunate to have such an incredible array of talent, with pioneers and leaders in every field inspiring a new generation to keep pushing, keep finding new ways of doing things and ensure patients get the best possible care.

“These two lectures will undoubtedly be among the highlights of our programme as we emerge from lockdown and I am sure they will resonate with eye care professionals around the world.”

The BCLA Medal may be awarded to any living person of any qualification or nationality for outstanding achievement in the field of contact lenses and/or anterior eye.

This could represent a significant contribution to the development, understanding, appreciation or usage of contact lenses, through invention, research, industrial work, clinical practice, or a similar level of contribution relating to anterior eye or technology for assessing the anterior eye, or such other means that are considered appropriate by the council of the BCLA.

Professor James Wolffsohn is Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor of Aston University. He has published more than 215 peer reviewed academic papers and given numerous international presentations. His main research areas are the development and evaluation of ophthalmic instrumentation, contact lenses, intraocular lenses and the tear film.

He is the academic chair of the BCLA, having been a past president, was a sub-committee chair for TFOS DEWS II and joint-chair of the International Myopia Institute reports.

He is executive chair of the Contact Lens Evidence-based Academic Reports (CLEAR) – a new BCLA global consensus report will deliver evidence-based guidance to eye care professionals around the world on all aspects of prescribing and fitting contact lenses

The honour of presenting the Irving Fatt memorial lecture is aimed at postgraduates in the field of contact lenses and/or anterior eye, who have completed a PhD, a post-doctoral degree or MSc in the UK within the last five years and continued with their research either in private practice, hospital practice or academia.

Dr Orla Murphy is an optometrist whose research involves the area of dry eye and demodex blepharitis, particularly the prevalence and effectiveness of modern treatment methods at killing and treating Demodex infestation.

As well as lecturing at Technological University Dublin, Dr Murphy has worked as a clinical trial coordinator and investigator on ophthalmology clinical trials and had several scientific publications; including lead author original research articles, research posters and abstracts. She regularly peer-reviews for scientific journals.

For more information on registering for the BCLA Clinical Conference and Exhibition, visit www.bcla.org.uk