President Report 2015

Miss Victoria Law

President’s Report

It is my pleasure to report to the members on the past year’s activities of the Society. I would like to

thank the councilors and members who have contributed their effort and time to our Society’s mission

throughout the year.

At the AGM on 13th

March 2015, a new slate of councilors were elected (Table 1). We have established

committees taking charge of continuing education, public education, etc (see Table 2). We have re-

appointed Professor George Woo, Dr. May Wu and invited Professor Carly Lam as our honorary advisors.

Ms. Eman Kwong continues to serve as the person in charge of the Secretariat of the Society.

Table 1. Council Composition

President Miss Victoria Law

Vice-President Dr. Patrick Chu

Immediate Past President Mr. Jack Wong

Internal Secretary Dr. Jenny Lung

External Secretary Dr. Patrick Ting

Treasurer Dr. Forrest Ng

Councilors Miss Manki Chan

Miss Patti Chan

Mr. Bruce Chin

Mr. Peter Chung

Dr. Thomas Lam

Ms. Rita Sum

Dr. Gordon Tang

Ms. Cecilia Tong

Mr. Kelvin Wan

Mr. Herman Chan (Resigned)

Dr. Helen Eng (Resigned)

Table 2. Committees

Committees Group members

Continuing Education Dr. Patrick Ting (Committee Chair)

Miss Patti Chan

Dr. Helen Eng

Dr. Gordon Tang

Mr. Kelvin Wan

Public Education Miss Manki Chan(Committee Chair)

Mr. Kelvin Cheung Man Hei

Mr. Bruce Chin

Information Technology Dr. Gordon Tang(Committee Chair)

Dr. Thomas Lam

Mr. Peter Pang

Membership benefit Ms. Rita Sum (Committee Chair)

Mr. Herman Chan

Mr. Kenny Tam

Ms. Cecilia Tong

Publicity Dr. Jenny Lung (Committee Chair)

Dr. Geoffrey Chu Chin Hung

Mr. Peter Chung Chi Lik

Dr. Thomas Lam Chuen

Dr. Tomy Lo Ka Kin

1. Membership

There were 427 members in 2015, while 62 were new members. We invited Optometry

undergraduate students to join as student members through electronic registration. One hundred

and one students newly joined and we now have one hundred and thirteen student members in

total.

2. Continuing education

From March 2015, our Society organized six continuing education programs and the list is in table 3.

Table 3. CPD programs provided in 2015

Date Topic Speaker CPD hours

9 Jun 2015 Elderly vision and Health Care Voucher

Scheme

Dr. Allen Cheong

Dr. Helen Eng

2

24 July 2015 Orthokeratology: Past, Present and

Future

Prof. Helen A

Swarbrick

1.5

18 Aug 2015 Blue light hazards: What an ophthalmic

practitioner needs to know

Dr. Chea-Su Kee

Dr. Jeffery Leung

1.5

10 – 11 Sept 2015

(With TVCI)

Innovating for multifocal fitting success:

Meeting the needs of the ageing eye

Dr. Kurt Moody 1

Clinical pearls of successful multifocal

contact lens practice

Mr. Daven Ngai 1

Common ocular disorders in middle age

and beyond

Dr. Vincent Ng

Miss Cheuk-wing Lee

1

30 Sep 2015 Childhood strabismus and its relations

with refractive error

Dr. Jane Yeung 1

13 Oct 2015 My top-ten: Hospital-based specialty

contact lens practice cases

Prof. Barry A.

Weissman

1

17 Dec 2015 Drivers and seafarers vision Mr. Peter Pang

Dr. Gordon Tang

Dr. Helen Eng

1.5

In addition, our Society will jointly host the 10th

Asia Cornea and Contact Lens Conference (ACCLC)

with The Eye Foundation, The Hong Kong Association of Private Practice Optometrist (APPO), The Hong

Kong Polytechnic University School of Optometry and Hong Kong Contact Lens Research Association. It

will take place from 28th

and 29th

April 2016 at Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East, Tseng Kwan O.

We have invited speakers from the US, the UK and Australia in addition to several local guest speakers.

There will also be oral and poster presentations by delegates from different countries. 10 hours of CPD

are provided by this two day conference.

3. Public education

i. Promotion of World Sight Day

A press conference was held on 29th

Sept 2015 for promoting World Sight Day with APPO, The

Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Optometry. The theme of this year was “School

Health”, in particular school myopia. There were about 15 TV and newspaper coverages.

Following on the successful event, a steering committee was formed to plan further activities.

Our Vice President (Dr. Patrick Chu) will participate in the steering committee.

ii. Services to the communities

Three vision screenings were carried out in the community and listed in table 4. Besides, letters

have been sent out to district councils requesting them to host public talks on eye care by our

members in order to increase public awareness on eye health.

Table 4. Vision Screenings

長者護眼日長者護眼日長者護眼日長者護眼日 沙田健康節沙田健康節沙田健康節沙田健康節 2015 中西區健康節中西區健康節中西區健康節中西區健康節 2015

Co-organizer The Lions of Wan Chai, Hong

Kong

沙田區議會衛生及環境委

員會

中西區區議會醫療衛生

及復康服務工作小組

Date and

time

7 June 2015;

10:00am to 5:00pm

12 July 2015;

1:30pm to 5:00pm

29 – 30 August 2015

10:00am to 1:00pm

2:00pm to 5:00pm

Venue Leighton Hill Community Hall Shatin Town Hall Plaza Smithfield Sports Centre,

6/F Smithfield Municipal

Services Building

Screening

activities

1. Amsler grid test

2. Non-contact

tonometry

3. VA

4. Visual field screening

(machine provided by

HKSB)

5. Consultation

6. Talk

1. Amsler grid test

2. Dry Eye OSDI

Questionnaire

3. UV Transmission

Meter

4. Demonstration of

UV and blue-ray

filtering lens

1. Amsler grid test

2. Non-contact

tonometry

3. VA

No. of

participants

158 200 350

Volunteers 1. Prof. George Woo

2. Miss Victoria Law

3. Miss Manki Chan

4. Mr. Norton Chan

5. Dr. Allen Cheong

6. Dr. Helen Eng

7. Dr. Julia Li

8. Dr. Tomy Lo

9. Miss Rachel Wong

10. Miss Cannie Lam

1. Miss Victoria Law

2. Miss Manki Chan

3. Miss Patti Chan

4. Miss Heidi Chan

5. Dr. Helen Eng

6. Ms. Josephine

Hung

7. Dr. Tomy Lo

8. Mr. Humphrey

Cheung

1. Miss Victoria

Law

2. Dr. Patrick Chu

3. Miss Manki Chan

4. Mr. Bruce Chin

5. Mr. Kelvin

Cheung

6. Mr. Dennis

Cheung

7. Miss Hanglee Ho

8. Miss Flora Lee

9. Dr. Tomy Lo

10. Miss Ling Ling

Tsoi

Vision screening at Leighton Hill Community Hall

Vision screening in Sha Tin

Vision screening in Central Western District

4. Professional issues

i. Open Forum on Health Care Related Issues

Our Treasure, Dr. Forrest Ng and our councilor Miss Manki Chan attended an Open Forum on

Health Care Related Issues organized by Prof. Hon Joseph Lee Kok Long on 14 July 2015.

Concerns included sales of over the counter contact lens and the enhancement of student

health service on eye health. These issues were brought to Dr. Ko Wing Man’s, Secretary for

Food and Health Bureau, attention.

Open forum discussion with Prof. Hon Joseph and Dr. Ko Wing Man.

ii. Sales of over the counter contact lens

Having noted the sales of these lenses at Watsons, Aeon and Yata stores, we have written

letters to express our concern. The letters were copied to Dr. Ko Wing Man, Prof. Maurice Yap,

Prof Lee Kok Long, and the medical device office.

iii. Steering committee on strategic review on healthcare manpower planning and professional

development

The University of Hong Kong has completed a project in projecting demand and supply for the

healthcare professionals in HK. In the projection, a large gap in demand and supply for

optometrists was predicted. There was concern on the age profiles of optometrists and the

possible impact of the coming retirement wave on the supply of optometrists in the private

sector.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong has done a review in professional regulatory frameworks

for healthcare professionals. There are 5 key recommendations by the Chinese University of

Hong Kong and HKSPO agrees on those recommendations

1. The law needs reviewing and the Ordinance needs updating as a matter of urgency

2. Professional regulation to maintain professional standards should be reviewed

3. Compulsory CPD should be implemented with the support of the professions and the

public

4. Lay membership on regulatory bodies should be reviewed

5. Profession specific issues including allow each Board to develop its specialty, remove the

need for referral by a physician to allow health professionals to practice primary care,

review Pharmacy & Poisons Ordinance to allow limited rights of prescribing to Allied

Health Professionals and review the Ordinance of SMPC.

iv. IVE Higher diploma in Optometric Support Service

The higher diploma course is being launched in Sept 2016. Meetings with VTC program

lecturers were held on 16 Dec 2015, 7 Jan 2016 and 19 Jan 2016. In the meetings, the VTC

program lecturers explained that the aim of the course is to train their students to be assistants

who are going to work in hospitals, ophthalmologist or optometrist clinics. Also, they stressed

that VTC does not have any intention to apply for possible registration to the Optometrist

Board. A more detailed account of HKSPO’s view on the IVE course will be reported to you at

the AGM.

v. The E-Health record

E-health record will be launched in March 2016 in Hospital Authority (HA) and Department of

Health (DH). The main purpose for e-health record is for clinical data on patients in the public

sector to be available to private practitioners’ clinics. A meeting was held with Dr. Andrew Lam,

HA and DH Optometrists to collect opinions on 21 Dec 2015. A document was prepared and

sent to the Bureau on 15 January 2016. Inside the document, we requested optometrists to

have access to all patient data in HA and DH. The proposed community-based e-health

recording system will be launched in 2017-18.

5. Communication

The new HKSPO website was launched. Starting from March 2015, there were over 40,000 visits

already. In the new website, additional features under member’s area included Archives (past

minutes and newsletter) and Notice Board were added. Also, members could apply CE course via

the website directly.

Moreover, a Facebook closed group for members only was started which include recruitment

information, information sharing among members and Society news. This closed group also served

as a channel to deliver and exchange information among members

6. Publicity

HKSPO newsletter service “Hong Kong Optometry” has resumed publication since 2013. It not only

aims at providing society news to our members, but also promoting our society to all Part I

optometrists, our alumni and other professional organizations.

Different professionals including academic staff, researchers, ophthalmologists, allied health and

industry professionals were invited to write for our newsletter. It provides a platform for the

exchange of the updated information in different fields.

With the generous support from different companies, hard copies of the newsletter are available to

all Part I optometrists. Softcopies were posted on the society Facebook and official website.

Three more issues are scheduled to be published before March 2017.

7. Members benefits

In the last year, our committees kept searching for different membership benefits for our members.

Sixteen different companies and clinics agreed to provide special offers of their services to our

members and family. The lists were uploaded to HKSPO homepage for our members’ reference.

In addition, a cue card with the norms on general health and binocular vision is available to all

HKSPO members and student members. We hope to provide some tools which are useful for

primary eye care. We plan to make cue cards in other areas. Stay tuned!

8. The 20th

Asia Pacific Optometric Congress (APOC)

On behalf of HKSPO, I attended the Asia Pacific Council of Optometry General Delegates Meeting in

Kuala Lumpur between 9 and 11 Oct 2015. At the delegates meeting, I was elected an Executive

Committee Member of the Council. In addition, I became a regional member of the Public Health

Committee of the World Council of Optometry. The theme of the conference was “Optometry:

Advancing Eye Health”. Scholars from a number of Asian countries, the US and the UK delivered

presentations on topics related to the role of optometrists in primary eye care, visual impairment,

diabetic retinopathy, ocular inflammation and corneal oxygen. Our honorary advisor Prof. George

Woo also had a poster presentation on “A pilot study on bilberry extract supplements for

symptomatic dry eyes” with Dr. Lily Chan.

9. Meeting with other associations

1. Our councilor Ms. Manki Chan attended the 115 to 118th Council meetings of the Federation of

Medical Societies of Hong Kong on behalf of our Society.

2. Prof. George Woo, Dr. Allen Cheong and I attended the AGM meeting of Hong Kong Federation

of Societies for Prevention of Blindness on 29th

Dec 2015.

10. Upcoming Activities

1. HKSPO Spring dinner will be held on 22nd

March 2016 in the Intercontinental Grand Stanford

Hotel Hong Kong.

2. Fun fair to celebrate the 20th

Anniversary of the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences with

the Federation of Medical Societies of Hong Kong on 16-17 April 2016

11. Closing

I would like to express my profound gratitude to all the council members and the working group

members for all their contributions in the last year.