Paul Rose CNZM

Hamilton optometrist and inventor of the Rose K contact lens designs and fitting system for patients with keratoconus, Paul Rose, was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in the New Year’s Honours list for services to optometry and ophthalmology. 

Rose, who started his own optometry practice in Hamilton in 1969, worked for more than a decade on developing a lens design and fitting system that would make it easier for optometrists with limited contact lens experience to fit keratoconic patients.  

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would take me where it has,” says Rose, who noted before his system became available, fitting lenses for keratoconus patients was a very specialised area. “It was almost like a cottage industry, with each lens being created from scratch. There were very few people who did it. I just wanted to make it easier.” 

Rose went through 12 prototypes and nearly gave up a year before he finally developed a solution that worked. Key to his success, he says, was the computerised lathe purchased by Corneal Lens Corporation in the late ‘80s as this dramatically improved accuracy and repeatability. 

“The Rose K system has five steps, with many of the decisions that had to be made by the specialist before already included in the design. It’s a bit like paint-by-numbers, and a practitioner with limited experience in the area of keratoconus lens fitting can still achieve excellent results. Most optometrists in New Zealand are able to offer this service today.” 

The first Rose K lens offered a 75% success rate and was made available in New Zealand in 1989.  Australia followed soon after with FDA approval for US distribution gained in 1994. The Rose K lens system is also distributed in the UK, Europe, Middle East, South America and Asia. Today it is the most popular lens for keratoconus across the world, prescribed in more than 90 countries with a success rate of more than 80%. Despite this, Rose says he was still blown away by the honour. 

“I was overwhelmed. I’d been informed in mid-November I’d been nominated and then they contacted me again in mid-December to say the award had been ratified by the Prime Minister and the Queen. It’s a great, great honour.”