The RANZCO NZ Branch has introduced two named lectures to its annual conference, honouring two leading ophthalmologists from New Zealand’s past, Professor John Parr and Dr Dorothy Potter, and this year’s inaugural recipients, Professor Gerard Sutton and Dr Dianne Sharp.
The medal lectures recognise clinical, academic, teaching or other achievements in ophthalmology at home or abroad, and one international and one national speaker will be chosen each year to deliver the lectures.
John Parr medal lecture – Prof Gerard Sutton
The late Professor John Parr taught generations of medical students and ophthalmology trainees as professor of ophthalmology in Otago. He established the course for the part one and two RANZCO examinations in ophthalmic sciences, assisted by Gordon Sanderson, and often butted heads with some of his peers for his now more accepted future-looking views, such as employing optometrists and orthoptists to work more closely with ophthalmologists. He also wrote the well-known text book, Introduction to Ophthalmology, which ran to several editions internationally, and was an avid researcher into retinal circulation.
Professor Charles McGhee introduced Professor Gerard Sutton, Sydney Medical School’s foundation professor of corneal and refractive surgery, as the inaugural John Parr medal lecturer, calling him an honorary Kiwi given his long-term, personal and professional links with New Zealand, including his love of fly fishing with the late, and much-missed, Gordon Sanderson.
