Nine RANZCO Fellows have been recognised as Trainers of Excellence this year, as voted by trainees within the college’s Vocational Training Program (VTP).
Each year, RANZCO asks its trainees to nominate the training supervisor in their network they believe deserves recognition for outstanding dedication to teaching.
This year’s recipients were:
- New Zealand: Dr Harry Bradshaw
- Prince of Wales: Dr Leanne Cheung
- Queensland: Dr Nicholas Toalster
- South Australia: Dr Weng Chan and Professor Bob Casson
- Sydney Eye Hospital: Dr Clayton Barnes
- Victoria: Associate Professor James Elder
- Western Australia: Dr Vignesh Raja and Dr Fred Chen
Supervisors provide trainees with knowledge, guidance and support to meet the demands of the training and assessment requirements of the VTP. The Fellow with the highest number of votes is formally recognised as a RANZCO Trainer of Excellence.
Dr Fred Chen, from the Lions Eye Institute (LEI), volunteers in his capacity as a RANZCO supervisor to supervise, train and mentor trainee ophthalmologists.
“I am honoured to have been elected by my students to receive one of this year’s Trainer of Excellence awards,” he said.
“As an educator I feel fortunate to live in a time and a country where there is so much information and research available to inform high quality eyecare. I am keen to impart this ever-expanding knowledge to our trainees as future ophthalmologists so they can become leaders in their chosen field.”
Chen is an ophthalmologist and research scientist who established and leads LEI’s Ocular Tissue Engineering Laboratory.
His areas of expertise include retinal detachment repair, macular surgery, retinal imaging, treatment of various forms of macular degeneration, stargardt disease, retinitis pigmentosa and clinical trials of new drugs and retinal lasers.
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