User:Luke Dickinson/sandbox

• Comment: "one of the most well-known and respected optometrists in Australia and the world" says who exactly? Theroadislong (talk) 17:42, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

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This page is about Dr Damien P. Smith. For other people with the same name, see Luke Dickinson/sandbox (disambiguation).

Dr Damien P. Smith
Dr Damien P. Smith
Born	Dr Damien P. Smith (1945-06-26) June 26, 1945 Melbourne,
Education	The University of Melbourne
Occupation	Optometrists
Spouse	Helen Elizabeth Dickinson 18 May 1968
Children	3 Sons and 1 Daughter

Damien Patrick Smith AM, BAppSc, MSc, PhD, DOS is one of the most well-known and respected optometrists in Australia and the world. He is past-President of the World Council of Optometry, which is the international organisation that acts as advocate on behalf of nearly 200,000 optometrists around the world.

Education

Born in Melbourne on 26 June 1945, he completed his secondary studies at St Kevin’s College, Toorak. Damien graduated as an optometrist from The University of Melbourne in 1967 and continued his education to gain a Master of Science in Optometry (1970) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1974) as a result of his studies on acquired dyschromatopsia and inherited optic atrophy.

During his undergraduate studies he was Secretary and then President of the Australian Optometrical Students Society; later he was a member of the Executive Committee of The University of Melbourne Research Students Association. He was editor of Spectacle, the annual publication of the Australian optometric student body.

Smith is the author of 32 scientific papers, many published in prestigious journals including Vision Research and Investigative Ophthalmology.

Australian Optometric Association

In 1972, Damien accepted a part-time position as Director of Professional Services at the Australian Optometrical Association (AOA, now Optometrists Association Australia, OAA www.optometry.org.au. The following year he was appointed National Executive Director.

This proved to be an appropriately-timed change-over. When Damien replaced the previous executive director, the official historian of the AOA, Charles Wright, stated that "Smith was not only incomparably more able but he was a brilliant political strategist and aggressive in asserting the worth of his profession and its practitioners”.

These abilities came to the fore during the health insurance debate of the early 1970s. Smith brought with him a whole range of skills and expertise that proved to be invaluable in the lead-up to and during the implementation of the Whitlam government’s Medibank (now Medicare), the universal health insurance program.

Smith was a member of all of the working groups and most of the delegations to government members and bureaucrats and was the primary author—and frequently the sole author—of most of the submissions. He was able to think and write in a manner that appealed to bureaucrats and to propose overall policy that appealed to politicians. Barry Cole wrote: “He could write well and had learned the craft of argument from evidence through his research training. He was also as spirited debater. His writing skills enabled the AOA to prepare good letters and submissions quickly and his penchant for debate served the AOA well in meetings with government.”

“Dr Jim Cairns, the deputy Prime Minister, announced at an international optometry conference in Melbourne in May 1974 that optometry was to be included in Medibank, and said the government had ‘no reservations’ or words to that effect about the qualifications of optometrists”, recalled Damien Smith. “This was a very heart-warming comment for the practitioners of the day who were completely suppressed by ophthalmology. Recent generations of optometrists take their status for granted but their predecessors were unrecognised as a proper health profession”.

Smith had learned the methods and the value of research and used these in his preparation for meetings. He researched politicians’ speeches about optometry, quote from them and held the politicians to what they had said, or promised and forgotten. His submissions sometimes provoked strong and aggressive, sometimes irrational, reactions from organised ophthalmology. Historian Charles Wright wrote that Smith was straightforward, calling the ophthalmologists’ plans concerning the health system clumsy, ill-considered and full of bias and political propaganda. Smith’s defined a vision for primary vision care for Australians:

“That vision care is intrinsic to health follows standard definitions of health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (World Health Organisation… proper vision care can relieve disability, prevent disability, enhance productivity and promote well-being, four major objectives of all healthcare systems. Vision care must be viewed as a major sub-system of comprehensive healthcare involving two primary health disciplines, optometry and ophthalmology. The independent skills of these disciplines are complementary and together indispensable to any program of comprehensive healthcare. Ophthalmology is oriented by its philosophies, objectives, training and practice to care for the diseased eye. Epidemiological studies show that opthalmological care is appropriate to only three to five per cent of those requiring vision care, the remaining 95 to 97 per cent requiring optometric skills.”

This was one of the most important periods in the development of optometry in Australia. For the first time, health insurance benefits for consultations with optometrists became available to every man, woman and child in Australia. Optometry was included in Medicare, then called Medibank, when amendments to the Health Insurance Act 1973 were passed by the Commonwealth Parliament in June 1975.

In the Senate, Minister for Social Security John Wheeldon said of the AOA: “The Government is pleased to be able to say that it has had very great co-operation from the Australian Optometric al Association in dealing with this matter. In fact, the Australian Optometric al Association could well be taken as a model by some other professional organisations with which the Government finds itself compelled to deal.”

South Australian Senator and optometrist Don Jessop was instrumental in lobbying politicians and disarming the opposition parties. Senator Jessop was on the floor of the Senate Chamber when optometry joined the national health scheme on 10 June 1975, thanking Smith who was present in the Chamber, and the AOA. Senator Wheeldon made specific mention of Smith: “Optometrists are very highly qualified. One of our audience today, for example, holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in optometry, and certainly someone who holds those qualifications from one of the leading Australian universities cannot be regarded as being other than a man very eminent in his profession.”

According to Wright, during the battle for optometry’s entry into Medicare: “Damien Smith operated at a higher level of honour, the level of the written word, where there never must be any dishonourable manipulation of the truth; where all was true and proven true”. Wright claimed that Smith was either dazzlingly brilliant or more incredibly painstaking than the opposition.

While Smith contributed much to optometry’s entry into Medicare, it was not the only success during his period as Executive Director of the AOA. He was the principal strategist, advocate and negotiator for the inclusion of clinical optometric services in the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Services in 1977. Other initiatives taken during his term as AOA Executive Director include the purchase of the Association’s premises in Drummond Street, the creation of the Charles Wright library, introduction of professional indemnity insurance, optometry workforce studies and Australian Optometry newspaper.

Smith was Joint Editor of the Journal of the Australian Public Health Association and the Australian and New Zealand Society for Epidemiology and Research in Community Health (APHA/ANZSERCH Quarterly) from 1976 to 1978 and an Associate Editor and on several occasions Acting Editor of the Australian Journal of Optometry between 1975 and 1984. He regularly wrote a column in the Australian Journal of Optometry (now Clinical and Experimental Optometry), reporting important optometric news items from around Australia and overseas.

In 1980 Smith went into private practice, but continued his professional involvement, often behind the scenes, in a series of voluntary roles to support the development of the optometric profession in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and globally.

Asia-Pacific Council of Optometry

While Smith was AOA Executive Director, he began entertaining a vision for a regional organisation of optometrists. In Manila in July 1978 – together with Claro Cinco from the Philippines – he founded the International Federation of Asian and Pacific Associations of Optometry (IFAPAO). Their vision was to promote the advancement of primary eye health and vision care by optometrists in the Asia and Pacific region for the benefit of the public.

Smith assumed the position of Secretary-General of IFAPAO, now known as the Asia Pacific Council of Optometry (APCO) asiapacificoptometry.org and held that position from 1978-2005. While the idea was initially met with some scepticism in the region, IFAPAO succeeded to become the world’s leading regional organisation of optometry - it grew from 9 national associations in 9 countries in 1978 to 26 national associations in 18 countries in 2024.

IFAPAO proved that it was possible to unite together optometric practitioners no matter what their educational backgrounds, culture, language, race and creed. This was assisted by Smith’s encyclopaedic knowledge of optometry in the Asia-Pacific region, his political acumen and by his (usually) tactful handling of competing (quarrelsome) optometric groups.

Through his leadership and example, Smith ‘crystallised the goals and aspirations of optometrists in this region and united over 100,000 practitioners of diverse cultures and backgrounds, serving the primary eye care needs of three billion people. He inspired member countries to upgrade educational programs, enact statutes and enhance ethical values to elevate the standard of the profession in the Asia and Pacific region. Much of this was achieved through a biennial scientific meeting, the Asia Pacific Optometric Congress (APOC), held at various locations throughout the region since 1979.

The success of IFAPAO inspired what is now the organisational blueprint of the World Council of Optometry (WCO), where the WCO serves as the umbrella organisation supported by five regional groups worldwide.

World Council of Optometry

As a result of his activities with the AOA and IFAPAO, Smith had become well-known throughout the optometric world. In 1992, he was invited by the International Optometric and Optical League (later the WCO) to be a member of a ‘Think Tank’ of optometric leaders. This group formulated the WCO Concept of Optometry and Smith contributed much to this definition.

The Think Tank also proposed the formation of a task force, which consisted of five members including Smith, to look at the future of the WCO. This group proposed radical changes to the organisation of optometry worldwide, especially to the structure and function of the supreme governing body and to the financing of the development and promotion of optometric eye care services. In 1997, Damien joined the Governing Board of the WCO and became Chairman of its Committee on Standards.

In July 1998, Dr Smith visited Nigeria to deliver the keynote address at the inaugural meeting of the African Council of Optometry – a body modelled on the Asia-Pacific organisation that he founded in 1977. He arrived during a period of violent political upheaval, and grave concerns on the behalf of the Australian High Commission. Despite their misgivings, the visit was successful though not without incident.

Smith was voted President of the World Council of Optometry, serving from 2002-2004.

Community Service

Smith’s interest in the delivery of health care extended beyond optometry. He was a foundation member of the Victorian Division of the Australian Public Health Association (APHA), was on its Executive Committee (1972-1977) and later Victorian President (1976-1980), Federal Councillor and Federal Secretary (1975-1976).

Soon after, he was elected national Vice-President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Epidemiology and Research in Community Health. He was voted to office by biomedical professors of community health, epidemiologists, health service planners and biostatisticians, whose respect he had earned through his knowledge of and contributions to public health.

From 1984 to 1995, Smith was the Ministerial appointment to the Committee of Management of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH). He participated in many committees and was Chairman of the Hospital Association Accreditation Committee and the Total Quality Service Committee. Under his Chairmanship, RVEEH became the first teaching hospital in Australia to gain five-year accreditation.

In the immediate aftermath of the 26 December 2004 Tsunami, Dr Smith led a team to visit Sri Lanka to undertake a needs assessment and discover how any needed eye and vision care might best be delivered to victims. In Sri Lanka, more than 35,000 people perished, 15,000 were injured and 600,00 were displaced into makeshift survivor camps. Following the February 2005 visit, Dr Smith recommended immediate relief missions to address vision care to survivors, with the support of Australian eyecare organisations.

Honours/Awards

Damien Smith has been honoured with many distinguished service awards and numerous citations. In 1995, he was named the International Optometrist of the Year by the IOOL. In the same year, he was honoured by the Government of Australia by the award of Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) “for services to optometry and to the promotion of eye care in the Asia-Pacific region”.

Smith was awarded an honorary Doctor of Ocular Science from the New England College of Optometry in Boston in 1996 and in Australia, he received the inaugural Ivor J Lewis Medal by the AOA (Victorian Division) in 1986. This award is given “for outstanding contributions to optometry”.

In 1996, Smith was the first non-US citizen to be elected to the United States National Academy of Practice. He was inducted into membership as a Distinguished Practitioner, the highest category of academic membership.

International

• Doctor of Ocular Science (DOS), New England * * College of Optometry, Boston, 1996
• Distinguished Practitioner, United States National Academy of Practice, 1996.
• International Optometrist of the Year, 1995

Asia-Pacific

• K. B. Woo Memorial Oration, Manila 1999
• Korean Optometric Association, 1997
• Distinguished Person Member, Asia-Pacific Council of Optometry, 1995
• Indonesian Optical Association, 1990
• Malaysian Optical Association, Association of Malaysian Optometrists, 1989
• Japan Optometric Association, 1989
• Thai Optometric Association, 1988
• Samahan Ng Pilipinas sa Optometriste, 1987

Australia

• Membership of the Order of Australia (AM), 1995
• Ivor J. Lewis Memorial Medal, 1986

Professional Practice

In 1980, Damien Smith left the AOA to establish a private optometric practice, while conducting his voluntary positions with the APCO and WCO.

Personal Life

Damien married Helen Elizabeth Dickinson on 18 May 1968, and they have three sons and one daughter.