Gillian Bruce completes masters as top performing student

We’re thrilled to announce that our clinical lead optometrist, Gillian Bruce, has passed her Masters of Science (MSc) degree in Primary Care Ophthalmology with distinction. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, she has also been awarded with the David Brewster Medal for the top performing student in the year. She will be presented with the medal at a ceremony at the Royal College of Surgeons early next year.

The course, delivered by The University of Edinburgh, was taught entirely on-line, with online lectures, tutorials and discussion boards with fellow classmates. This meant that Gillian was able to learn from optometrists from across the globe, broadening her understanding of how eye care is provided worldwide.

Primary Care Ophthalmology relates to what optometrists can do in the community to manage eye disease and conditions that have traditionally been managed in eye hospitals. The three-year course has given Gillian a broader understanding of the hospital processes and has furthered her knowledge of more complicated eye diseases, allowing her to manage them more effectively.

In her research year, Gillian chose to focus on glaucoma, focusing on the barriers optometrists face when managing glaucoma in the community. Over the next 10 years, the prevalence of glaucoma in the UK is predicted to rise by 22%, posing a considerable challenge to, already overstretched, ophthalmology services. Gillian worked closely with Scottish optometrists to determine how this care could be delivered and to uncover the barriers they perceive in doing this.

Her research has allowed her to put her new learnings and findings from research papers into practice, to benefit all the patients at the practice.

We’re incredibly proud of her efforts. Well done Gillian.

Gillian at the Glaucoma Society conference at the Royal College of Surgeons pictured with The University of Edinburgh's Heather Ellis and glaucoma consultant Dr Andrew Tatham.