Health Minister opens Glaucoma Centre

The Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething AM, has officially opened the Glaucoma Ophthalmic Diagnostic Teaching and Treatment Centre (ODTTC) at the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences.

The clinic, which has been established in partnership with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, will offer a more streamlined and improved experience for glaucoma patients in Cardiff. The partnership will also provide the opportunity for students at the School to be actively involved in real-life glaucoma management.

University Hospital Wales will use the Clinical and Educational Research Facility (CERF) at the School every Wednesday to assess and review glaucoma patients. Optometrists and Consultants at the clinic have the unique ability to use electronic patient records, which enables the clinic to share patient records, including images virtually between the community and hospital clinic.

Professor Marcela Votruba, Head of the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to host the Ophthalmic Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at our School. The clinic provides us with the exciting opportunity to contribute to eye care delivery in Wales, whilst receiving an increase in meaningful real patient encounters for both our students and academic researchers. This is vital to our wider vision of improving optometric education and will contribute to our aim to carry out impactful research in sight and vision loss.”

The ODTTC has already been seeing patients and the School looks forward to working more closely with the community and the Cardiff and Vale Health Board.