Konrad Pesudovs

Background and education

Pesudovs was born in Sydney, Australia in 1969 to Latvian immigrant parents. He was educated at Turramurra Public School, Roosevelt Elementary School, Rowland Elementary School, Doncaster Park Primary School, Templestowe Heights Primary School and later Trinity Grammar School. In 1990, he obtained Bachelor of Science in Optometry at the University of Melbourne, a Certificate of Competence in the Rehabilitation of the Partially Sighted at the Australian College of Optometry in 1996, a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Optometry at the University of Melbourne in 2000, and completed his Ph.D. at Flinders University in 2000. In 2001 he obtained MCOptom from the College of Optometrists. In 2012 was admitted as a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, becoming a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2015. He is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Optometry (1992), the American Academy of Optometry (1995) the Cornea and Contact Lens Society of Australia (1999) and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (2016).

Professional career

Pesudovs won a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellowship to be a post-doc at the University of Bradford with Prof David Elliott (2001-2003). He then moved to the University of Houston as a post-doc with Prof Raymond A. Applegate (2003-2004). In late 2004, he returned to Flinders University where he became a clinical research fellow funded by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. In 2005, he was Chief Investigator A on the successful funding of the NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Ophthalmology Outcomes Research. Since then he has received a number of NHMRC project grants with a career total NHMRC funding of over US$5million and total career grant funding of over US$9million. His research interest is ophthalmology outcomes research; incorporating optical, visual and patient-reported measurement into the holistic assessment of ophthalmic outcomes. A key element of this is the development of patient-reported outcome measures including visual disability, quality of life and other latent traits using Rasch analysis. He has developed a number of questionnaires and is the leader of an international project to develop item banking and computer adaptive testing for measuring patient-reported outcomes in ophthalmology (the Eye-tem Bank Project). Another key area of outcomes research is in the measurement of the optics of the eye and visual performance. He has conducted outcomes research in treatments for all the major blinding eye diseases, with particular emphasis on cataract and corneal disease. He also has a strong track record in health valuation and ophthalmic epidemiology particularly with the Global Burden of Disease Study. His h-index is 42 (Institute for Scientific Information) and 54 (Google Scholar).

In 2009, he was appointed Foundation Chair of Optometry and Vision Science at Flinders University and set the task of creating a new 5 year optometry double degree program. The course design incorporated innovative teaching and learning strategies including integrated teaching, case-based learning and other student-centred learning strategies, e-learning, communication skills, business skills, evidence-based practice, simulation, high volume clinical exposure, clinical placements using the parallel clinical consulting model, and regional, remote and indigenous student recruitment and training strategies. The Bachelor of Medical Science(Vision Science) /Master of Optometry double degree has been accredited by the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand and the Optometry Board of Australia. The first students graduated in 2015. He remains the course coordinator of the optometry program, has administrative responsibility for the Discipline of Optometry and oversight of the clinical service: Flinders Vision. He is the lead organiser of the annual Evidence-Based Optometry Conference (established 2014).

He is also a Visiting Professor, School of Optometry and Ophthalmology and Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical College, Key Laboratory of Vision Science, Ministry of Health P.R. China, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. He sits on 2 journal editorial boards: Journal of Refractive Surgery and Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, having previously sat on 6 others: Archives of Medical Science (2007-2013), Clinical & Experimental Optometry (2007-2017), The Open Translational Medicine Journal (2008-2014), Journal of Optometry (2008-2016), Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics (2010-2015) and Optometry and Vision Science (2010-2015). He was Chairman of the Board of Administration of the National Vision Research Institute (2015-2016). He is a member of the Governing Council of the Australian College of Optometry (2010-), serving as President from 2016-. He also served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Australian College of Optometry Ocular Therapeutics Course (2011-2012). He has previously served as a state councilor of the Australian Optometrical Association (1992-1996) and the Contact Lens Society of Australia (1993-2000) including 3 years as President (1994-1996). He has been a Committee Member of the Publications Committee for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (2012-2014) and was a member of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) Health Outcomes Measurement for Cataract Surgery working group. He is a member of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, Cataract Surgery Clinical Care Standard working group, 2017-2018.

Pesudovs is an accomplished clinician having extensive training and experience in Contact Lenses (under AJ Phillips), Low Vision Care having worked at the Royal Society for the Blind in the 1990s and Ophthalmology settings including Flinders Medical Centre and Leeds General Infirmary. He pioneered optometry clinics in cooperation with ophthalmology services in public hospitals in Australia, particularly the Cataract Assessment Clinic and the Visual Assessment Clinic at Flinders Medical Centre. He owned and operated an Optometry private practice from 1995-2002 in Glenelg, South Australia. He continues clinical work at Flinders Vision.

Honours

Pesudovs was awarded the J Lloyd Hewitt Award in 1994 by the editorial board of Clinical and Experimental Optometry and the Australian Optometrical Association. He was awarded the Peter-Abel Preis in 2006 by Die Vereinigung Deutscher Contactlinsen-Spezialisten e.V. (VDC). He was awarded the Waring Medal in 2006 by the International Society of Refractive Surgery. He was awarded a Young Tall Poppy Science Award, South Australia, for 2007-2008 by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science. He was awarded the Irvin M. and Beatrice Borish Award by the American Academy of Optometry in 2008. He was awarded the Garland Clay Award by the American Academy of Optometry in 2009 and again in 2011. He shared The American Public Health Association Vision Care Section 2014 Outstanding Scientific Paper Award with the Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease 2010.

Selected works

Complete list of peer-reviewed journal articles on the PubMed:

Book chapters: