Dry Eyes Information Evening at SETU

Dr Paul Karpecki, Kentucky Eye Institute, USA:

Dr. Karpecki received his Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University and completed a Durrie Fellowship in Medical Cornea/Refractive Surgery in Kansas City in affiliation with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He currently serves as Director of Cornea and External Disease for the Kentucky Eye Institute in Lexington KY. He is the Chief Clinical Editor for Review of Optometry, the most-read journal in the profession, and chairman of the New Technology and Treatment Conferences. He is the medical director for KEPLR Vision and Director of Cornea and External Disease for the Center for Sight in Carmel IN. He was appointed to the Delphi International Society at Wilmer Johns Hopkins which included the top 25 dry eye experts in the world and co-chair for the previous two Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society Symposia. He served on the DEWS II Diagnostic Methodology Committee. In 2017-2018 he completed a full-year preceptorship in advanced retinal disease at Retina Associates of Kentucky, one of the top 20 retina practices in the country. Dr. Karpecki is also an Associate Professor at the Kentucky College of Optometry in Pikeville KY and serves on the board of the charitable organization Optometry Giving Sight.

Rebecca Petris, President of The Dry Eye Foundation - Poulsbo, USA:

The Dry Eye Foundation is the leading US non-profit patient advocacy group for people living with dry eye disease. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for people suffering from dry eye disease, or rather, from ocular surface pain. They are working to document the community’s plight and provide much-needed services for the community’s ongoing needs, while also refining their vision and working out our strategies to change how communities, eye care professionals, and industries - think about dry eye disease.

Dr Laurence Fitzhenry - Principal Investigator, Ocular Therapeutics Research Group at SETU, and lead researcher on Project No Tears:

Dr Fitzhenry brings years of experience researching novel treatment options for various ocular diseases. Dr Fitzhenry developed Project NO TEARS, with Tess Ames, Prof Martina Gooney, Dr Evan Matthews, and Dr Sharon Kinsella, as part of a new pioneering interdisciplinary research project, aiming to bring the public, patients, and pre-clinical scientists together. By doing so, it seeks to revolutionize the development of new treatments for dry eye disease.

Dr Ailbhe Whyte - Waterford-Based Ophthalmologist

Dr Ailbhe Whyte is a Waterford-based ophthalmologist with a specialist interest in Dry Eye Disease. Ailbhe received her MD from University College Dublin, her FRCOphth from the Royal College of Ophthalmology and has trained in Ophthalmology in Dublin, Toronto and London. Ailbhe runs a dry eye and ocular surface clinic in the City Eye Clinic, Dunmore Road, Waterford and Ely Hospital, Wexford.