Clinical optometrist with a vision to improve eye health care in Australia

Victorian optometrist Bhajandeep aka Bhaj Grewal.

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Bhajandeep Grewal has been awarded the Looking Outward on Optometric Knowledge (LOOK) Scholarship by Optometry Australia. She aims to use this scholarship to travel to the US and learn about optometrist’s role and scope of practice particularly in research settings and bring home frameworks to be implemented by Australian optometrists.

Key Points

Bhajandeep Grewal received an international study grant to advance Australian optometry.
Ms Grewal travelled to the US to understand optometrist’s role in research.
She is particularly interested in the inherited retinal diseases field.

Optometry Australia’s LOOK international program awarded clinical optometrist and clinical trial coordinator, Bhajandeep Grewal, an $8,000 scholarship which she used to travel to the US to learn about cutting-edge optometry research.

Credit: Supplied.

Optometry Australia launched the LOOK international program in 2020 to expand optometry scope of practice by funding study tours to investigate international advances in optometry not available here.

Ms Grewal shared her action plan with SBS Punjabi: "My aim is to understand how optometrists can become more involved in the clinical trials space in Australia by observing the infrastructures within tertiary ophthalmology hospitals, optometry research institutes and clinical trial centres in the US. "

Involving optometrists in this space will improve the workflow of clinical trial designs and will benefit not only the patients, who will obtain earlier access to treatments, but also our clinicians.
Bhajandeep Grewal

"It is my hope that I will be able to implement frameworks to encourage more clinical research within primary care practice, as well as seeing an increase in optometrists working in tertiary clinical trial centres," she said.

"I can’t wait to bring home all my learnings to the Optometry Australia association members and my role at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA)”, said the 27-year-old.

Credit: Supplied.

Ms Grewal, who spent her childhood in the rural town of Griffith on an orange and grape farm, said she was the first university graduate in her family.

“I think growing up in the countryside exposed me to people of different walks of life. Understanding the complex health needs of people in rural areas sparked my interest in the health field, particularly optometry”.

Looking to put her learnings into practice, Ms Grewal said she aimed to enrich Australian optometry healthcare system.

Click on the audio icon to listen to this interview with Bhaj Grewal in Punjabi.

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