Keith Martin
The Power List 2019 – Emerging Leaders
Keith Martin
Ringland Anderson Professor and Head of Ophthalmology, University of Melbourne Director, Centre for Eye Research Australia; President, World Glaucoma Association
What drives you in your day-to-day activities?
Although we have some great treatments for glaucoma these days, I think it is tragic that 10-15 percent of our glaucoma patients continue to go blind in at least one eye during their lifetime, due to the disease. Every day I see the massive impact glaucoma has on people’s quality of life. That drives me to want to make things better.
What are your goals for the future?
The focus of my research is to slow glaucoma progression for people continuing to lose vision despite conventional treatment, and ultimately to restore vision in the most severely affected cases.
What is your most exciting current project?
I am really excited that a gene therapy we have developed for glaucoma is now being taken forward towards human clinical trials. I hope this and other new treatments currently under development will make a real difference to the lives of our patients in the future.
What’s the best part of being an ophthalmologist?
I love the mix of medicine, microsurgery, neuroscience and technology, and the impact we can have on the quality of life of our patients. I think being a clinician scientist ophthalmologist is the best job in medicine in the current era.
