David Anthony Mackey

About David Anthony Mackey

Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Western Australia and Lions Eye Institute, Western Australia, Australia

What major industry trends are catching your attention right now?

Commercialization of genomics.

What is a little-known fact about you?

I am a genetic chimera, having had a bone marrow transplant for leukemia.

Make a bold prediction for the future of ophthalmology.

With the plummet in ophthalmology teaching in medical schools we will need to ensure patients requiring ophthalmic care are referred to ophthalmologists. This will come from AI and imaging with well planned algorithms.

If you weren’t an ophthalmologist, what would you be doing instead?

I would be a National Park ranger in Tasmania.

How do you think AI and machine learning will impact ophthalmology?

AI/ML will become a routine analysis for all our imaging equipment, but we will still need clinicians to sort things out.

What global trends in eye health should ophthalmologists be aware of?

The meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has opened our understanding of the biology of most common eye diseases and led to our ability to predict those at risk. It has seen unprecedented levels of collaboration in ophthalmology research.