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ANZSOPS History
The Society was formed in 1994 to embody and reflect the medical and surgical ophthalmic sub-specialty of “ophthalmic plastic surgery”. The society Constitution defines ophthalmic plastic surgery as referring to “all aspects of plastic surgery in relation to eyelid, lacrimal, orbit, and eye socket surgery, and relevant conjunctival and corneal surgery”.
The Society was formed in 1994, with the title ‘Australasian Society of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgeons’. The word ‘Australasian’ was subsequently changed to ‘Australian and New Zealand’. The initial office bearers of the Society included Dr Peter Rogers as President and Dr Ross Benger as Secretary & Treasurer. The Committee of the Society was established as the office-bearers of the president, the president-elect, the immediate past-president, the secretary/treasurer and two ordinary members. ANZSOPS now supports a regular plenary lecture at the Annual Scientific Conference of RANZCO named in honour of Dr Peter Rogers.
The initial constitution confirmed that membership of the Society required that a person be a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and have an active interest in and advanced training in ophthalmic plastic surgery, as approved by the committee of the Society. Persons may be elected as Honorary members.
Since 1994, membership has grown significantly, and now number over 50 active members, from all regional centres throughout Australia and New Zealand. Most members play an active role in training the ophthalmologists of tomorrow in this exciting field, and several centres have developed competitive Fellowship programmes that attract applicants from both inside and outside Australasia.
Founding Members
Dr Peter Rogers
Dr Ross Benger
Dr Peter Martin
Dr Peter Henderson
Dr Ian Francis
Dr Georgina Kourt
Dr Brett O’Donnell
Dr Alan McNab
Dr Timothy Sullivan
Dr Geoff Crawford
Dr Paul Rosser
Dr Michael Delaney

Dr Peter Rogers, an Australian-trained ophthalmologist is regarded as the ‘father’ of the sub-specialty of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery in Australia. He first promulgated the idea of a formal academic subspecialty stream in a lecture titled “Surgery of the Lids”, which he gave to the Ophthalmological Society of Australia in 1958. In 1987, the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists appointed an ‘Oculoplastic’ committee to provide sub-specialist input.
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