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This project is aimed at mitigating risk in eyecare and improving patient outcomes, and is a collaboration involving Deakin University, Optometry Australia and The University of Melbourne.
As part of this project, we are inviting individuals who have accessed eyecare services previously to participate in a focus group discussion so that we can better understand what good eye care means to the patient, what the challenges are to receiving good eyecare and how we can best mitigate the risks to receiving appropriate eyecare. The focus group discussion will occur face-to-face at one of three locations that is closest to you (Melbourne CBD, Burwood and Waurn Ponds) within a month’s time and require approximately one to one hour and a half of your time. The focus group will consist of a facilitator and up to ten other participants. Prior to allocating you to a focus group, we would need you to complete a short online survey about yourself and your eye care history that should not take more than 15 minutes. This survey will help us prepare for the focus group discussion, identify the focus groups nearest to you and assist with our analysis later on. Our findings will be used to create e-resources to help those involved in providing eyecare to identify and mitigate risks to providing appropriate care. Focus group participants will receive a $100 Coles-Myer gift card.
You can access the plain language statement here, which also contains a link to the survey. This study has received Deakin University ethics approval (reference number: HEAG-H 13_2023).
If you would like more information about the research project and/or you would like hardcopies of the plain language statement, consent form and survey, you can contact Dr Alex Jaworski at alexandra.jaworski@deakin.edu.au or +61 3 522 72038.
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