Refer a patient to eye research

This page is for optometrists, ophthalmologists, GPs and orthoptists who would like to refer a patient to a research study at the New Zealand Eye Research Centre (NZERC) in Hamilton.

The commitment we make to you

Referral for research is not a referral for care. Your patient remains your patient. We see them for study visits only, we do not offer them ongoing routine care, and we do not solicit their custom. If a study ends or they are not eligible, they go back to you. We will tell you plainly if we think they need clinical care we are not providing.

Patients worth referring

• Children and teenagers with progressing myopia, including those already on treatment whose progression continues.
• Adults with persistent dry eye or meibomian gland dysfunction, particularly where standard drops and lid hygiene have not worked.
• Contact lens wearers, including patients with lens discomfort, and rigid, orthokeratology or scleral lens wearers.
• Keratoconus and irregular cornea patients, including post cross-linking.
• Patients planning or recovering from cataract or refractive surgery, for measurement studies.

Eligibility is set by each study's protocol, so some referrals will not fit an open study. Those patients can go on the research register with their consent and be considered for later studies.

How to refer

1. Discuss it with the patient first. They must be willing to be contacted about research.
2. Email research@nzerc.com with the patient's name, contact details, age, the reason for referral and any relevant measurements you already have (refraction, axial length, topography, ocular surface findings).
3. We contact the patient, explain the study and send the participant information sheet. Consent is taken by the study team, not by you.
4. We confirm back to you whether they were eligible and enrolled.

Alternatively, give the patient our register your interest page and they can come to us directly. The page explaining what taking part involves is written for patients and families.

What you get back

• Confirmation of eligibility and enrolment.
• A copy of the study measurements for your patient, with their consent, which for myopia studies includes axial length and choroidal data most practices cannot generate.
• The patient returned to your care at the end of the study.

Collaborating rather than referring

If you would like to be an investigator or a recruiting site rather than a referrer, we are interested. Multi-site recruitment strengthens New Zealand's case for hosting trials at all, and it is the only way this country produces data on its own population. Email research@nzerc.com.

Evidence for your own reading

Our evidence reviews are written for clinicians, with effect sizes and limitations rather than marketing claims. See Insights, and our reviews of myopia control trial evidence and red light therapy.