6.9 Ann-Marie Goacher. The Eyes: A Window to Our Health

Pain in the eye? It is a red-flag all healthcare professionals are trained to be aware of. But when spotted, who deals with it? We are joined by Specialist Head and Neck Pharmacist Ann Marie Goacher. Ann Marie describes her journey from a local community pharmacist in Ireland to being the lead pharmacist for the head and neck directorate at University Hospitals Sussex. What does an ophthalmic and specialist uveitis pharmacist do?

We talk to Ann Marie about her passion for eye care, and the importance of getting back to basics with the simple act of administration. Glaucoma can be better managed simply by ‘knowing your drops’ yet it is a neglected area of care. We discuss how off-licence use of drugs for a common eye condition has saved the NHS millions and the controversies that surround this.

For our micro-discussion we look at The burden of acute eye conditions on different healthcare providers: a retrospective population-based study,  a paper that looks at the public awareness of community eyecare services in a world where the demand for acute eyecare exponentially outstrips capacity. https://bjgp.org/content/74/741/e264

Further information on the ‘Know your Drops’ campaign can be found on the website of Moorfields Eye Hospital https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/for-patients/information-hub. 

Ann Marie was spotted as a guest for the podcast after having the misfortune to sit next to Jamie on a plane. The topic of the conversation was the book she was reading - which happened to be written by her Father. “Once there was a boy who survived” by Maurice Heffernan which tells the story his early days in an orphanage in Ireland to his tumultuous journey through foster care, institutionalisation, and forced labour https://www.amazon.co.uk/Once-There-was-Boy-Survived/dp/1915502667. 

The “statistics made simple and relevant” podcasts with James McCormack mentioned in the episode can be found here https://therapeuticseducation.org/podcast-episode-list/

As with all of our guests, Ann Marie shares with us a Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book that has influenced her career or life. 

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