Inaugural award winner Aqeeda Singh and senior Otago lecturer Dr Kelechi Ogbuehi

Innovative eye care technology enterprise oDocs Eye Care has awarded it’s first oDocs Project Grant Award to fifth year Otago medical student Aqeeda Singh.

The new $5,000 award is designed to promote sight saving initiatives and innovative research projects by medical students and residents, fellows and researchers in the field of ophthalmology, said oDocs founder and ophthalmology registrar Dr Sheng Chiong Hong.

Singh was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the new award given her continuous achievement over the past year and the number of high-quality research papers she’s published, he said. “Her tenacity and hard work in ophthalmic science and research made her an outstanding candidate.”

Singh is using the grant to continue her work into creating guidelines for acute ophthalmic conditions that present in primary care, creating a protocol for non-eye specialists as part of a bigger teleophthalmology project with oDocs’ sister company MedicMind. “This will help simplify the management for primary eye care clinicians hopefully,” she said. “The project is also giving me a chance to satiate my eagerness to learn more about eyes!”

Singh said she’s keen to continue her journey in ophthalmology when she graduates. “As a child, I used to say the eyes were my favourite body part and it hasn’t really changed… However, almost every consultant has advised us to remain flexible and keep our minds open!”

Thanking Dr Hong and her senior lecturer Dr Kelechi Ogbuehi, she said she owes a great deal to their support and “encouraging nature” to have got to where she is today. “I couldn’t have asked for better supervisors.” 

The oDocs Project Grant Award will initially be awarded annually, but the plan is to increase this, said Dr Hong. Award winners are selected by Drs Hong, Ogbuehi and, oDocs co-founder, Ben O'Keeffe after being assessed on scientific merit, publication achievement and the strength of the project idea.

For more on oDOCs new PhD Scholarships go to, https://eyeonoptics.co.nz/articles/archive/odocs-offers-phd/