Welcome to Ausoptom

The original email list for Australian Optometrists

1992-2014

In brief, what you need to know (you must read this before posting on Ausoptom):

  1. HISTORY - Ausoptom is an email list, not a web page. It was created around 1992 by Phil Anderton and Grant Sayer, originally as a Bulletin Board System
  2. WHO IS ON IT? - There are about 400 email addresses of optometrists and a few industry folk on the current list
  3. HOW DOES IT WORK? - Whenever one of the email addresses posts a message to "ausoptom-vision@explode.unsw.edu.au", it is relayed out to everyone on the list immediately
  4. THE RULES - If you join the list you must agree to abide by the following "rules":
    1. Posts must be relevant to the profession of optometry. For example topics may include:
      • Interesting or difficult cases
      • Changes in Medicare, PBS, DVA etc
      • Availability of lenses, frames and equipment
    2. "Chat" about football, weather or life in general is inappropriate
    3. Posts must be objective and impersonal. Under no circumstances should any person or company be specifically identified by name in any post.
    4. Commercial advertising of any kind is inappropriate.
    5. By posting a message, members agree that they are entirely responsible for the content of their messages
    6. Requests for assistance with patient cases
      • “Ausoptom” is simply a forum in which you can ask for assistance. It is not an accredited source of information or clinical guidelines. If you need to ask for detailed assistance with a particular case, please observe the following etiquette –
        1. Supply as much clinical background as you can. This should include a full general and ophthalmic history, any clinical reports, drug lists, images etc..
        2. Make an effort to find all the relevant clinical evidence which might be applicable to this patient. You can use the following resources and any others you might find –
          1. Centre for Eye Health Evidence based Guidelines - http://www.cfeh.com.au/clinical-guidelines/
          2. NIH/NEI Clinical Insights - http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/
          3. Cochrane database - http://www.cochrane.org/
        3. When you post to ask for assistance, provide as much evidence as you can with a tentative diagnosis/management plan.
  5. WHO RUNS IT? - The list is administered by Phil Anderton (pjanderton *AT* optusnet.com.au), Grant Sayer (grantsayer*AT*gmail.com) and Leon Evans (leon*AT* evansmcmahon.com.au), where *AT* refers to the "@" character.
  6. WHAT HAPPENS IF I BREAK THE RULES ? - Occasionally members break the rules outlined above. When this happens they are automatically removed from the list and contacted directly. Re-admission to the list requires review and agreement to respect the requirements of membership.
  7. CAN I BE "KICKED OFF"? If your email "Inbox" becomes full, your email server will no longer accept emails from the list, and an error message is sent to the administrator by your email servier every time someone posts a message to ausptom (which can lead to the administrator's Inbox also rapidly filling with error messages). When error messages start arriving from faulty email addresses, those addresses are removed from the list. If you find yourself removed from the list, this is probably the reason. Contact Phil to get back on when the problem is resolved.
  8. IMAGES AND LARGE MESSAGES - Message size is limited to 20 kilobytes. This is done mainly to filter out emails with viruses attached. It means that you cannot post emails to the list with large files attached, e.g. images. If you want to share an image, please upload it to an image database website (e.g. Picasa) and post a link to the image in your website.

Please note that the address of Ausoptom was altered from ausoptom@vision.optom.unsw.edu.au to ausoptom-vision@explode.unsw.edu.au on 7th November 2012. The original address is invalid after that date.