Dr Prakash Paudel

Dr Paudel is an adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Optometry and Vision Science (SOVS) at the University of New South Wales, and work as a research and evaluation officer in the Brien Holden Foundation (BHF), Sydney, Australia. His academic and research experience involves leading and managing public health eye care research and epidemiological study in the Asia Pacific region; teaching optometry and vision science courses; supervising undergraduate research projects and conducting workshops in research design and methodology to the eye care professionals.

He received his PhD degree in Optometry and Vision Science conducting a public health service research from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 2012. He is a public health optometrist and a researcher with a specific interest in epidemiology and health services research. He is one of the first graduates of Bachelor of Optometry, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, with optometry teaching and research experience in the Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He delivered optometry course lectures in BP Koirala Lions Centre for Ophthalmic Studies at the Tribhuvan University until 2008. 

He started research career joining Brien Holden Vision Institute Foundation, Australia (formerly known as ICEE) as a part-time research assistant in 2008 and a full-time research officer since 2011. He also worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in School of Population Health at UNSW in 2015-2016 for the ARC Discovery project. 

He has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research and has interest in broader areas of health service research, epidemiology of vision impairment and refractive error, health literacy, school and community-based health intervention/ promotion, optometry and refraction training & evaluation, vision-specific quality of life and general public health research, and infectious disease,. Other public health research interest areas are health barriers, utilisation, and compliance studies, situational analysis and exploratory studies, child eye health, and contact lens, low vision, binocular vision related clinical studies.

He has completed several research projects of BHF as a principal investigator and co-investigator for eye health service and epidemiology researches in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam. He has been successful in several research grant applications and has significantly contributed to past LCIF SightFirst-funded research projects (3-D Spectacles, Willingness to Pay, School Eye Health, Ocular morbidity) managed by BHF. He is also a PI of new LCIF SightFirst research project (Optical Workshop Model) in Pakistan and other eye health projects of BHF.

Dr Paudel has published over 25 peer-reviewed scientific papers in prestigious international journals, and he is also one of main authors on a book chapter about refractive error and school eye health in Southeast Asia. Dr Paudel is a voluntary anonymous reviewer for more than a dozen peer-review high-impact factor scientific journals. He also has demonstrated good skill in presenting research findings in various national/ international optometry and ophthalmology conferences.