Barbara E Robinson
PhD, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West
Barb has been a full - time faculty member at the University of Waterloo since 1979. She received her Optometry degree from that institution in 1976. During her optometric training she worked on a mobile vision clinic in Northern Ontario that included visits to many First Nations communities. It was that experience that propelled her into the area of public health after a year in private practice. She was grante d a Health Fellowship from the Ontario Ministry of Health in 1977 to pursue graduate studies. She enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Washington where she specialized in epidemiology and earned a Master’s Degree in Public Health and a PhD . She is involved in research investigating the epidemiology of vision problems – including the need and demand for vision care, the validity of vision screening and the inclusion of evidence - based health care into optometric practice. She has completed s tudies in Canada that looked at the prevalence of refractive error at school entry in the province of New Brunswick and Ontario, and studies that measured the frequency of asymptomatic disease in optometric patients. Her current research projects include t he prevalence of uncorrected refractive error in adults, the awareness of age - related macular degeneration and its risk factors in a university population, and the frequency of eye examinations
Epidemiology of vision problems (validity of vision screening), Public health (demography, population trends, needs and demands for vision care), Decision analysis, Evidence-based health care, Quality assurance
