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Recent Master of Science graduate Naoko Chapman’s first publication, titled “Geographic distribution of eye‐care practitioners in Aotearoa/New Zealand: implications for future eye health workforce”, reports an analysis of how optometrists are distributed across the different District Health Boards throughout New Zealand.

Naoko gained her Bachelor of Optometry from Auckland in 1991 and went into private practice in central Auckland. After several years she accompanied her husband to his posting in Japan and on return to New Zealand they established a family. In 2016 she began her return to optometry by pursuing postgraduate work as a mature age student. She completed her PGDipSci in 2017 and her MSc in 2018.

Her MSc thesis was entitled “Regional Disparities in Therapeutic Prescribing Trends of New Zealand Optometrists”. Her supervisors were Associate Professors Nicola Anstice (now Head, Discipline of Optometry and Vision Science, at the University of Canberra) and Rob Jacobs.

A second manuscript from the thesis reporting how therapeutic pharmaceutical agents were prescribed by optometrists over the years 2008 to 2018 is in submission.