Professor Ashish Agar is a glaucoma consultant at the Prince of Wales & Sydney Eye Hospitals, and a partner at Marsden Eye Specialists in Sydney. He is a Conjoint Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), engaged in clinical studies as well as laboratory research into glaucoma pathogenesis, being awarded a PhD in this field.
After completing his registrar training at Prince of Wales Hospital, Prof. Agar obtained his Glaucoma Fellowship from Oxford and spent time at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Prof. Agar provides glaucoma services in far western NSW with the Outback Eye Service, the successor to the legendary Professor Fred Hollows’ pioneering outreach work and is also the Director of the Broken Hill Hospital ophthalmology service in remote NSW.
Prof. Agar is the Chair of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Ophthalmology’s Workforce Committee, and Reconciliation Officer for the College. He is also active in medical advocacy as the past President of the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists, Ophthalmology representative on the Australian Medical Association Federal Council, and Board Director for AMA NSW. Prof. Agar also has an interest in registrar training and overseas development ophthalmology in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mongolia and India.
Prof. Agar has been a keen observer of next generation glaucoma surgery, including MIGS, since his Fellowship days. Managing glaucoma in remote and Indigenous communities has been a driver of this interest, and he performed the first use of MIGS in such isolated settings in 2016, with surgery performed in the outback mining city of Broken Hill. Experienced with most of the available technologies he serves on several Advisory Boards and works with government for equitable access to MIGS devices into the Australian health system.
