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About
Dr Heather Machin
Head of the Lions Eye Donation Service
Dr Heather Machin is an ophthalmic nurse and Head of the Lions Eye Donation Service.
Dr Heather Machin
Head of the Lions Eye Donation Service
RN, MBA, PhD
Dr Heather Machin is an ophthalmic nurse and Head of the Lions Eye Donation Service. She also manages the CERA Biobank and project leads on the Hygelix and BIENCO projects, as well as managing her own research across eye banking and nurse workforce development.
With a national and global profile in the eye care and eye tissue fields, she has led sector wide reform, including the development of the Barcelona Principles – a global eye tissue ethical framework.
She has worked in over 30 countries, previously with ORBIS International’s Flying Eye Hospital, as consultant to Fred Hollows Foundation NZ and is a past Lions Corneal Fellow.
She is Project Officer to the Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand; Chair to the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations; representative to the Lions Clubs International Eye Bank Working Group; Member of the Australian Organ and Tissue Authorities Eye and Tissue Advisory Committee; and a co-developer of the WHO’s Global Action Framework for Tissue in Transplantation.
As an ophthalmic nurse, she is has held nurse director positions in Australia and overseas, is the President of the Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association, co-developer of the Australian Ophthalmic Nursing Standards, and is a nurse mentor through the Australian Collage of Nursing.
She holds a PhD on corneal exportation, an MBA, a Ba.Nursing, a Grad.Cert in Professional Communications and public relations, and is a certified PRINCE 2 Project specialist.
She is passionate about improving eye tissue donor awareness, the global ethical and equitable access to tissues for transplantation, training and research, and the engagement and retention of nurses in the eye care workforce.
Current projects
Selected publications
Key collaborators
Funding and support
Current projects
BIENCO Project
This is an MRFF funded project between six Australian institutes, to develop a bioengineered cornea.
Hygelix Project
This is a VMRAF funded project between Australian and USA institutes, that aims to develop a glue to assist donor corneas to ‘unscroll’ when inserted into the recipient’s eye during surgery.
Australian Ophthalmic Nurse Workforce Survey
Funded by the Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association, this is Australia’s first review of the engagement of nurses in eye care in Australia.
CERA Biobank
This is the research allocation arm of the Lions Eye Donation Service. The Biobank provides consented end-of-life donations to ethics approved researchers. It is a vital service for the advancement of eye research at CERA and beyond. Dr Machin manages the services and is working on a series of project to elevate donor awareness (and consent) and improve researcher access.
Selected publications
Thesis:
Machin HM. Should Australia Export Corneas? Eye banks, exports and Australian Opinion: Exploring national utility of human corneal tissue donation. University of Melbourne. 2021. Open Access. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/280527
Frameworks/Standards:
The Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations. The Barcelona Principles: An Agreement on the Use of Human Donated Tissue for Ocular Transplantation, Research, and Future Technologies. Cornea. 2018;37:1213-1217. For the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations and other Stakeholders. Role: Lead Developer.
Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association National Council. Practice Standards for Ophthalmic Nurses in Australia. Oct 2018. Role: Co-Lead-Developer.
Papers:
Machin H, Daniell M, Entwistle L, Hafner C, Huigen A, Kaur H, McCulloch J, Osadchiy M. Determining Australian Nurse Engagement in Eye Care: A Scoping Review. Clin Ophthalmol. 2023;17 393–401.
Machin H, Philippy B, Pollock GA. Do Corneal Tissue Providers Inform Their Community That They Export Corneas? An Audit of Publicly Available Sector Websites. Clin Ophthalmol. 2021;15:4029-4034
Baird PN, Machin H, Brown KD. Corneal supply and the use of technology to reduce its demand: A review. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol. 2021;1-13.
Machin HM, Buckland L, Critchley C, Sutton G, Wiffen S, Baird PN. Determining the Willingness of Australians to export their corneas on death. PlosOne. 2021. February. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0246622
Machin H, Brown K, Sutton G, Baird P. Ocular tissue for research in Australia: Strategies for potential research utility of surplus and transplant-ineligible deceased donations. TVST. 2020, Vol.9, 4.
Machin H, Buckland L, Georges P, Ghabcha M, Golding-Holbrook T, Leighton C, Mackey A, Weinel L, Whiting V, Sutton G, Baird PN. Supply and demand of domestic corneal tissue and its implications on export potential – using Australia as an example. Cornea. 2020 Dec 4.
Martin D, Kelly R, Jones G, Machin H, Pollock P. Ethical issues in transnational eye banking. Cornea. 2017 Feb;36(2):252-257.
Key collaborators
Professor Paul Baird
Professor Gerard Sutton
Lisa Buckland
Brian Philippy
Funding and support
NRHMC
Lions Clubs
Lions Eye Institute, Perth
Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association
Contact Dr Heather Machin
Email: hmachin@cera.org.au
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