Dr Sharp has now retired. Please see the article on our news page.

Dr Sharp graduated from Otago Medical School and became a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmology (RANZCO) and a Fellow of the Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) after training in ophthalmology in Auckland. She undertook a two- year retinal fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London with Prof A C Bird (Ophthalmology) and Prof G B Arden (Electrophysiology).

She currently works as a Medical Retina specialist at Retina Specialists in Parnell and at the Eye Department at Greenlane Clinical Centre. She has worked with the most current and effective medical therapies for wet macular degeneration and other retinal disorders and has established an Ophthalmic Electrodiagnostic unit which provides a diagnostic service for acquired and inherited retinal disorders. To assist the rehabilitation of patients she was involved in the establishment of a multidisciplinary visual rehabilitation clinic at Auckland Hospital and the patient support group, Retina NZ.

Dr Sharp has been a principal investigator in two recent international trials involved in the treatment and management of vision-threatening complications of diabetes and is co-author of a number of scientific publications.

She is a member of Retinal International Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, Oceania Retina Association and is the NZ representative on an Australasian Medical Advisory Board. She is a guest reviewer for the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, the journal of RANZCO.

In 2009 she established Macular Degeneration New Zealand (MDNZ) and became the inaugural chairperson for this charitable trust. Macular degeneration is the major cause of vision loss in the over 50 age group, affecting 1 in 7 over the age of 50 and causing some degree of vision loss to 1 in 4 people over the age of 80 in New Zealand. MNDZ is a charitable trust with the aim to reduce the incidence and impact of MD in NZ.

Dr Sharp’s areas of special expertise include:

• Age related macular degeneration assessment and treatment.

• Diabetic eye disease screening and management

• Inherited retinal diseases assessment and counselling.

• Digital retinal photography and angiography.

• Cross-sectional retinal imaging with Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT).

• Electrodiagnostic testing.