Prof Charles McGhee

Professor Charles N J McGhee
MB, BSc(Hons), PhD, FRCS(G), FRCOphth, FRANZCO, FRSA

Special interests

• Corneal transplantation
• Cataract surgery
• Corneal and external eye diseases
• Post-traumatic and complex anterior segment surgery

Scottish born, Charles combined both medical and science degrees (1976-1983) at the University of Glasgow, including a research attachment at Harvard University in Boston. He undertook specialist training as a registrar and senior registrar in ophthalmology in Glasgow (1986-1992) and completed advanced Fellowship training in corneal and anterior segment eye diseases (lid margin, conjunctiva, cornea, iris and cataract disorders) in Perth, Western Australia.

In 1993, he was appointed Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon and Professor of Ocular Therapeutics in Sunderland, England. Subsequently, in 1996 he was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He was invited to take up the newly established post as the Maurice Paykel Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Auckland in September 1999. He continues as Professor and Head of Department at the University of Auckland and as Director of the New Zealand National Eye Centre (NZNEC), the largest eye research centre in New Zealand. He divides his busy schedule equally between treating patients and eye research.

Charles holds fellowships in ophthalmology and ophthalmic surgery from the Royal College of Ophthalmology (UK), the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (Scotland). In addition to his Professorial roles, Charles is a busy Senior Ophthalmic Surgeon at Auckland City Hospital and his clinical practice is therefore primarily based in the public sector, however, he is also available for private consultation and surgery at Eye Institute on a weekly basis. He is regularly referred patients from eye surgeons throughout New Zealand and from overseas and has personally trained more than 20 fellows in aspects of corneal surgery.

Charles clinical interests include corneal diseases such as keratoconus, corneal dystrophies, corneal transplantation, cataract surgery and complex anterior segment (front of eye) surgery following trauma. As an eye surgeon with more than 20 years experience he has completed thousands of cataract procedures and is one of the most experienced corneal surgeons in New Zealand – having performed more than 700 corneal transplants.

He chairs the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists special interest group in cornea, contact lenses, and cataract and refractive surgery. He was the Clinical Director of Ophthalmology (1999-2006) for Auckland District Health Board that employs some 27 Eye Surgeons providing services to the greater Auckland region. He has developed multi-disciplinary approaches to the delivery of ophthalmic care and is directly involved in teaching and assessment of the Therapeutic Optometry course provided by the University of Auckland.

His ongoing research has a clinical bias towards aspects of corneal disease and cataract and refractive surgery. He has written or co-authored three textbooks and more than 200 scientific papers, chapters and review articles on aspects of: corneal infection, corneal transplantation, cataract surgery, ocular pathology, refractive laser surgery, in vivo confocal microscopy, and ocular therapeutics. He also completed his PhD thesis on laser refractive surgery and corneal topography (mapping). He is Editor in Chief of the international eye research journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology (Australasia) and on the editorial board of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (USA/Europe).