Biography
Lisa Prokopich received her Doctor of Optometry degree at the University of Waterloo in 1990, after which time she undertook Residency training at the Eye Institute of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia (now Salus University) with an emphasis on ocular disease management. She returned to the University of Waterloo in 1991 where she has been a Clinical Lecturer and Head of the Ocular Health Clinic. Prokopich has been very involved in the proposals to the government on changes in legislation for optometrists to prescribe therapeutic pharmaceutical agents, both in Ontario and in other provinces. As Continuing Education Chair for over a decade, she spear-headed multiple 100-hour and 20-hour Therapeutic Pharmaceutical Agent (TPA) courses in preparation for TPAs in various provinces in Canada, culminating in Ontario's TPA law being implemented in 2011. She ran optometric and ophthalmological services at the Vision Centre within the Grand River Hospital Corporation at the Freeport Community Health Centre, a chronic care facility, for many years, holding hospital privileges there. She maintains significant patient populations in glaucoma and ocular surface disease.
Prokopich's interests and teaching focus have been in the areas of ocular disease management, teaching various courses in clinical ocular pharmacology, therapeutics, case-based ocular disease management, clinical medicine in optometric practise, and advanced case-studies (grand rounds) for final year students. She is involved in her fourth curriculum revision since returning to the Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science, with a focus on the Biomedical stream of the curriculum. She has authored chapters in textbooks in clinical techniques and pharmacology, including Clinical Ocular Pharmacology, 4th edition. Prokopich achieved her Masters in Vision Science in 2004, obtaining the first Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) / E.A. Baker fellowship awarded to an optometrist.
Scholarly Research
Areas of clinical and research interest include ocular surface disease, glaucoma, pharmaceutical therapies for ocular disease, and retinal disease. Teaching interests are related and focus on honing clinical techniques in laboratories as well as applying case data to problem-oriented learning in the diagnosis and management of ocular disease.
Education
- OD (Waterloo)
- MSc (Waterloo)
Service
- Registered optometrist, O.D. (Waterloo)
- Supervising clinician