Specsavers head of clinical performance Nick Gidas announcing the 2025 Doug Perkins Medal winners at SCC2025 in Melbourne

Specsavers Australia and New Zealand announced the 2025 award winners of its prestigious Doug Perkins Medal and Dame Mary Perkins Award at the annual Specsavers Clinical Conference (SCC, p36-37) in Melbourne.

Doug Perkins Medal – Specsavers South Dunedin

The annual Doug Perkins Medal is awarded to one store in Australia and one in New Zealand that have consistently upheld the highest standards of clinical excellence, said Specsavers head of clinical performance Nick Gidas at SCC2025. "To select the finalists, we analyse nationwide data collected through our clinical reporting, combining this with patient feedback and health outcome data.” The winners of the 2025 Doug Perkins Medal were Specsavers South Dunedin and Specsavers Nowra Plaza in New South Wales.

Sue Lee and Woo-Sung Jeh from Specsavers South Dunedin with the 2025 Doug Perkins Medal 

Led by retail partners Nicola Tavinor and Krystal Levien and optometrist partners Tianyuan Qu and Jennifer Robinson, Specsavers South Dunedin was incredibly proud to have won this year’s award, said Levien. “Having only opened our doors less than two years ago, this recognition feels especially meaningful. It’s not just a win for us but a celebration of everything we’ve worked so hard to build in such a short time.”

The award is a reflection of the passion, care and heart the team brings to every patient every day, of our ongoing investment in clinical training and our strong culture of collaboration, she said. “Whether it’s embracing new technologies, refining our processes, or simply taking the time to listen to our patients, we’re always striving to be better… and when your team is supported, empowered and aligned with your values, everything else tends to fall into place.”

Dame Mary Perkins Award – Taylor Xue, Specsavers Porirua

The Dame Mary Perkins Award for Outstanding Patient Care celebrates and recognises the extraordinary impact optometrists can have on the lives of their patients, said Specsavers ANZ head of professional development Cindy Nguyen at the conference.

The 2025 Dame Mary Perkins Award winner Taylor Xue from Specsavers Poirua with Specsavers ANZ head of professional development Cindy Nguyen

Judged by Chrissie Cowan, co-chair of Eye Health Aotearoa and CEO of Kāpō Māori Aotearoa, Carly Iles, CEO of Vision 2020 Australia and Ross Piper, CRO of The Fred Hollows Foundation, this year’s awards attracted 170 nominations and led to 34 finalists, she said. The winners were Taylor Xue from Porirua and Tiana Nix from Specsavers Nowra Central in Queensland.

Xue was nominated for providing a gentle and compassionate ear to a female patient who was highly distressed about her moderate dry macular degeneration and had been told at repeated hospital visits there was no treatment for it. Her vision changes had started to impact her ability to drive and use her computer. Xue referred her privately for cataract removal, which improved her functional vision, to Macular Degeneration New Zealand for emotional support and to Blind Low Vision NZ for an at-home assessment to provide some low-vision aids.

“A couple of months later, after her cataract surgery, she returned with improved vision, feeling more at ease with her condition and was very excited to be receiving a yellow-on-blue contrast keyboard in the mail,” said Xue.

Interacting with patients is one of the things she loves most about being an optometrist, she said. “I see each appointment as a privilege for me to enter their world for a short period of time. It’s an honour to be recognised with this award. It will be my daily reminder that my efforts bring true value to my patients.”