Optometrist Dr Sydney Bush dies aged 90

Optometrist Dr Sydney Bush has died aged 90.

Dr Bush originally trained as a doctor before switching career paths to focus on optometry.

In 2013, Dr Bush was erased from the General Optical Council registers in relation to his practice of ‘nutritional preventative cardioretinometry.’

The regulator deemed that his claims regarding the field had brought the profession into disrepute.

However, his son, Vivian Bush, highlighted the valuable role that those who question established thinking can play within a profession.

“The development and advancement of any profession is dependent upon the mavericks,” he said.

Mr Bush described Dr Bush as an “innovator” who embraced variable focus lenses as soon as they became available and then developed his own reduced-aberration designs.

“Anisometropia and convergence insufficiency were particular areas of interest, leading to his development of the Bush bicentric lens, line free slab off prism designs, and special base-in prism-controlled bifocals,” he said.

In the early 1980s, Dr Bush developed a high-tech frequent replacement soft contact lens practice with monthly payment plans.

Medical author, Dr Ken Walker (who goes by the pen name, W Gifford Jones), also paid tribute to Dr Bush.

He said that Dr Bush was a faithful friend and expressed his view that Dr Bush’s work should have received greater recognition.

“His research has sadly collected dust in medical circles,” Dr Walker wrote.

Image credit: Quentin Bush