Peer review

Discussing real life case studies is a great way to learn from each other’s experiences, improve your communication and decision-making skills, and gain CPD points. Optometrist members can join a College-facilitated peer review, or arrange their own peer review group using our resources.

All GOC registrants must participate in at least one peer review per cycle. 

Provider-led peer reviews or registrant-led peer review groups – What is the difference?

There are two ways to gain your peer review CPD points for the cycle, both are great ways to learn. These are the GOC definitions: 

  • Provider-led peer review - These are activities where cases or topics are provided and learning outcomes set in advance by a GOC CPD provider (The College being one). Such events can involve a large number of attendees, with delegates split into small discussion groups plus a facilitator. Please visit the College Events page to find out when the next peer review will be held.
  • Registrant-led peer review groups - If you choose to organise and run your own peer review group, you should decide upon a topic or theme for discussion and which domain(s) is relevant to the topic or theme (up to a maximum of two core domains, or two core domains and a specialty domain) and inform your peers who will be attending of this information, so that they can prepare appropriate material to discuss. You should ensure there is sufficient time for a meaningful discussion to take place, and for everyone to contribute and reflect. When discussing cases involving patients, you must not share confidential or identifying patient information, such as names, addresses and dates of birth.

In this section

Adapt the case studies in this section for your own peer discussions. They have all been written by the College based on real life situations encountered in everyday practice, and they’ve been tried and tested at our peer discussion events.

A facilitator's role is to help a peer discussion group achieve its objectives, make sure it has the resources it needs, and encourage and support the group members. The group has responsibility for the content of the discussion and the facilitator manages the process.

Peer review events

This online peer review session is open to College members and will cover your GOC peer review requirement.

This online therapeutics peer review session is open to College members who are qualified independent prescribers or studying for an IP qualification.

This online peer review session is open to College members and will cover your GOC peer review requirement.