About MiVision

MiVision

Overview

MiVision — styled mivision by its publisher — is a monthly ophthalmic journal and news service for eye-care professionals in Australia and New Zealand. Published by Toma Publishing in Sydney, it combines a printed journal, distributed only to members of the eye-care professions, with a news website at mivision.com.au, a digital edition of the journal, and a free continuing professional development (CPD) learning centre, mieducation. The publication describes itself as "the key communication portal for eye care professionals who live and work in Australia and New Zealand", with the stated aim of enhancing the patient pathway and improving patient outcomes by sharing knowledge across the professions — optometry, ophthalmology, orthoptics, dispensing and the supplier industry.

The journal is edited by Melanie Kell and, as a bi-national title, covers both the Australian and New Zealand eye-care sectors. Recent monthly issues include Issue 216 in October 2025 and Issue 225 in August 2026, the latter devoted substantially to myopia ahead of Myopia Action Month. MiVision is an official media partner of Optometry Australia and states that it is independent, with no commercial relationships with any sector association, buying group, supplier or wholesaler.

History

MiVision was founded in April 2006 by Mark Cushway and Todd Tai, who established Toma Publishing that year to publish it. Cushway, the founding editor, and Tai, the managing director, had previously run a small magazine consultancy together in the 1990s, producing contract titles that included Charter, the journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, and work for Australian Geographic and the NRMA's Open Road; they applied that contract-publishing experience to building a journal for the ophthalmic professions. The title grew steadily from its first issues — Issue 29 appeared in October 2008 — and Cushway's editorials from that period record expansion ambitions that included a Singapore edition and a planned Malaysia edition.

In July 2011 the publisher launched mivision education, its independent online clinical learning centre, offering CPD articles written by local and international optometrists and ophthalmologists; the publisher says the centre was immediately embraced by the profession in both countries. Cushway edited the journal for a decade, until December 2016, when he stepped back for health reasons — he required a double lung transplant for cystic fibrosis — and optometrist Alan Saks took over as editor from 2017. In September 2018 the ownership changed: Cushway sold the shares he held in Toma Publishing, in a transaction completed on 4 September 2018, leaving the publication owned by managing director Todd Tai and a new business partner. Melanie Kell, who had written for the title for some eight years, became editor around that period and remains editor today. Mark Cushway died on 2 December 2024, and the February 2025 issue (Issue 208) carried a tribute to the co-founder from the profession.

Content and Coverage

The journal's editorial spans clinical practice, professional development and the business of eye care. Its published editorial scope includes new developments in contact lenses, pharmaceuticals, ophthalmic lenses, instruments and equipment; the latest clinical research; technological advances; fashion trends in frames and sunglasses; business tips and retail selling techniques; and industry news including conference reports, launches and events. Each monthly issue mixes news, feature articles, product coverage and CPD-accredited clinical articles written by practising specialists — recent issues have carried CPD content on artificial intelligence in refractive and cataract surgery, presbyopia management and pseudoexfoliation syndrome, alongside features on subjects such as Indigenous eye health and the eye-care workforce.

Issues are often themed or guest-edited: the February 2025 issue took up paediatric eye care under guest editor Dr Sandra Staffieri AO, and the August 2026 issue was built around myopia science and management ahead of the annual Myopia Action Month campaign. The website adds a daily layer of news, product information, classifieds, an events gallery, a supplier directory and a video library, while the journal's contributor lists run to dozens of named ophthalmologists, optometrists and industry figures per issue.

The journal's tone was set early. Its motto in its first years was "created by the industry for the industry", and its contributors have always been drawn from practice rather than from a large staff newsroom: individual issues draw on the collective knowledge of up to 25 experts from the ophthalmic industry, by the count its editor gave in 2008. That model persists in the current journal, where sponsored themed editions are produced with bodies such as the Macular Disease Foundation Australia and guest editors from the profession introduce the issues.

Audience and Reach

MiVision's print distribution is restricted to accredited eye-care professionals in Australia and New Zealand. When the ownership change was announced in 2018, the publisher stated the journal was distributed to 6,436 accredited eye health professionals, citing a CAB audit of March 2018; that figure is the publisher's, and is dated. The education centre's usage gives another dated measure: the publisher states that, on average, optometrists completed more than 20,000 mivision CPD modules a year in the period covered by its CMS report for December 2016 to November 2017. No current audited circulation figure was found in the sources consulted, and none is claimed here.

The title's social media community is substantial by trade-publishing standards: its own About page, updated in August 2025, puts its Facebook community at more than 31,000 members from around the world. Its standing in the profession is also reflected in its formal roles: it is an official media partner of Optometry Australia, the Gold National Media Sponsor of Optometry Giving Sight, and — by its own account — the first officially sanctioned media partner of both Vision 2020 Australia and the Brien Holden Vision Institute.

Digital Presence

MiVision publishes across three connected platforms. The website, mivision.com.au, carries daily news, the journal's articles, classifieds, products and events. The digital edition of the journal, at digital.mivision.com.au, replicates the printed journal and is released each month at the same time as the print issue; it is produced in two versions — a clinical version for registered healthcare professionals and a version for non-registered readers without the advertising that medicines legislation restricts — and the publisher worked with Ahpra to integrate its Practitioner Information Exchange into the platform so subscribers' registrations are verified automatically. Weekly e-newsletters support both. The education portal, mieducation.com, hosts the CPD library, to which the publisher adds at least three new CPD articles a month, free of charge to registered professionals.

Ownership and Organisation

MiVision is owned and published by Toma Publishing Pty Ltd, the Sydney company Mark Cushway and Todd Tai established in 2006. Since September 2018 the business has been owned by managing director Todd Tai and a business partner who was not named in the publisher's announcement of the change. The editorial team is led by editor Melanie Kell, supported by production and design staff named in the publisher's 2018 announcement — production manager Nikki Byrne and designer Simon Ward among them — and by a broad panel of clinician contributors. The journal operates independently of the sector's associations and commercial groups, a position it states explicitly in its own description of the title.

Contact and Availability

MiVision is published by Toma Publishing, whose address is given in the publication's terms as 1627 Botany Road, Banksmeadow NSW 2017, Sydney, telephone 02 8336 8616, with CPD enquiries to cpd@mivision.com.au. The journal is distributed in print to eye-care professionals in Australia and New Zealand, and is available online at mivision.com.au, with the digital edition at digital.mivision.com.au and CPD education at mieducation.com.