About Dr David Gunn

Cornea, Cataract and Laser Eye Surgeon

MBBS (Hons I), BSc, CertLRS, FRANZCO

Dr David Gunn is a corneal and refractive surgeon at the Queensland Eye Institute, Brisbane, specialising in diseases of the cornea, complex cataract surgery, and laser vision correction. He graduated from the University of Queensland with First Class Honours in both Medicine and Science, and was awarded the prestigious K.G. Howsam gold medal — presented to the candidate achieving the highest results in the Australian and New Zealand final ophthalmology examinations.

After completing ophthalmology training throughout Queensland, Dr Gunn undertook subspecialty fellowship training in corneal, advanced cataract, and refractive surgery at the Bristol Eye Hospital in the United Kingdom, and was subsequently awarded the Certificate in Laser and Refractive Surgery by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He is a founding Fellow of the World College of Refractive Surgery and Visual Sciences.

Dr Gunn consults and operates at the Queensland Eye Institute and Focus Vision Clinic — both located at 87 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba — with all surgery performed at the South Brisbane Day Hospital. He is a senior lecturer in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland and is actively involved in the training of ophthalmology registrars, optometry students, and medical students.

An International Voice for Corneal Surgery

Dr Gunn is an in-demand international speaker and surgical educator. In 2025 he delivered the Ridley Lecture at the German Ophthalmology Congress (DOC) in Germany — one of the most prestigious invited lectures in European ophthalmology, named for Sir Harold Ridley, the pioneer of the intraocular lens. His lecture, titled "CAIRS — A Paradigm Shift in the Management of Corneal Ectasia," presented long-term outcomes data and planning advances developed through the Brisbane CAIRS series. He has presented at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS) Congress in Vienna and Barcelona, conducted CAIRS surgical wet labs at the Southern African Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (SASCRS) Congress in Johannesburg in 2026, and regularly teaches the technique to visiting surgeons from across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America.

In May 2021, Dr Gunn performed Australia's first CAIRS keratoplasty procedure at the Queensland Eye Institute — a minimally invasive corneal transplant technique for keratoconus using donor corneal tissue, which has since become an established alternative to more invasive full corneal grafts. Together with Dr Brendan Cronin and Dr Rebecca Cox, he co-authored the Brisbane Nomogram — the world's first standardised surgical planning framework for CAIRS keratoplasty — published in Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology (2026).

Giving Back to the Global Surgical Community

Dr Gunn believes that advances in surgical technique and planning methodology should be shared freely — not locked behind paywalls or limited to surgeons at well-resourced institutions. This philosophy has shaped two significant contributions to the global ophthalmology community, both developed through his work at Focus Vision:

CAIRSPlan.com — Free CAIRS Surgical Planning Tool Co-developed with Dr Cronin, CAIRSPlan is the world's first free online surgical planning tool for CAIRS keratoplasty. Surgeons upload corneal topography, plan arc placement and segment dimensions guided by the Brisbane Nomogram, and generate a printable intraoperative PDF — all at no cost. Since its launch at the ESCRS Congress in Vienna in 2023, the tool has been accessed by corneal surgeons across multiple countries. It is free, and it always will be.

Focus Vision Refractive Outcomes Analyzer — Free IOL Outcomes Analysis Tool Also developed through Focus Vision, this free browser-based tool allows cataract surgeons anywhere in the world to analyse their refractive outcomes, optimise IOL lens constants across five major formulas, and benchmark their results against ESCRS 2024 standards — with a full PDF audit report generated in minutes. No registration. No subscription. No patient data ever transmitted to any server. It is the Focus Vision team's contribution to raising the standard of cataract surgery outcomes globally.

These tools are not commercial products. They are the expression of a straightforward conviction: that a surgeon in regional Queensland, rural India, or sub-Saharan Africa deserves access to the same planning rigour as a surgeon at a major academic centre in London or Boston. The Focus Vision team built them, made them free, and intends to keep them that way. Gunn is a Queensland trained ophthalmologist specialising in diseases of the cornea, complex cataract surgery and laser and refractive eye surgery.

Procedures performed by Dr David Gunn:

• Micro-incision cataract surgery with premium intraocular lens implantation

• CAIRS keratoplasty for keratoconus and corneal ectasia (Medicare item 42653)

• Customised femtosecond laser CAIRS on the Ziemer Z8 platform

• Corneal collagen cross-linking

• LASIK, TransPRK, PRK, and CLEAR laser eye surgery

• Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL) surgery

• Sutureless pterygium surgery with conjunctival autograft

• Corneal transplant surgery including DALK, DSAEK, and DMEK