Bionic eyes: deciphering the neural circuitry of vision restoration

As the boundaries between technology and biology blur, retinal prosthetics, often dubbed ‘bionic eyes’, present a ground-breaking paradigm shift in addressing blindness. This article delves into the captivating scientific intricacies of these neural interfaces, exploring their mechanisms of action, current...

WHO SPECS 2030: a global initiative to strengthen refractive error services

Globally, it is estimated that only around one-third of people with vision impairment due to refractive error have received access to a quality pair of spectacles [1]. In recognition that uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of vision impairment...

Insights on medical AI for ophthalmology: an update on current perspectives

Artificial intelligence (AI) has immense promise for revolutionising medical practice. Generative AI is a form of AI in which algorithms are trained on datasets that can be used to generate new content, such as text, images or video based on...

Are social media promoting ocular protection in the community?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries worldwide introduced lockdown measures to control infection, causing people to spend more time at home. This resulted in reports of increasing incidences of do-it-yourself (DIY)-related trauma. When the Covid-19 pandemic started in December 2019,...

I WILL. An extraordinary challenge for Glaucoma UK’s 50th anniversary

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary year, we are reaching out to our glaucoma community, inviting everyone to join us in the fight against glaucoma so we won’t need to exist as a charity in 50 years’ time. Since the...

Pathological myopia: a trainer’s perceptive

High myopia is defined as myopic refraction of greater than -6 dioptres with an axial length greater than 26.5mm, while pathological myopia is myopic refraction with posterior pole degeneration [1]. These degenerative changes can affect a young population and in...

My top five: Emerging alternatives to manage and treat nAMD

Wet (exudative or neovascular) age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is characterised by choroidal neovascularisation, in which new blood vessels from the choroid invade through Bruch’s membrane. These blood vessels proliferate beneath or through the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), causing patients to...

The Escape Room and gamification of ophthalmology teaching

Recently, there has been an interesting development in medical education and its ‘gamification’. Educators are constantly looking for new ways to engage their students by adding a friendly element of competition, as evidenced by the great success of online education...

Part 1: The Arclight Project – Frugal tech for sight

Click here for Part 2 on this topic, and here for Part 3 The Arclight Project is a mix of frugal design, manufacturing, distribution, teaching, research, and advocacy, all wrapped up in a social enterprise based at the University of...

Virtual ophthalmic conferences: learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic was the catalyst for a number of paradigm shifts in numerous industries. The demand for proxies that follow social distancing measures created a hotbed for digital solutions and transitioned these to social convention. In the aftermath, the...

The All Eyes Foundation

At its core, All Eyes Foundation (AEF) wishes to help bring vision back to Iraq, and it intends to do this through ophthalmic subspecialty training, mentoring and infrastructure development. Based in Najaf, just over 100 miles south of Baghdad, the...

Strabismus and ocular motility, demystified

I am a former orthoptist, now trained in medicine and working as a foundation doctor. In my previous work, I was frequently approached by ophthalmology trainees eager for guidance with strabismus and ocular motility. Drawing on my clinical experience, I...