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The sexist lens addressing cataract-induced blindness in women

Ninety percent of the world’s blind population resides in low-income, developing countries [1]. The primary cause of their blindness is cataract, a condition that is easily treatable and unnecessary. A cataract is the clouding of the eye’s lens, often resulting...

Assessing the effectiveness of undergraduate ophthalmic assessments in the UK: A literature review

During 2008–2009, 300,000 patients presented to hospital emergency departments in the UK with eye conditions. This rose by nearly 200,000 over the next decade. As the population ages, the prevalence of eye disease increases [1,2]. However, the stake ophthalmology holds...

Managing an outreach eye service… 8000 miles away!

In 1997, Paul Rosen, a relatively newly appointed consultant surgeon to the Oxford Eye Hospital, was approached by Richard Davies, a GP in Stanley, Falkland Islands, to assist in the provision and management of the Falkland Islands eye surgery service....

Audiology and ophthalmology: A comparative perspective on diagnostics and patient care

I’m here with Chris Gordon and Anthony Vukic from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to find out how two professions that may appear unrelated on the surface actually have a lot in common. Some of this article might surprise you....

Money is a problem, but the problem is bigger than money

The argument surrounding doctors’ pay remains an ongoing battle. At the time of writing, Foundation Year 1 doctors have voted in favour of industrial action due to the lack of substantive employment or regular locum work at the end of...

Deliberate darkness: The systematic weaponisation of blinding in global protests

As eyecare professionals, we spend our entire professional lives fighting to preserve light. We train to master the delicate microscopic topography of the cornea, the retina and the optic nerve, all with the objective of saving our patients from the...

The Leicester Grading System for Foveal Hypoplasia

The University of Leicester Ulverscroft Eye Unit have published the first medical grading system named after the city of Leicester. Infantile nystagmus is characterised by constant and involuntary eye movements and affects 24 per 10,000 people [1]. Onset is usually...

Commonwealth nations join forces to prevent blindness from diabetes

More than 70 representatives from 10 Commonwealth countries (in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions) and Indonesia gathered at a five-day workshop in November 2014 to establish district or national plans to reduce blindness from diabetic retinopathy (DR). The event...

The lived experience of benign essential blepharospasm

Benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) is a rare neurological condition which causes involuntary sustained or intermittent muscular contraction of both eyelids and upper facial muscles which cause closure of eyelids, abnormal facial expressions and distress [1]. The term dystonia is an...