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Eye research: where next?

Eye research in the UK is underfunded relative to other areas of medical research and general awareness of sight loss and its prevention remains poor, messages that were reinforced in presentations and discussions during a recent research summit meeting in...

The role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of DMO

Diabetic macular oedema (DMO) is a major cause of visual loss in diabetes, with a complex multifactorial pathogenesis. In the UK alone it is estimated that there are nearly 2.5 million diabetic patients aged over 12 years. Approximately 65,000 of...

Myasthenia gravis presenting with isolated ptosis: a poorly studied subgroup

Investigation into the cause of one isolated symptom or sign can be challenging if that particular sign may be caused by a variety of pathological processes, affecting different tissues, and presenting to different specialties. Unilateral ptosis is a case in...

Coming to terms with AI

A machine might be called intelligent if its response to questions could convince a person that it was human, a test proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 [1]. The author considers potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning...

The bionic eye – behind the headlines

Multiple visual prosthetic projects and other vision regeneration initiatives being tested in preclinical and clinical development worldwide illustrate continuing progress and opportunities in addressing profound blindness from hereditary retinal diseases and other causes (Table 1). Three implantable bionic vision systems...

Initiatives in macular service provision

A report from Monitor in October 2015 identifies good practices that will realise most of the potential productivity gain in elective care available to NHS hospitals. These include: stratifying patients by risk and creating low-complexity pathways for lower-risk patients (tailoring...

Designing ophthalmology services Part 2: How do we address the queues for a clinic?

The first of this three-part series showed how systems engineering can be used to correctly diagnose and address the causes of delays in a clinic. This second article describes how to design a more productive system that meets the new...

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...

Tackling diabetic retinopathy globally through the VISION 2020 LINKS Diabetic Retinopathy Network

It is abundantly clear that the burden of diabetes is rapidly increasing, as there are now 415 million adults with diabetes in the world, with a projected rise to 642 million by 2040 [1]. This equates to 1 in 10...

Launch of the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service in UHWI Jamaica

At 2.55pm on Wednesday 16 March 2016 the first patient was screened and given her results in the new nurse-led Diabetic Retinopathy Screening (DRS) Clinic at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Kingston, Jamaica. This was the result...

The Makassar-Dundee VISION 2020 LINK: a tale of two cities and two trainees

A resident’s view from Makassar My name is Hendra Kusuma, a final year resident (registrar) in the ophthalmology department at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, Indonesia. We have had a VISION 2020 LINK with Dundee (coordinated at the UK end by...