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Simulating the visual impairment symptoms of age-related macular degeneration in virtual reality

A new virtual reality application visually simulates age-related macular degeneration and demonstrates its progression over time including some Charles Bonnet syndrome hallucinations. Introduction Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries with the prevalence of...

Demodex blepharitis: A transatlantic comparison of treatments available in the UK and US

Demodex blepharitis is widely recognised among eyecare professionals as an important cause of chronic lid margin inflammation, dry eye and ocular surface diseases. The characteristic feature for diagnosis is the presence of waxy deposit at the lash bases on slit...

Diabetes and diabetic retinopathy: Changes in understanding of the disease over the last 25 years and how the UK is helping low-income countries tackle the challenges

Diabetes – a historical perspective Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease caused by inherited and / or acquired deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. Such a deficiency results in...

IN FOCUS - VISION 2020 LINKS Programme: the contribution of health partnerships to reduction in blindness worldwide

As other articles in this series (IN FOCUS Apr 2020) demonstrate, the year 2020 is highly significant in the eye care field. Naming a global initiative ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ in 1999 was a daring way to focus...

Refraction planning in cataract: avoid creating an unhappy patient

“It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.” William Osler The focus of this paper is the prevention of an unhappy patient following cataract...

Pathophysiology of diabetic macular oedema: why combination therapy may be better

The prevalence of diabetes has continued to increase over the years. It is currently estimated that there are 382 million with diabetes worldwide in 2013, and that this figure is expected to rise to 592 million by 2035 [1]. In...

A paradigm shift in the way we approach cataract surgery

Cataract surgery is the most common elective surgical procedure in the UK [1], with in the region of 350,000 cases being conducted each year. With an ageing population, this figure will only continue to rise over time. Cataract surgery is...

Retinopathy of prematurity treatment in the South West of England: long-term outcomes 1997-2008

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a condition that affects the developing retinal vascular system of pre-term babies. If left untreated, ROP can lead to severe visual impairment. The severe visual impairment caused by untreated ROP can be prevented by screening...

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...

Designing ophthalmology services - Part 1: How do we address the queues in a clinic?

This first of a three-part series shows how systems engineering can be used to correctly diagnose and address the causes of delays in a clinic. The second article, which will be featured in the April/May 2020 issue, describes how to...