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Emerging therapies for geographic atrophy: complement inhibitors show potential to slow progression and preserve RPE and photoreceptor integrity

Geographic atrophy (GA) is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) characterised by progressive, irreversible loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptors and is estimated to account for approximately 10% of AMD-related blindness [1-4]. The Age-Related Eye...

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...

Ambitions for sustainable service recovery amidst an escalating post-COVID backlog

Rod McNeil reviews plans, activity and solutions to better address the post-COVID backlog and bolster sustainable service recovery. Ophthalmology was the busiest outpatient specialty during the three years to March 2020 across the English NHS and again recorded the highest...

VISION 2020 LINKS Programme: the Madagascar-Leeds LINK

Madagascar is a fascinating and culturally rich island which has an ‘exotic’ status in most people’s eyes. Yet it is among the poorest countries in the world. According to the World Bank, 92% of the population live on less than...

Reflections on a twelve-year partnership: The Makassar-Dundee LINK

In the first article of a two-part series (see Part 2 here), the authors provide an overview of this hugely successful partnership and how they overcame the challenges of COVID-19. What began in 2008 as a connection between equals, has...

Simulated ocular surgery – strabismus surgery

See also Simulated ocular surgery and Simulated ocular surgery: pars plane vitrectomy and scleral buckling surgery Strabismus surgery requires a range of skills, distinct to those required for intraocular surgery. Even if a trainee does not plan to become a...

Fight for Sight to maximise impact by funding solutions-focused research in priority eye conditions

Fight for Sight aims to stop sight loss by funding pioneering research. Rod McNeil takes a look at the Primer Fellowship Awards programme, which provides funding for up to £60,000 for individuals to undertake vision-related research for one year. Among...

Could Twitter boost the impact of ophthalmic journal articles?

*Equally contributing co-first authors. The authors investigate the link between ‘tweets’ and citations for 155 articles from five key ophthalmology journals. Social media’s impact on our lives has been significant, allowing easy discussion of topics worldwide. An increasing number of...

The work of BIPOSA

The British and Irish Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Association (BIPOSA) was set up in 2008 to merge two streams of ophthalmology, namely the practice of paediatric ophthalmology and the practice of strabismus (to include refracting in children, and strabismus in...

Vision Care for Homeless People

Vison Care for Homeless People (VCHP) was first established in 2003 with the aim to provide eye tests and glasses free of charge to people living in shelters, hostels or who are sleeping rough. Today, we remain the only national...

Introducing the Royal College of Nursing Ophthalmic Nursing Forum

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) represents nurses and nursing. While the terms ‘nurses’ and ‘nursing’ are used generically, membership is inclusive of a variety of clinical roles, including midwives, advanced nurse practitioners, advanced clinical practitioners, nurse consultants, registered nursing...