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Understanding the inequalities of ophthalmic care for Indigenous people in a first world country

Aboriginal Australians have faced numerous challenges over the past centuries. Here in this article, Edward Saxton highlights why there are inequalities of ophthalmic care in Australia and why this has led to increased levels of blindness in Aboriginal people relative...

Evolving towards an interventional glaucoma mindset

Traditionally, a newly diagnosed glaucoma patient would be treated first with medical therapy. As the disease progressed or the initial intervention failed to adequately control intraocular pressure (IOP), clinicians would add more drops, selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT), repeated SLT and...

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...

Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery: What options are there and when might they be considered?

In recent years there has been a rapid expansion in a group of operations termed ‘minimally invasive’ or ‘micro invasive’ glaucoma surgery (MIGS). These options generally offer less significant IOP reduction, but with a more favourable safety profile when compared...

Robotic assisted orbital surgery (RAOS) – a novel approach to orbital malignancy surgery

Robotic technology in ENT surgery has been used in certain areas of head and neck cancer care but, in this article, we hear of an exciting development from the team at Guy’s & St Thomas’. Advances in surgical robotic technology...

My top five: Trinkets of fact or fiction

Trinkets of adult wisdom are often delivered to children alongside warnings of catastrophic outcomes. In this article we present five ‘facts’ about eye health and vision and ask the question: to what extent are these ideas backed up by literature?...

Enhancing ophthalmology training: Unleashing the power of simulation

Ethical and practical barriers hinder early surgical experience in ophthalmology training [1], which is problematic when early-career trainees bring a higher risk of poor surgical outcomes and patient harm [2]. The European working time directive and the surgical backlog secondary...

Ophthalmic exposure for emergency medicine doctors

Emergency medicine is a challenging specialty which requires managing a range of acute issues. In this article, I explore the experiences of emergency doctors towards ophthalmic cases presenting in the emergency department, identifying what initiatives have helped trainees. Emergency medicine...

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...

75th Anniversary year of the first intraocular lens implant

The 29th of November 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the first intraocular lens implant by our Founder, Sir Harold Ridley FRS. The United Kingdom & Ireland Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons (UKISCRS) is marking the event with a...

Report on preoperative visual acuities of patients from two AMM surgical trips to Magdalena, Northern Bolivia

The Andean Medical Mission (AMM), founded in 2012, recently celebrated 12 years of dedicated service in the Bolivian Amazon, aiming to eliminate avoidable blindness. Over this period, AMM has successfully performed over 1700 surgeries, including for children with congenital or...