My journey to Rwanda in April 2022 aimed to expand vitreoretinal services, but it also highlighted the need for robust scientific discourse, akin to the UK's ophthalmology culture, and so we seized the opportunity to plan an 'international' ophthalmology conference to coincide with a visit from five of my former UK consultant colleagues.
To further support eye-health for people in the Lancashire region, a new permanent eye care facility has opened in the heart of Bamber Bridge, just three miles from Preston. Opened yesterday by the Mayor and Mayoress of South Ribble Borough...
Out of the Box Optic’s Optoversity Challenge 2025 has brought 95 students from 12 UK universities together to take part in the exciting competition. The annual event – now in its ninth year – is a major fundraiser for Vision...
Ophthalmology is one of the most competitive specialties to pursue training in worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the ST1 entry national selection competition ratio for the past few years has ranged between four to five applicants per post [1]. The...
Ophthalmology is often considered to be an elite, highly competitive specialty, with little room for failure. Candidates and trainees tend to cultivate a certain urbane and confident style, and the bottleneck at ST1 can feel rather intense. The majority of...
As a foundation year doctor, I didn’t expect ophthalmology to feature much in acute medicine or surgery. Yet it kept appearing at the periphery – and when it did, it was often complex and unexpectedly urgent. A confused older patient...
4 December 2023
| Abdelrahman Obiedat
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EYE - General
IMGs in the NHS The General Medical Council (GMC) defines an international medical graduate (IMG) as someone who has obtained their primary medical qualification outside the European Economic Area (EEA) [1], meaning that an IMG is a medical doctor whose...
Staffing shortages, financial constraints, and an ongoing rise in demand: none of these factors remove the need for high-quality healthcare, yet combined they threaten its realisation.
2 October 2025
| Chi Kit Yan, Salman Naveed Sadiq
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EYE - Glaucoma
In this article, Resident Doctor Chi Kit Yan sits down with Consultant Glaucoma Specialist Salman Sadiq and explores the daily life of a glaucoma specialist, the pros and cons of the role, how trainees can prepare for this subspecialty, and...
“Bring back life form, priority one, all other priorities are rescinded.” Film buffs will spot this as a chilling quote spoken by Ash (Ian Holm) from the classic sci-fi horror movie Alien (1979). Ash (spoiler alert) is a Hyperdyne Systems...
Back in 1993, the late and great Barry Cullen FRCS (Cavan born, Dublin trained), the first editor of Eye News, asked me to write an article about the current treatment of chronic open angle glaucoma (COAG). At the time I...