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Leadership skills training through the COECSA-RCOphth LINK

The Lead Forward project was an initiative of the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) via the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET). It aimed to improve the quality of medical leadership within VISION 2020...

The New Zealand National Eye Centre and the land of the long white cloud

Located southeast of Australia in the South Pacific Ocean, New Zealand (Aotearoa) is home to five million culturally diverse people. Renowned for its lush nature spanning from unexplored forests to active volcanos and snow-capped mountains, New Zealand has become both...

From novice to overnight on-calls: developing an ophthalmology bootcamp to ease the learning curve for new trainees

Introduction My first ophthalmology on-call was nine years ago and it was a fairly traumatic experience. I was an FY2 in a Welsh district general hospital and I was on my own – at least, that’s how it felt to...

Ophthalmology clinical teaching and research fellowships: a pathway into ophthalmology specialty training

Ophthalmology is known for being one of the most competitive medical specialties in the UK, with 6.8 applicants per post in 2021. In fact, the competition ratio has drastically increased in recent years, rising from 5.73 in 2020 and 3.24...

A day in the life of...an ophthalmic imager / an orthoptic assistant

The ophthalmic imager My role as an ophthalmic / medical photographer has evolved, dramatically, since I began my career at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, 30 years ago. Long gone are the days of developing and hand printing fluorescein angiograms in...

Redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic: personal accounts from four ophthalmology trainees

We once believed that the coronavirus would not penetrate the safe confines of the United Kingdom, like so many outbreaks before this. Once the news came that this pandemic descended into our hospitals, the anxieties about redeployment began. Many of...

Pituitary tumours: why are they so often missed?

Part 1: Introduction, historical background and Edinburgh connections (see also Part 2 and Part 3) Is there any ophthalmologist who has not missed a pituitary tumour? Hopefully this article will help those currently in practice to avoid such an embarrassment,...

Guide to Gaining Approval for a Clinical Study

This article focuses on gaining approval for clinical research involving NHS patients, although the principles can be applied to other types of research. The intention is to give an overview of the requirements for setting up a research study, but...

My journey as advanced ophthalmic emergency nurse practitioner

Grace Eni explores her own achievements as an advanced nurse practitioner, emphasising the influential range and significance of this role in ophthalmic care. A pioneering position and job title in the UK and possibly globally, advanced nurse practitioner roles were...

From paper to pocket: Standardising eyecare with the Malawi Eye Care App

Malawi’s population is mostly rural; the government and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) together deliver about 80% of healthcare services through local district and community health facilities [1]. However, ophthalmology specialist services are only concentrated in the central hospitals....