To start our new Optometry section, editor Janet Pooley takes a look at the tragic death of Vincent Barker and asks what lessons can be learned. In August, Optometrist Honey Rose was found guilty of the manslaughter of eight-year-old Vincent...
Managing patients who attend a practice with symptoms of flashes and floaters is a regular occurrence in community optometric practice. It’s often very distressing for patients; symptoms can be quite dramatic and an internet search can indicate imminent blindness from...
In the second in the series about community eye care in the home nations, Janet Pooley explains how Scotland has developed its services within GOS. The United Kingdom has devolved healthcare; the powers were transferred from Westminster to Scotland and...
The author examines the current visual standards required by drivers and asks whether more needs to be done to make roads safer. Are the public adequately protected by the current system of visual standards required by drivers? In a survey...
Malawi is a small land-locked country in eastern Africa with a growing population of over 17 million people. About 45% of the population is aged 14 or under; only 5% are aged 60 or over. The gross national income per...
The VISION 2020 LINK between Botswana and Addenbrooke’s Abroad has been running for 10 years. With support from the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme two-way exchange visits were undertaken leading to the formation of the first formal international partnership under Addenbrooke’s...
The Lagos-Bolton VISION 2020 LINK started in December 2011. It is one of 29 LINKS now running in the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme [1]. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a current population of 178 million, projected...
VISION 2020 LINKS between Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT), Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Northern Ireland with first ECWA Eye Hospital, Kano, Nigeria and now also with Mbeya Referral Hospital (MRH), Tanzania, have been beneficial to all three partners. From...
More than 70 representatives from 10 Commonwealth countries (in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions) and Indonesia gathered at a five-day workshop in November 2014 to establish district or national plans to reduce blindness from diabetic retinopathy (DR). The event...
A resident’s view from Makassar My name is Hendra Kusuma, a final year resident (registrar) in the ophthalmology department at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, Indonesia. We have had a VISION 2020 LINK with Dundee (coordinated at the UK end by...
Indonesia’s population, the world’s fourth largest, is spread across 6,000 inhabited islands. Whilst some areas (e.g. Kalimantan, Papua) are relatively sparsely populated, Java is the world’s most densely populated island, with twice the population of the UK in half the...
David Apple and Gerd Auffarth. The Apple Lab at the David J Apple Center for Vision Research in Heidelberg is a thriving international laboratory for research into intraocular devices. The lab continues the work of David J Apple, a world-renowned...