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The miracle of multi-professional working in modern-day eyecare

"It’s a Tuesday morning, and I’m in the presence of one of the most mind-boggling accomplishments in human history. This thing is so astounding in its complexity and scope, it makes the Panama Canal look like a third grader’s craft...

Leadership and management in optometry: why is it important?

The General Medical Council recognises that leadership and management is essential for every doctor, and provides guidance detailing management and leadership responsibilities [1]. Indeed, management and leadership is part of the core training for all medical trainees. However, to date,...

Looking on the brightside: Lord David Blunkett

“I can hear people smile” As a young adult in the 1980s and 1990s I gradually became more politically informed with occasional forays into BBC’s Question Time. In doing so, I learnt of the rise of politician David Blunkett, a...

Through the bubble: A patient’s perspective on macula hole surgery pre- and postoperatively

The evolution of ophthalmic surgical practice over the past seven decades has been extraordinary. Within this period, the first vitrectomy was performed, establishing a foundation for what is now an operation performed thousands of times per year in the UK...

Identifying life-threatening uveal melanoma: A directed application of general-purpose AI

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare but aggressive eye cancer, affecting approximately six people per million annually [1]. Uveal melanoma arises in three locations: the choroid, ciliary body, and iris. As the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults, UM...

Learnings and trends in the management of open-angle and angle-closure glaucoma

To be truly disruptive, newer technologies need to offer a quality of life benefit over medication to a broad population of glaucoma sufferers. Evidence and converging trends in medical and surgical management of glaucoma were explored in counterpoint discussions and...

Rare eye diseases: progress continues with authorised orphan medicines and breakthrough technologies

An update on the development of orphan medicines, recent regulatory treatment approvals for rare eye conditions and advances in retinal prosthetic technologies for blinding diseases. The prevalence of a rare disease is based usually on a range of estimates and...

Eye Capacity: clinical need should drive ophthalmic service provision

Almost two million people in the UK suffer sight loss, a number forecast to double over coming decades. Major causes of blindness are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, cataract and uncorrected refractive error. Prevalence of these sight-threatening conditions...

Coming to terms with AI

A machine might be called intelligent if its response to questions could convince a person that it was human, a test proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 [1]. The author considers potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning...

Designing ophthalmology services Part 2: How do we address the queues for a clinic?

The first of this three-part series showed how systems engineering can be used to correctly diagnose and address the causes of delays in a clinic. This second article describes how to design a more productive system that meets the new...

Effect of the COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Service on patient referrals to general practitioners and Hospital Eye Service

The COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Services (CUES) was developed to relieve the demands of hospital ophthalmology, aiming to allow patients to have remote consultations and be managed by community optometric practice. This was because access to Hospital Eye Service (HES) Ophthalmic...