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Dementia and visual impairment: what is the relationship and are we providing the best care?

Carla Maden discusses the implications of living with both dementia and visual impairment, and how general medical junior doctors and ophthalmologists can help to alleviate this burden and improve the quality of life of such patients. Dementia and visual impairment...

Pathway innovations to address cataract services post-COVID-19

Background The demand for cataract services prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was already recognised to be high and growing - in the face of an ageing population and reduced surgical thresholds. When added to the growth in demand for ophthalmic...

How to get the most out of your ophthalmology elective

If you are in your penultimate year (or even earlier) and have already decided that you want to do ophthalmology, good for you! Ophthalmology is one of the most competitive specialties, and one of the easiest ways to demonstrate your...

Foundation Post in Ophthalmology

If you are in your final year of medicine at university, firstly congratulations on making it so far and secondly, you may be wondering how and which jobs to rank highly. If you have found yourself reading this article, then...

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...

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...

Should points for simulated surgery be removed from the ophthalmology ST1 evidence folder?

The benefits of the Eyesi surgical simulator by Haag-Streit UK for early career ophthalmology speciality trainees are well-established, allowing for the practice of cataract and vitreoretinal surgery in a controlled, risk-free environment. Whilst the Eyesi is an invaluable resource for...

Assessing the effectiveness of undergraduate ophthalmic assessments in the UK: A literature review

During 2008–2009, 300,000 patients presented to hospital emergency departments in the UK with eye conditions. This rose by nearly 200,000 over the next decade. As the population ages, the prevalence of eye disease increases [1,2]. However, the stake ophthalmology holds...

A semi-automated algorithm for identifying glaucoma patients with blindness

Patients with sight impairment (previously referred to as partial sightedness) or severe sight impairment (previously referred to as blindness) are eligible for a certificate of visual impairment (CVI). Certification confers eligibility for a wide range of benefits administered by local...

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...

Ophthalmic entrepreneurship: Reflections from an ophthalmic surgeon

For many ophthalmic trainees and newly appointed consultants, the idea of medical entrepreneurship can feel distant and sometimes uncomfortable. We are trained in a profession centred on patient care, ethics and service. The word entrepreneur, by contrast, often brings to...