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Eyecare education in times of COVID-19

A collaboration between the German Committee for the Prevention of Blindness (DKVB), Rukwa regional government in Tanzania and the University of St Andrews Global Health Team successfully delivered a hybrid teaching programme for ophthalmic nurses in Sumbawanga, south west Tanzania,...

Sustainability in eyecare: Climate action in eyecare

Climate change will cause disruption to critical eyecare services and increases in rates of eye disease around the world. The International Agency for Prevention of Blindness has recommended 10 key areas of action on how the eyecare sector can address...

Lost in translation

The article that follows is a collection of reflections and observations by Peter (British) and Nathan (Singaporean) living and working in each other’s countries. Peter Cackett “Best thing about this place is it’s not still full of pompous ex-colonials who...

Post-stroke visual impairment: how big is the problem, how do we identify it, what we can do about it, and why does it matter?

In the UK, 100,000 new strokes occur each year, with 1.3 million stroke survivors [1]. This article will focus on post-stroke visual impairment, discussing topics of how common it is, how it can be detected, possible management options and how...

Nano-ophthalmology paves a new path in the future of eyecare

Introduction The treatments of ocular conditions in the field of ophthalmology varies from topical to surgical procedures. The field of nanotechnology is one of the fast-growing fields of medicine, which plays an important role in turning the impossibilities of the...

Corneal transplantation in the United Kingdom: are we blind to the challenges that still exist after the Organ Donation Bill?

Corneal transplantation (CT) is a significant treatment option for a huge number of patients in the United Kingdom (UK) [1]. For an individual, CT results in a substantial improvement in quality of life. Penetrating keratoplasty with full thickness grafting has...

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus: a clinician’s perspective

Introduction Herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, is caused by the reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV). The term herpes is derived from a Greek work, herpein, which means ‘creeping’ and the word zoster means a belt or a girdle...

The ROP Network: a south-south collaboration to improve care for premature babies

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a disorder of the immature preterm retina and a leading cause of preventable, irreversible blindness in children. There are 15 million preterm births annually, and over 32,000 neonates became blind from ROP in 2010 [1]....

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...

The impact of obstructive sleep apnoea monitoring functionality on smartwatches: a new frontier for ophthalmologists

Dawn of a new era in wearable technology? Smartwatches have really stepped up their game and have evolved from telling time to keeping an eye on our health. In February 2024, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave...

A comparison of light sources in retinal imaging

Before starting to talk about the light sources present in retinal imaging, it is necessary to start from the base: the light. Light is an electromagnetic wave whose smallest part is the photon (or quantum of light). A high frequency...

General purpose AI: Transitioning from high performance in highly curated settings to useful applications in ophthalmology

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be understood as the ability of machines to perform tasks which otherwise require human perception, reasoning, or learning. With the advent of deep learning, AI has achieved remarkable results across a wide range of medical tasks...