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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...

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...

Development of retinoblastoma care in Indonesia and the role of multidisciplinary team meetings

In the second article of a two-part series (See Part 1 here), the authors focus on the diagnosis and management of retinoblastoma in Indonesia. COVID-19 doesn’t get thanked for many things, but on 19 December 2020 as the world grew...

Novel changes during COVID-19 – transforming a walk-in Eye Casualty to a telephone triage service

With the current pandemic climate due to COVID-19, out of the norm approaches have been adopted in different hospitals across the UK to ensure patient safety. At our Eye Casualty (EC) department at Northampton General Hospital (NGH), we felt the...

Tackling diabetic retinopathy globally through the VISION 2020 LINKS Diabetic Retinopathy Network

It is abundantly clear that the burden of diabetes is rapidly increasing, as there are now 415 million adults with diabetes in the world, with a projected rise to 642 million by 2040 [1]. This equates to 1 in 10...

Artificial intelligence in eyecare: how do we ensure new technologies truly benefit our patients?

From monitoring patients with heart disease to improving the early diagnosis of cancer, artificial intelligence (AI) using deep learning techniques is already employed in many different healthcare specialties [1]. In the eyecare field, AI technologies have been used to analyse...

How do you solve the problem of trachoma in Ethiopia?

Background Trachoma is one of the oldest diseases known to humankind and the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. Spread by the bacterium chlamydia trachomatis, it is transmitted through contact with the eyes, eyelids and nose of those infected. The...

Part 1: The Arclight Project – Frugal tech for sight

Click here for Part 2 on this topic, and here for Part 3 The Arclight Project is a mix of frugal design, manufacturing, distribution, teaching, research, and advocacy, all wrapped up in a social enterprise based at the University of...

Ophthalmology history and examination – a guide for medical students

*First author Students have very little exposure to ophthalmology during their years at medical school. Teaching consists of a handful of lectures followed by a short placement in which students are expected to practise histories and examinations on patients with...