Search

The International Council of Ophthalmology: what is it and is it useful for UK ophthalmologists?

ICO Director for Examinations and Assessments, Simon Keightley, explains the history and role of the organisation today, as well as outlining recent changes to the ICO examinations. The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) is the only international medical specialty organisation...

Best way to detect glaucoma progression: by reflecting on the past 25 years

Glaucoma – a condition of optic neuropathy leading to progressive visual field loss often associated with raised intraocular pressure. It is fair to say that our definition for this condition has remained unchanged over the last 25 years and the...

Measuring patient-reported outcomes after refractive surgery to assess patient satisfaction

Patient-reported outcomes enable surgeons to evaluate patients’ symptoms and satisfaction after laser vision correction. The great majority of patients are pleased with their outcomes from laser vision correction, whether it is with photorefractive keratectomy, laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK), or small...

A focus on Pakistan’s growing eye care needs: over 43 million patients treated for curable blindness free of charge

With 90% of the world’s visually impaired living in developing countries, Pakistan is no exception to this on-going global healthcare challenge. Despite massive leaps over the last few decades in targeting this issue, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that...

Towards virtual reality conferences?

COVID-19 is forcing us to reconsider every aspect of life. The authors ask what future ophthalmic meetings could look like. The coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ophthalmic conferences resulting in the cancellation of the majority of meetings in 2020, e.g....

Does vitrectomy increase the risk of glaucoma? A retrospective review from a UK hospital

The authors investigate what proportion of patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy subsequently developed ocular hypertension or a diagnosis of glaucoma. A systematic review carried out in 2017 including seven studies found that there is evidence that pars plana vitrectomy (PPV)...

Reflections on designing and delivering an undergraduate ophthalmology teaching programme

Dr Alexander Strother reflects on his time designing and delivering a classroom-based programme to ensure that medical students know how to take comprehensive ophthalmic histories from patients. Working as a clinical teaching fellow, in 2021 I had the great privilege...

Understanding the inequalities of ophthalmic care for Indigenous people in a first world country

Aboriginal Australians have faced numerous challenges over the past centuries. Here in this article, Edward Saxton highlights why there are inequalities of ophthalmic care in Australia and why this has led to increased levels of blindness in Aboriginal people relative...

Evolving towards an interventional glaucoma mindset

Traditionally, a newly diagnosed glaucoma patient would be treated first with medical therapy. As the disease progressed or the initial intervention failed to adequately control intraocular pressure (IOP), clinicians would add more drops, selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT), repeated SLT and...

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...