As a child of the 70s and 80s, there were limited television viewing opportunities. For the duration of the 70s there were only three channels, only moving to four with the launch of Channel 4 in 1982. Not only that,...
Louie: “Allow me to present Pac-Man. Now, who is going to be the lucky pup who gets to play the first game? Iggy! You’re a somewhat compulsive personality. Step forward. Now… you see there’s the maze.” Iggy: “Uh-huh” Louie: “All...
In a time where cost of living is significantly increasing, and the student NHS bursary is remaining stagnant, funding a medical elective is becoming increasingly more challenging for medical students. Surveys have shown that medical students typically get two to...
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the clinic room… The quote below comes from Rudy Baylor, a graduate fresh out of law school and recruited by a ruthless ambulance chaser in the legal drama movie,...
4 December 2025
| Thokozani Zungu, Shaffi Yusuf Mdala, Priscilla Mhango, Elliott Taylor, Thandizo Josiah, Joshua Nyirenda, Kondwani Munthali, Kingsley Mbewe, Catherine Lunduka, Petros Kayange, Caroline Styles, Mike Burdon, Covadonga Bascaran, Marcia Zondervan
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EYE - General
Malawi’s population is mostly rural; the government and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) together deliver about 80% of healthcare services through local district and community health facilities [1]. However, ophthalmology specialist services are only concentrated in the central hospitals....
Organising a national teaching series is both deeply rewarding and surprisingly complex. It requires more than just good content – it demands a well-thought-out purpose, seamless logistics, strong communication and meaningful evaluation. Over the past year, I had the opportunity...
Traditional artificial intelligence (AI) models typically require large amounts of labelled data for training. For example, to develop a model capable of detecting macular pathologies on optical coherence tomography scans, thousands of scans would need to be manually labelled by...
19 January 2026
| Ayomide Awosanmi, William Spackman, Jonathan Goodfellow
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EYE - Vitreo-Retinal
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...
The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme has been running since 2004, with a focus on improving the quality and quantity of eye care training in low-income countries [1]. In 2014, the Diabetic Retinopathy Network (DR-NET) was established [2]. This is a...
1 June 2016
| Lizette Mowatt, Peter Mitchell, Tunde Peto, Marcia Zondervan
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EYE - Vitreo-Retinal
At 2.55pm on Wednesday 16 March 2016 the first patient was screened and given her results in the new nurse-led Diabetic Retinopathy Screening (DRS) Clinic at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Kingston, Jamaica. This was the result...
The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme is part of the ‘VISION 2020: The Right to Sight’ global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness [1]. The LINKS Programme works with overseas eye departments to help identify priorities and match their priority needs with...
1 August 2018
| Radhika Patel, Simon Arunga, Jocelyn Cherry, Pippa Williams, Marcia Zondervan
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EYE - General
Building capacity for ophthalmic research in low- and middle-income countries is an important aim of the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme. The International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has been working...