Ophthalmic Education:

Ophthalmology Continuing Education Programs and Initiatives of the ICO

On this page:

• Task Force defines Guidelines for CME
  
  
• Members of the Task Force
  
  
• ICO adopts CME requirements
  
  
• Current ICO continuing education programs
  
  
• Atlas of Ophthalmology on the Web

Task Force defines Guidelines for CME

A task force of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) has defined "Principles and Guidelines of a Curriculum for Continuing Medical Education in Ophthalmology," which can be downloaded as a PDF file (336KB) from www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurriccme.pdf.

The ICO International Task Force on Continuing Medical Education (CME) in Ophthalmology is chaired by Zbigniew Zagorski, MD (Poland).

The Guidelines for CME is one of four sets of curricula and guidelines for ophthalmic education defined by international task forces and offered by the ICO in connection with its initative to enhance training to meet the needs of the public.

The ICO encourages ophthalmologic societies and residency programs to translate and adapt these curricula as needed and use them as basis for enhancing ophthalmic education.

Members of the Task Force

ICO International Task Force on Ophthalmology Continuing Education:

Chairman:

Zbigniew Zagorski, MD (Poland) (cme@icoph.org)

Editor and Director of Educational Programs of ICO:

Mark O.M. Tso, MD (USA) (China)

Major Contributors:

Zbigniew Zagorski, MD (Poland)
Barbara Biziorek, MD (Poland)
Shayne Brown, MAppSc (Australia)
Brian Chua, MD (Australia)
Marko Hawlina, MD (Slovenia)
H. Dunbar Hoskins, MD (USA)
Frank Martin, MD (Australia)
James Standefer, MD (USA)

Other Past and Present Members of International Task Force*.

Sivaguru Selvarajah, MD, Past Chair (Malaysia)
Neil Bressler, MD (USA)
David Green, (USA)
Anselm Kampik, MD (Germany)
Volka Klauss, MD (Germany)
Dennis Lam, MD (Hong Kong)
Thomas Liesegang, MD (USA)
Luc Missotten, MD (Belgium)
Pran Nath Nagpal, MD (India)
Gullapalli N. Rao, MD (India)
Joanna Starling, MSc (Australia)
Juan Verdaguer, MD (Chile)P.N. Nagpal, MD, MS, FACS (India)
Professor Dennis S. C. Lam, MD (Hong Kong)
Thomas Liesegang, MD (USA)
Luc Missotten, MD (Belgium)
Neil Bressler, MD (USA)
Juan Verdaguer, MD (Chile)
Anselm Kampik, MD (Germany)

Manuscript Editor:

Tina-Marie Gauthier

The ICO gratefully acknowledges the editorial efforts of Jenni Anderson and Lenalee Fulton in coordinating and assembling these curricula.

ICO adopts CME requirements

In January 2003, the International Council of Ophthalmology adopted recommended requirements for continuing medical education (CME).

The requirements cover defining the objectives of courses, evaluation, relationships with industry and conflicts of interest. They reaffirm and expand on requirements adopted by the ICO in Amsterdam in June 1998.

The Council hopes that the requirements will be useful to ophthalmological societies developing or evaluating continuing education programs for their members.

Current ICO continuing education programs

The continuing education programs that the ICO currently offers to ophthalmologists include:

• World Ophthalmology Congress
  
  
• ICO Examinations
  
  
• ICO International Fellowship
  
  
• ICO International Clinical Guidelines

ICO endorses Atlas of Ophthalmology on the Web

The ICO has endorsed the Atlas of Ophthalmology, an online multimedia database edited by Robert Machemer, MD (Durham, USA) and Georg Michelson, MD (Erlangen, Germany).

A helpful learning tool for ophthalmologists and students worldwide, the Atlas makes photographs related to more than 1000 ophthalmic diagnoses available through the Internet free of charge.

Next: ICO Continuing Education Requirements

Also see: Other ICO Educational Programs and Initiatives