Skip Navigation |

International Council of Ophthalmology

Ophthalmic Education:

News, Educational Programs and Resources for Ophthalmologists


More on Ophthalmic Education:

Educational Resources:

ICO Educational Programs:

Education news headlines:

Also see: other news of ophthalmic education.

ICO Eye Site offers resources for ophthalmic education

The International Council of Ophthalmology's Eye Site offers news, information and resources related to educational meetings and programs, including:

(The International Council of Ophthamology (ICO) is the executive body and operational arm of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS).)

Publication of ICO curricula for ophthalmic education

Mark Tso, MD
ICO Education Director Mark Tso, MD

The German journal Klinischen Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde published the ICO’s four international curricula for ophthalmic education as supplements to its November 2006 issue.

ICO Secretary General Jean-Jacques De Laey, MD, mailed copies of the supplements to each member of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS), and they can also be downloaded from the ICO Web site:

Definition of model curricula for ophthalmic education was one of the top priorities defined in the Vision for the Future strategic plan for international ophthalmology adopted in 2001.

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.

ICO offers educational materials for medical students online

To supplement its Curriculum for Ophthalmic Education of Medical Students, the ICO offers educational resources for medical students that are referenced on its Web site.

The educational materials include:

  • Selected clinical images from the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Ophthalmic Images v.3, donated to the ICO to support education of medical students

  • a series of PowerPoint lectures for medical students contributed by Susan Lightman, FRCP, FRCOphth, PhD, Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

There are also other useful resources for teaching medical students available on the Web at no charge.

Curriculum for residency training available in Spanish

An earlier version of the curriculum for ophthamology residency training is also available in Spanish, from www.icoph.org/pdf/icocurricressp.pdf (220 KB).

It was translated by Council Member Enrique Graue, MD, who is also President of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology.

Residency Curriculum recognized as "Best Practice"

The ICO's "Principles and Guidelines of a Curriculum for Education of the Ophthalmic Specialist" has been recognized as a "Best Practice" by the Residency Review Committee of the (U.S.) Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

The Residency Curriculum is included in a listing of "exemplary models of curriculum or practices." It was prepared by Morton Goldberg, MD and Andrew Lee, MD, for the ICO's International Task Force on Resident and Specialist Education in Ophthalmology.

Courses for residency program directors

The ICO sponsored five regional courses for ophthalmology residency program directors in 2006 and 2007:

  • March 23 – 24, 2006 in Lima, Peru for residency directors from Peru, Bolivia and other nearby countries
  • June 15 – 16, 2006 in Cairo for directors from Egypt and neighboring countries
  • February 27 - 28, 2007 in Lahore, Pakistan, in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology
  • July 16 - 17, 2007 in Buenos Aires, for residency directors from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay
  • September 1 - 2, 2007 in Brasilia, Brazil.

Additional courses are planned in September 29 - 30, 2008 in Slovenia for Eastern Europe and in early December 6 - 7, 2008 in Ethiopia for Sub-Saharan Africa.

All courses are organized in cooperation with national and supranational ophthalmologic societies, with support from Allergan.

Topics covered include curriculum development, teaching in outpatient areas, surgical instruction and assessment of residents’ knowledge and skills. For example, see the program from the course for residency program directors in Cairo (PDF - 256 KB).

The first course for residency program directors was organized in Mexico City in 2004 by Council Member Enrique Graue, MD, and has served as a model for the others.

ICO Clinical Guidelines now available as PDF files

ICO International Clinical Guidlines PDF
ICO Clinical
Guidelines PDF

The International Council of Ophthalmology's 20 International Clinical Guidelines can now all be downloaded as PDF files.

Download the complete set of 20 from www.icoph.org/pdf/ICOClinicalGuidlines.pdf (348 KB).

To download individual Guidelines, see www.icoph.org/guide/guidelist.html.

The Guidelines are designed to be translated and adapted by ophthalmologic societies to help ophthalmologists assess how they are treating patients. They are intended to serve a supportive and educational role and ultimately to improve the quality of eye care for patients.

1647 candidates for 2007 ICO Basic and Clinical Assessments

Peter Watson
Assessments Director Peter Watson, FRCS, FRCOphth

Peter Watson, FRCS, FRCOphth, ICO Assessments Director, reports 1647 candidates enrolled for the International Basic Science Assessment in Ophthalmology and Clinical Sciences Assessment in 2006. That brings the total number registered since the Assessments were started in 1995 to more than 15,500.

Turkey, Belgium and an increasing number of other countries are now using the ICO Assessments as part of their national certifying exams, Mr. Watson reported.

In 2007, more than 1647 candidates sat for the Assessments at 92 test centers in 61 countries around the world. The Basic Assessment is offered in English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. The Clinical Sciences Assessment is available only in English.

The Assessments are offered early in April each year, and the deadline for application is January 31 of that year. For more, see www.icoph.org/assess.

293 ophthalmologists have received IFOS/ICO Fellowships

Fellowship Director Veit-Peter Gabel, MD
Fellowship Director Veit-Peter Gabel, MD

IFOS/ICO Fellowships have been awarded to 293 ophthalmologists from 59 countries since the program was started in 2000.

Fellowships are now available from more than 120 ophthalmology departments and other institutions in 27 countries.

Generally lasting three months, the Fellowships were organized to help promising young ophthalmologists, especially those from developing nations, improve their practical skills and broaden their perspectives of ophthalmology.

Fellows are expected to bring the acquired knowledge and skills back to their country of origin and take part in programs to preserve and restore vision.

Fellowships are awarded twice a year, and April 30 and October 31 are the deadlines to apply. For more, see www.icoph.org/fellow.

Follow-up on residency education in Nigeria

B.G.K. Ajayi, MD, past president of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria (OSN), reported to the Council on efforts to enhance residency training in Nigeria stimulated by the visit of ICO members to Nigeria in spring of 2004. The Council members toured residency programs and met with the leaders of the OSN and the Nigerian Minister of Health.

Dr. Ajayi reported that:

  • computers and other hardware have been delivered to six new residency resource centers, with Internet access to be added soon

  • OSN is “twinning” with the All India Ophthalmologic Society, and members are attending other international Congresses

  • OSN has defined a “Vision for the Future – Nigeria” (PDF - 470 KB), established committees to focus on the priorities defined in it and created an OSN Foundation (PDF- 72 KB)

  • OSN is working with the Aravind Eye Hospital to build a high-quality, high-volume training center in Ibadan, supported by the 2006 grant from Carl Zeiss

  • OSN is working with the U.S. National Eye Institute to develop a mechanism for evaluating the impact of these initiatives on patient care in Nigeria.

Council members praised the OSN for its openness to recognizing deficiencies in residency training and commitment to making changes, which can serve as a model for other countries.

Zeiss supports development of training centers

Gullapolli (Nag) Rao, MD, President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), reported to the Council that the VISION 2020 Human Resource Working Group (HRWG) has been asked to take responsibility for the development of “IAPB – Carl Zeiss Training Centers.”

Zeiss is donating $200,000 per year for five years to support the development of five training centers in different regions of the world. The first center (2005) is being developed in Indonesia, the second (2006) in Nigeria, and the third (2007) will be in Eastern Africa. The locations for the fourth and fifth centers are still to be determined.

Dr. Rao said VISION 2020/IAPB is hoping to convince other industry leaders to make similar commitments.

New ICO International Guideline on Trachoma

ICO Clinical Guidline on Trachoma
ICO Clinical
Guidline on
Trachoma

A new ICO International Clinical Guideline on Trachoma has been added to the ICO Eye Site. The trachoma guideline can also be downloaded as a PDF file (152 KB).

The document was written by Tom Lietman, MD, from the Proctor Foundation in San Francisco, in consultation with Chan Dawson, MD, Hugh Taylor, MD, and others.

"We are aware that there may be disagreement with some of the recommendations, " commented ICO Guidelines Director Richard Abbott, MD. "Without evidence from clinical trials, we must rely on a consensus of expert opinion."

"It should be clear that any clinical guideline is directed towards populations of patients and may not specifically meet the needs of any individual patient," Dr. Abbott said. "In addition, even if followed exactly, clinical guidelines do not guarantee a successful outcome."

"Like our other 19 ICO International Clinical Guidelines, the trachoma Guideline is designed to be easy to read and to translate," Dr. Abbott said. "We hope that national ophthalmologic societies will adapt these guidelines for use by ophthalmologists in your countries."

Societies encouraged to adapt ICO Guidelines

Rich Abbott, MD
ICO Guidelines Director Richard Abbott, MD

Dr. Abbott reported that the Chinese Ophthalmological Society (COS) introduced Clinical Practice Guidelines to Chinese ophthalmologists during the plenary session of the 2005 National Congress of Ophthalmology in Tianjin.

The Guidelines were discussed in detail by COS members during educational sessions at the Congress and are now being disseminated to major hospital teaching centers and regional centers.

A mechanism is being developed to evaluate the impact of the practice guidelines on the quality of care for ophthalmology patients in China.

Under the leadership of Jialiang Zhao, MD, the clinical guidelines were defined at workshops in September 2004 and June 2005 based on translation of 10 of the ICO International Clinical Guidelines.

Gullapalli (Nag) Rao, MD, is organizing a similar guideline definition process in India, and other societies are encouraged to adapt the ICO Clinical Guidelines for use in their own countries, Dr. Abbott said.

The Guidelines Committee also welcomes submission of approved clinical guidelines from national and international societies for possible posting on the ICO Web site.

ICO initiative to enhance training

Bruce Spivey, MD
ICO President
Bruce Spivey, MD

The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) has asked members of the International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies (IFOS) to join in an initiative to enhance training to meet the needs of the public for eye care.

"The critical need is for training of more ophthalmologists and other eye care providers around the world to meet the needs of the public for eye care and thereby prevent avoidable blindness and visual loss," ICO President Bruce E. Spivey, MD, wrote in the July issue of the ICO e-mail newsletter IFOS Notes.

"The challenge is for international ophthalmology, particularly national and subspecialty ophthalmologic societies, to provide the leadership for training those personnel, with a clear goal of increasing access to quality eye care around the world," Dr. Spivey wrote.

ICO requests presentations at society congresses

ICO Advocacy Director Hugh Taylor, MD
ICO Director for Advocacy Hugh Taylor, MD

Hugh Taylor, MD, ICO Director for Advocacy, has written to IFOS Members, urging them to work with other groups to define how to improve training in their country and offering a variety of resources to help them do that.

As a first step, Dr. Taylor has asked each IFOS Representative to arrange to deliver a presentation on behalf of the ICO titled “A Critical Challenge for Ophthalmology: Enhancing Training To Meet the Public Need for Eye Care” during a plenary session at their next society congress.

See Dr. Taylor's letter to IFOS Representatives and Members and more about the initiative to enhance training.

You can contact Dr. Taylor at advocacy@icoph.org.


Next: More News of ophthalmic education.

Also see: ICO Ophthalmic Education Programs

You are here: Home > Ophthalmic Education > Education Home

Top

Copyright © 1997 - 2008 International Council of Ophthalmology. All rights reserved.

Created by WebResults