IFOS/ICO International Fellowship:

International Council of Ophthalmology Draft Meeting Minutes, July 20 - 21, 2001, Buenos Aires, Argentina

APPENDIX VFTF - 1: VISION FOR THE FUTURE AND VISION 2020 THE RIGHT TO SIGHT

EYE CARE GUIDELINES RECOMMENDATIONS / DISEASE CONTROL

By Hannah Faal, MD

REGIONAL SERVICE CENTERS

These are proposed within VISION 2020 for disease control e.g. childhood blindness, diabetic retinopathy.

What role can ICO play in the setting up of such centres?

Can their training objective be expanded to cover such areas?

OPHTHALMIC EDUCATION AND TRAINING, OPHTHALMIC CONTINUING EDUCATION/HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The I.C.O. has set up objectives to assist up to but not including the point of implementation. The challenge is to make it happen and to have a structure within which to make a difference to the quality and quantity of training around the world.

First we do need to know the current situation. Where is training not happening? Where is the quality poor? This will help the I.C.O. prioritise.

How can the I.C.O. shift from an advisory to an implementation mode? Can it? Should it? From my experience in West Africa; the need for training ophthalmologists is huge; the buck always stops with the profession.

POPULATION NEEDS AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

This is another interface between VISION 2020 the Right to Sight and I.C.O. In developing Vision for the Future, there will be a need for a re-orientation of the profession to be guided by prioritising population needs within which individual needs are also met.

To my mind, this is the greatest challenge to the profession and I believe "Vision for the Future" will achieve this as it is actively propagated down through to National Societies and individual ophthalmologists.

ALLIED OPHTHALMIC PERSONNEL TRAINING

The revision of curricula proposed by I.C.O. will certainly enhance the team approach. The I.C.O. is in a position to catalyse change so that other professional groups in the eye care team can also begin to develop their own "Vision for the Future".

There will be an opportunity to set up and support training centres where resources are provided for the training of all the different cadres and running the different courses required for the "eye care team" e.g. Aravind Eye Hospital and L.V. Prasas Eye Institute both in India.

Relevance of training to VISION 2020, the Right to Sight can be achieved by training centres participating actively in the planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of district level eye care programmes as a training activity, e.g. the Pakistan Institute of Community Ophthalmology and the Department of Ophthalmology.

ADVOCACY FOR THE PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION OF VISION / ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC RELATIONS SUB COMMITTEE OF IAPB VISION 2020 TASK FORCE.

This is a very definite area in which a lot of collaboration can be achieved in a very short time. I.C.O. could nominate a member to the P.R. subcommittee of IAPB to develop methods of influencing and using national societies.

RESEARCH IN OPHTHALMOLOGY AND VISION / OPERATIONAL RESEARCH FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF VISION 2020

The WHO Prevention of Blindness programme is the technical partner in the Task Force; the I.C.O. is also a technical member. If the I.C.O. formalises a way of working with WHO PBL both could come out with research priorities for operational research, technical and quality indicators for implementation as well as scientific research in ophthalmology and vision and how findings could be translated into practice.

STRUCTURE

The parallel structures exist; what is required is an action-oriented collaboration at every level; national societies and national V2020 Action Committees, the supranational organisations of I.C.O. and the VISION 2020 Regional Co-ordination Group and ICO and the global IAPB VISION 2020 Task Force

Of concern is how the "Vision for the Future" will be owned by and become the single vision for national societies. Helping national ophthalmologic societies develop more effective organisations – will be a way to achieve this. In some countries ophthalmologist will be few and generally weak and may even need support to set up an ophthalmologic society.

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL MEETINGS

In addition to the objectives of continuing education, regional and national meetings could also provide the forum for planning and reviewing Vision for the Future Action Plans.

To achieve much of what the I.C.O. has set itself, there will be a high demand on its existing officers. Collaboration with VISION 2020 could result in the use of existing structures.

These are all imperatives for the profession and the buck stops with us. I have no doubt that these imperatives are achievable by the profession – all 150,000 of us.

Next: APPENDIX VFTF - 1 THE OPPORTUNITY FOR INTERNATIONAL OPHTHALMOLOGY IN TREATING BLINDNESS

Also see:

• Report of July 20, 2001 Meeting on Vision for the Future
  
  
• ICO Minutes, July 20 - 21, 2001